I want to try and drill out some hard cast bullets
Ive made into hollow points.
To lose some weight they are made of 16/1 lead tin so they are quite
soft.
I tryed with a standed 3mm drill bit but it wants to dig in to much.
Any ideas what I could use?

Thanks

Hutzpah

Hutzpah
Not sure which manufacturer makes it but there's a device that fits over the loaded round for drilling a hollow point.
I've wanted to try a counter sink drill bit that dished out the front and drilled maybe 1/16th to 1/8th inch down, into air cooled wheel weight alloy 45 bullets.
Jim

Forster makes the HPing tool that works quite well on thier trimmer (may work on others, don't know). I use the 1/8th bit which works well on up through .375 bullets, rifle and pistol. With larger bullets I HP with the 1/8th bit then use a drill made for drill stocks for sling swivel studs to ream out the hole and make it a wide gaping tapered HP. It gives excellent expansion with 1-16 alloy in magnum loads of 1400 fps in the .41 and .44 magnums. When cast of soft lead 358477s drilled with the 1/8th bit and loaded to +P velocity in .38 Specials they perform just like the .38 "FBI" Winchester and Federal loads. When the 357156 with it's gas check is cast of range recovered .22LR lead, hollow pointed with the 1/8th bit and driven at 1400 fps expansion is impressive.

Larry Gibson

I talked to a friend who had the same question. He likes shooting varmints with a 30-06 with cast bullets. He ended up buying a couple 2" bolts in the same size as the seating stem and drilling a hole thru one one size bit over the one he planned to use. He's like me, a cheap dog!

Rich
DRSS

he used a 1/8" but, pretty close to your 3mm I think. That is a .125" bit and I think he had a bit that miked about .002-.003" larger. The hole wants to be just large enough so that the hollowpoint bit used will clear and not bind, but not sloppy.

Rich
DRSS

Hello,
I used a spade drill in 3mm to drill some materials that were as soft as lead. Regular twist drills would break or make a poor hole.
John

You're really going to need a lathe to do this accurately, and not one with a 3 jaw chuck, that will just squeeze your bullets into funny shapes.

You will need a lathe that has a collet adaptor and the appropriate collet for the bullet dia.
Set it so it will hold firmly but not tight enough the distort the slug.

Some kind of depth measurement will be needed to get all of the holes the same depth as well.

A normal twist drill of the size you want will cut the lead easily enough but you will need to use plenty of lube i.e. coolant, to stop any lead buliding up on the cutting edges of the drill and to keep the cutting action clean.

Keep the rpm's low and the drill feed low and consistent to keep the lead swarf flowing off the tool and not letting it build up and it should be a pretty straight forward task.
Cheers.

Thanks for all the feed back.
Johns right a spade bit in 3mm should do the job.Who makes a spade bit in 3mm?
I know what Avatar is saying but I've only got access to a drill press so I think I'll try and make something to hold them in.
Then I will resize them after being drilled.
The mold is a 142gr .308 but because of the 16/1 lead tin mixer they come out at 155gr with is to heavy.
I want to keep them soft so as to keep pressure down I hope to get them to maxium 140gr to use in my .30M1 revolver.

Hutzpah

You may be able to grind up a single flute cutter out of a piece of 3mm or 1/8th HHS stock.
Depends how good you are on a grinder...might be a bit of a fiddle.

Or you could probably just use a 1/8" 90' centre drill when it comes down to it really.
Nice and rigid.
Just make up a nest to hold the bullet and set it up in a drill press.
Get it all centred, set the drill stop depth, plenty of kero for lube and you're good to go.
Too easy.

Good luck

Small center drill works fine. Three jaw chuck works fine as long as you don't get heavy handed with it. HP first, size later.

Hello,
Look at www.mcaster.com part number 8842A45 & 8839A65. Or http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNPDFF?PMPAGE=108&PMT4NO=...M=00999078&PMCTLG=00 I think the ones I used were from MSC.
John

I made a clamp today out of two inch sqare piece of nylon.
I drilled a hole in the centre then cut it in half cutting the hole in
half. I then screw one half to a piece of timber then bound the two halfs
together with rubber bands.
Then by useing a G clamp clamp the wood to the drill press.
By pulling on one half of the block it would open up letting you drop a bullet in to the clamp.
I only had one bullet to try it out on so I gave it ago I manage to drill the bullet out then just at the end it grabed and spun the bullet in the clamp.
Next I will try and make a spade bit then I think I'll be away.
I've got 650 bullets sitting in a icecream contaner waiting to be drilled.

Hutzpah

Ps (thanks for the post John)

Try a center drill. It WILL work. You can buy them in quite a few sizes to work for small to large calibers. I have a few and would use them. But I have a Forster case trimmer that will set up to do the same thing. That is what some of the others are saying. Packy

Sucess at last went and bough a bigger gas burner got some
wheel weights from the local garage and made up some more
projectiles.This time they drilled out well being alot harder.

I gave up trying to drill my usual 16/1 lead tin bullets as they
are just to soft.
The nose distorts,you get a afro(hair) on top and some times and the drill
tends to grap to much and spin the bullet.

thanks for your help and input.

Hutzpah