What difficulty am I going to come across if I cut a standard FL die down.
Wildcating purposes.
Can metal blades from a ricipricating saw do it, then touch it up with a angle grinder?
I have access to pipe threaders, I'd use the tubing cutter. I don't think that will work...
ideas?
The reason behind this is I'd like to form some brass down to .17 caliber. I do not have the forming dies. At current time, cost prohibitive. But I can afford a set of dies and modify them to what I need.

penny for your thoughts

thanks

Since most reloading dies are made of high-strength tool steel or carbide, you would have to use a grinder to cut it. May be able to use a chop saw blade? Not gonna get it with a saw blade! And that’s as far as I can go for help on that, don’t really understand where you’re trying to get to………….

I grinded the end of a 45/454 expander die that was a bit long, when I got the time I had a friend clean it up in his lathe and polished it. No problem an looked like it came from the factory that way.

Best way is with carbide tooling on a lathe. The vast majority of die bodies are not a high grade of steel. Most are a very easily cut steel that the manufacturer finishes off with a surface hardening (talking rifle dies). Once you get through that few thousandths of hardness, you are down to the softer core metal. Getting through that few thousandths may take a toll on a saw blade but it is possible. Just be prepared to buy a new blade. Pipe cutters won't work.

get it cherry hot, and let it cool , with the "to be cut" end up in the air ...

a lathe with carbide is much better ...

then after you have cut and modified it, all polished and such... cherry red again, quench in ATF and repolish.

I once cut down a set of .264 Win dies to use for a 6.5mm Rem Mag. I did exactly as Jeffeoso advises by heating the end I cut with an acetylene torch until it was beginning to redden. Cutting it after that was no problem. Can't remember if I used a hacksaw or a chop saw, but either should work.

RCBS dies are made of leaded steel 1011L IIRC. It is heat treated after machining to give it surface hardness. If you anneal it, you may end up with a soft die. Probably your best bet is to cut it with carbide or grind it so you will only lose the hardness which is only a few thou thick on the cut surface.

I've cut lots of them to make neck sizers and other projects. All it takes is a dremel tool and those thin little cut-off wheels, goes through them like butter.

dremel has changed the little cut off disks .. WEAR SAFETY GLASSES

I used a surface grinder. Turned out nice. And square too!

quote:

Originally posted by mydogtwig:Can metal blades from a ricipricating saw do it, then touch it up with a angle grinder?
I have access to pipe threaders, I'd use the tubing cutter.

This is a joke....right.

quote:

This is a joke....right.

It's a joke. Not sure Mr. Mydog knows it. Yet.

I made three "sets" of home shop reforming dies to make .243, .22-250 and 6mm International out of .30-06 cases. Carbide lathe tools and carbide drills and grinders are required to cut case hardened steel die bodies but no super-saber saw or pipe cutters will do it, nor would such tools have been helpful.

There is a learning curve to doing all that properly.

seriously, you could do it with a 4.5" cutoffwheel ... and a dremel sander drum ...

but annealing it first will save you lots of trouble..

let him do it his way, he'll accomplish something, and it might surprise us

I used a milwalkee(sp) metal chop saw, and it worked great. Cut a RCBS 9.3x62 neck die to use with a 9.3x57.

And I've done it numerous times on my lathe using cobalt tools. Worked fine for me, so if I have to do it again, will do that same "trick" yet again. Much cheaper than carbide tools. Also much less brittle than carbide and easier to sharpen &/or shape yourself.