LRSickle
Well-Known Member
I'm on 24 hour watch tonight and I can't leave the premises. I might have to keep a long, extended watch on the lathe in the shop tonight, you know, so nobody leaves a mess in the middle of the night. 
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TIGHTEN PRIMER POCKETS, here's how.
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I might have to keep a long, extended watch on the lathe in the shop tonight, you know, so nobody leaves a mess in the middle of the night.
Gitt'r done!
LRSickle
Well-Known Member
I have tried and tried to post an update with pictures and I either get "not enough characters" or "message is 629,999 characters, please shorten to 300,000 characters or less" I've tried different photo banks, copy and paste and editing. I'll keep trying.
Holy cow it worked!
The parts I made out of a stainless bolt:
The assembled parts:
I had a ball bearing last week and I put it somewhere and for the life of me I can't find it anywhere. I put a 3/4 washer in there for illustration purposes. So make believe the washer is a ball bearing. When I find that dang bearing I'll try it out.
Holy cow it worked!
The parts I made out of a stainless bolt:
The assembled parts:
I had a ball bearing last week and I put it somewhere and for the life of me I can't find it anywhere. I put a 3/4 washer in there for illustration purposes. So make believe the washer is a ball bearing. When I find that dang bearing I'll try it out.
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LRSickle
Well-Known Member
I finally got to the lathe and got it done. With the opening of deer season I had a hunter/fisherman up last week, the Olympics were on and I took a lazy day off. Anyway, here's what I came up with.
I used a stainless bolt to make the body and the "shell holder" and used a 5/16th bolt for the stem. Here's the parts:
I used a stainless bolt to make the body and the "shell holder" and used a 5/16th bolt for the stem. Here's the parts:
Tumbleweed
Well-Known Member
The 5/8" ball bearing in the vise and 5/16" bolt has worked awesome! The only downside I've seen is that it tends to mess up the flash hole taper I've cut when the brass was new. I've had to go back in and re-cut the taper after repairing the primer pocket.
Feels good to save brass doesn't it ?
I chamfer my FH but never had a problem distorting them.
A correction to my prior post:
I should have typed 3/4" ball bearings. Just to set the record straight, I wanted 3/4" ball bearings. I thought the slightly larger diameter ball bearings would be less apt to flare out the mouth of the primer pockets than the smaller diameter bearings. I wanted to impact the primer pocket mouth a little more perpendicular to the sidewalls of the primer pockets. So the only size ball bearing I've is 3/4" diameter.
For .308 caliber cartridges, I went back and purchased another 4" long 5/16" fine thread Grade 8 bolt. I had to remove just a very small amount off the surface of the smooth shank of the bolt in order to clear my case necks prior to resizing the necks. The threaded 1" portion of the bolt slipped thru the fired case necks, but the solid section of the bolt shaft was just a teeny bit too large. I removed a slight skim cut from the solid shaft, just barely enough to clear the fired case necks. I did this by cutting the head off the bolt, mounting the threaded portion of the bolt in my drill press, setting the drill press to the slowest rpm speed, and holding a large file to the shank while it turned in the drill press. Then I polished it up some with emery cloth turning the bolt shaft at high speed in a battery powered drill.
Now they fit really nice down into the case mouths. Keeps the bolt in alignment with the case neck. The bolt shaft won't pass thru the case necks if I resize the case necks after firing. I have to firm up primer pockets on the fired cases prior to resizing the case necks to hold my bullets. That's how close the fit is. Works really well.
I also used a dremel diamond burr to mate the ball bearing better into the slight depression I drilled into the 1/2" thick section of steel plate I set the ball bearing on. After tightening up a few primer pockets, the areas that the ball bearing impacts against the steel plate become visually apparent. Taking a touch off the high spots of the 1/2" steel plate resulted in the ball bearing having a better mold-in fit, and jumping off the steel plate so often. Less chasing that little bugger around on the floor. I still plan to weld my 3/4" ball bearing to the 1/2" thick steel plate - next time I fire up the welder.
LRSickle
Well-Known Member
Here's another one I made this weekend. I made one for a .308 and another for a .338 Lapua AI. Instead of a ballbearing I made a "shell holder" similar to the RCBS pocket swedger. Thanks to Phorwath for PMing me his ideas and a blueprint.
bigngreen
Well-Known Member
That style is reported to work very, very well, I know of another one made almost identical and the maker reports only needing to tighten RUM cases once and then their hard enough they don't expand again, it's on my to do list
That style is reported to work very, very well, I know of another one made almost identical and the maker reports only needing to tighten RUM cases once and then their hard enough they don't expand again, it's on my to do list
Rhian,
If you make one, I recommend using a 5/16"-18tpi thread for the stem. That way you'll be able to use a long 5/16" 18tpi Grade 8 bolt for the stem that pushes down on the interior of the case head. It takes quite a bit of force on the stem in order to swag down the primer pockets, and I think a smaller diameter stem might bend under use.
LRSickle made the one in his photo for me, with the die body large enough to accept the .338 Lapua Improved cases. I'm glad he threaded the die body to accept a 5/16"-18 stem. It works very well. The shell holder/button LRSickle made has a .209" diameter shaft. I recommend 0.208" diameter to bring the primer pockets down a little tighter.
The 5/16" 18tpi stem will pass thru the necks on .308" caliber cartridges if you shave the diameter of the bolt shaft down just a little. And of course no problems on casings with larger diameter case necks.
If the stem isn't substantially larger in diameter than the diameter of the primers, you'll simply punch out the primer pocket. If you're trying to make one for the .284, .277, and smaller cartridges, you'll have to think thru which size stem thread you'll want to use. I think I'd still use a 5/16"-18tpi thread and then turn down the bolt shaft until it barely clears the inner ID of the case necks, in order to prevent punching out the primer pockets. But perhaps a 1/4" Grade 8 bolt would work...
I purchased the RCBS primer pocket swaging die set, and the RCBS die body is large enough in diameter to accept a 338 Lapua Improved case. Which surprised me. But the RCBS die body is threaded for a smaller diameter thread/stem, which I believe would bend in short order. In fact, there are lots of used RCBS primer pocket swaging die sets on eBay, and a lot of the stems in the photos are bent from simply removing the primer crimp on military crimped casings. I don't know if the RCBS die body is hardened or not. If it's not hardened, a guy could just buy the RCBS kit and enlarge the stem threads on the die body to 5/16-18tpi threads. The shell holder/button is the custom part that's still needed to make it all work, and a lathe is required to fabricate those buttons. Hope this makes sense...
longgunshooter
Well-Known Member
Here's another one I made this weekend. I made one for a .308 and another for a .338 Lapua AI. Instead of a ballbearing I made a "shell holder" similar to the RCBS pocket swedger. Thanks to Phorwath for PMing me his ideas and a blueprint.
Seems someone is handy with things other than that of a Longbow. Nice work my friend!~
