Home made loading dies

[mooncoon]

I am curious; many of you I am sure have the ability so how many out there make their own loading dies? In my case, my interest is in antique guns and obsolete calibers and I have more time than money. Am currently making dies for a Gras and a Beaumont rifle.

cheers mooncoon

 

[sunray]

Takes a lathe and access to the right steel. Plus heat treating and internal precision finish grinding. The lathe, steel and heat treating isn't as big of a deal as the grinding.

 

[RR]

For a rifle you don't use much --a 7/8 x 14 gr 8 bolt,a lathe and a reamer.

 

[mooncoon]

To reply to the above two posts; unless you are loading many thousands of rounds, the dies do not have to be hard or heat treated. The steel should be a free machining type to make smooth surfaces easier. I have used 7/8 x 14 bolts but they are more trouble than they are worth and often seem to have hard spots in the metal. Surprisingly enough some of the galvanized brace rods at the base of telephone poles are a free machining steel, assuming you can find them in a scrap yard.
I use D bits to bore the internal shape but for rifles from the late 1800s one problem is coming to a compromise between the chamber as found and the various dimensions published for the appropriate shell vs the dimensions on actual shells if you can find one. There can be considerable differences.

cheers mooncoon

 

[Andy]

I don't make dies per se, but I have on many occassions made up brass using various commercial dies and fireforming. Fire it and neck size a few times, when it can';t be chambered, size it down again, fireform and repeat.

 

[ironnose]

I have made several dies using free-machining (112L steel) and then case hardening them after thay are completed. This has worked very well.

 

[Scar270]

For dimensions have you thought about using cerrosafe to cast your own rifles chamber and build dies according to you rifles actual chamber dimensions?

 

[ben hunchak]

Unfortunately regular chamber reamer can not be used to make dies, one would have to order oversize reamers in addition to your chamber reamers.

 

[ironnose]

Hi Doug,
If you remember, I made 6.5 X55 improved dies for my son's gun from free-machining steel and case hardened them with Casenit (Brownells) in my gas barbecue. I also made several dies for Thunderlips using that steel which I got from Metal Supermarket. I generally bored the dies and that steel machines beautifully. The only drawback is the extra time taken to thread them.
Cheers!

 

[mooncoon]

Good to see you here :>). In this case I made up the dies from some sort of mild steel using a D bit reamer. The real puzzler was whether to make the dies fit the apparent shell (11 mm dutch beaumont) or to fit the chamber or somewhere in between. I opted for something close to the published figures for the shell on the basis that I might have to make another set of dies at some point in the future for another gun with a tighter chamber.
The dimensions are a lot easier when you can find a shell and are dealing with a more modern chamber that is a lot closer to the shell in dimensions.

cheers mooncoon

 

[tiriaq]

In one of the gunsmithing books, either the NRA or Wolfe Publishing one, there is a description of boring rifle chambers. Certainly not a beginner's project, but an option to reaming.
It is not unusual for a custom cartridge project to involve two reamers - one for the sizing die, also used as a chamber roughing reamer, and the finish reamer. Not an inexpensive approach.
While it would depend on how many cases were going to be sized, I cannot see that hardening would be always necessary. If you stop and think about it, how many times would a brass case have to be run into a neck sizing die for enough steel to be rubbed away to make a dimensional difference in the die? Would there be any reason for a seating die to be hardened?
Newlon Precision sells semi finished die bodies machined to accept commercial neck sizing bushings. This could be another option.
I made a 7/8 x 14 base sizing die from mild steel to remove all traces of the expansion ring from .303 brass fired in Lee Enfield rifles, so that the cases would fit the chamber of my Mk. II** Ross target rifle. Works fine unhardened. Have also made tapered expanding plugs to do serious neck expansions. I think surface finish is more important than hardness.