DIY checkmaker

His made good checks, there was way to much handling if the aluminum. Cut a disc, manually take it off the die. Once you are done cutting all your disca, pick a disk up, put it in the die, make sure its sitting right, form disc, take disk out.

Oh did I mention you have to make sure to put the same side of the disc up for uniformity.


I punch once and a little formed cup falls out the bottom :)

209jones said:
What was it you didn't like about the Pat Marlin check maker? Was it difficult to use or was it the results?
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I've made thousands with the freechex 3 system, great little item when used with a arbour press. Charlie is a great guy to deal with as well. I ended up buying several calibers from him. If your doing it to just see if you can do it yourself more power to you. But Charlie does make a good system. One pull of press one check. I did have to make a system for the maker to sit well with the press but not difficult with a drill and time. My thought is if you are already casting and reloading this is just another part of the hobby.
 
Done!! Looks good, works great. Next time i have time to kill I will make a slightly different one.

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Bassmaster said:
Nice job.....
Your check material of choice?....is that Al flashing?..I've heard of individuals using soda cans
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Soda cans are much too thin for most applications. If you apply a gascheck to the base of a standard plain base cast bullet, The thin layer does just fine (yes, they make those kinds of gas check makers as well).

With the type of gas check makers that this thread was started about,(cast bullets that have a slightly rebated/relieved base to slip the gas checks on) .014" thick Aluminum is a standard that most of the gas check tool manufactures design their tools for.

I have found the aluminum sheeting from industrial piping like the pipe line cladding, or steam piping works great! I was fortunate to obtain 20- 3'X3' brand new sheets!

Most of this cladding is 0.016" thick. It works great! Most gas check makers don't function well if the stock material is much thicker than 0.016". The forming portion of the gas check maker tends to swedge the gas check, rather than simply form it. This puts huge amounts of stress on the tool, and makes it harder to get the gas check to release from the tool.

I have even used .010", and .015" brass shim stock to make gas checks. They work very well with my higher velocity applications (2300-2400fps) In my 308 Win.
 
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material used is totally dependent on the mold design. There are standard industry shank dimensions, and this is what industry gas checks are made to. If you have a custom mold you can get shank made to what ever size will match the the material your using. There are gas check makers built specifically for thinner material for gas checks that are used with plain based bullets
 
yomomma said:
material used is totally dependent on the mold design. There are standard industry shank dimensions, and this is what industry gas checks are made to. If you have a custom mold you can get shank made to what ever size will match the the material your using. There are gas check makers built specifically for thinner material for gas checks that are used with plain based bullets
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Those are the points I just made, but my wording may have been poorly chosen. I sometimes do that.

Custom moulds are a totally different ball of wax for sure! I have a few of them, and really enjoy the benefits of proper cast bullet dimensions for certain rifle chambers!
 
If you PC bullets do you need checks? Many seem to believe that the PC will seal the base of the bullet and a check is therefore not required??? I do see lots of pictures of alu gas checks on PC coated pistol bullets that you would really not need a check on - are they just doing this for the sake of doing it - too much time on their hands? It would also seem to me that alu could build up in the barrel and if you really needed a check would you not put it on first and then PC the complete bullet? Just thinking.
 
As far as I know checks are there to stop hot gases from cutting into the exposed lead. PC does the exact same thing.

Gas checks would give a more uniformed base as powder coating does not always leave the base square. YMMV
 
Well I guess my checkmaker is OK.

Have a mason jar full of gaschecks, about 6000 worth.

I guess now I have to make 6000 bullets :) That would be about 200lbs worth of lead, glad i don't shoot the big bores:runaway:
 
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