Other than the Corbin and RSC presses I know that the A2 press is built to swag or can handle it and it seems the Hollywood single collumn press sells for big bucks when it comes up. I know there is the Herter's press like the mighty mite that seems to take CH style dies. Herters made a regular press that could swag, No. 2, no. 6?? I know the RCBS rock chucker press now offered is the the same press that was the original swaging press. The new lee press has a honking ram but the weak point is always the pins in the linkage correct? But I know there may be some cheap buys out there that can handle the chore. Can we build a list? Thanks JB

Well I found out some valuable info. The Herter's press was The Super O model. Their version of the Mighty Mite was the M9 ton press. Any others?? JB

What sort of swaging are you going to do?
I do hard lead alloy swaging and no jscketed stuff. It's my understanding that the larger the diameter of the bullet the more sturdy the press needs to be
Jim

I have thought about making a press using a hyd jack to push the bullets through the dies. I would take two half inch plates place some 3/4inch posts in the corners and drill a hole in the top one to take the dies and put the jack under the die and use it to drive the bullet through the die.

quote:

arkypete

I have a Swag-0-matic now and I am making paper patched bullets with it with soft lead. I guess I just wanted to keep an eye out for a swaging press that may find it's way onto ebay without paying mega bucks for a Corbin or RCE wallnut hill.
RCBS makes a model The RCBS rock chucker supreme and the old A4 were designed stong for swaging. I figured a list would be handy to have if something came up on the radar... JB

The rams on most of the reloading presses are the weak link for swaging big bullets or hard lead bullets.
I've seen some Corbin presses on Ebay, these were the new style presses. Price wise, they didn't appear out of line for a used press to me.
Jim

Any reloading press can be used for some kinds of bullet swaging, with the right kinds of dies and within certain pressure limits. Corbin makes dies that fit reloading presses as well as the Corbin presses. But actual swaging presses have a number of features that make them more suitable to the job...

1. Swaging presses generally have about half the stroke length of reloading presses, which cuts the effort in half for the same pressure.

2. Swaging presses are built and assembled in such a way as to guarantee far better head to ram alignment than is required for most reloading presses, and they are built with methods that keep the alignment under high stresses. For instance, the S-Press from Corbin has a torsion/compression strut system rather than just a couple of pieces of metal holding up the head, and the head is ground flat, the nuts are grade 8 and lathe turned so the mating surfaces are perfectly perpindicular to the axis (most commercially available nuts have some angle between surface and axis, which torques the head slightly)...so many little time consuming details to make sure the press stays in alignment at all times.

3. The swaging press normally uses dies that fit into the ram and are machined so that stroking the press operates the internal punch in the die, causing automatic ejection on the down stroke with no extra motion or effort. The bullet ejects upward so it sits on top of the die, making fast one-hand operation possible. A reloading press uses the die in the press head, and requires both hands to load parts into the die and to eject and catch them when they fall out of the die again. The speed gain can be 300% or more with the inverted die mounting and automatic ejection.

4. A swaging press is built with hardened steel pins and usually has a hardened ram. For instance, all the Corbin presses use roller bearings in each link joint, and support a hard chrome ground steel ram with a pair of honed bearings, an inch long each, at the top and bottom of a section of hydraulic cylinder tubing that is press fitted into the steel frame. The amount of work put into equipping this kind of press with bearings for every moving joint or sliding surface automatically means there is far more cost put into them than a reloading press. But it pays off in long life, easy operation, and precision. The additional benefit is that you can restore the precision after decades of hard use just by pressing in new bearings and pins. With a reloading press, the pins run directly in holes in the casting, which eventually become oval with hard use, and introduce more "slop" than is desireable in bullet swaging.

Excellent info.
thanks JB

Although i have 5 or 6 swage press', i do also have a RCBS Rock Crusher that i sometimes use to make jackets.

The "Crusher" is a scaled up "Chucker" that's bigger and beefier and will also swage, but "nothing" but nothing works like the "real" thing!! (a swage press)

DM

quote:

ExE7

Exalent post. one of the clearest explinations of the pros and cons of the press.
Bill

HOOAH on that post ExE7

ExE7- Which are you, Richard, or Dave? I would guess Richard, but have no way of knowing, of course......

Hit the corbin site and you will be overwhelmed with info such as just one of their download booklets which is 154 pages long. An email from sales said my proposal top use a Foirster coax was not the best idea but a Lyman Crusher and a couiple other extra strength presses might work. I think Redding has a new press in heavy capacity which has toggle links going to the top of the press instead of the base which is otherwise normal.

However the Super Rock Chucker might be made in China so there is a quality caveat there. A Corbin press in the simplest hand operated form is $349. The dies, which are adjustable for bullet weight, are around $420.00 or more per set. There are several presses through hydrauic versions and wholesale screaming neccid government armory hydraulic production items capable of producing experimental projectile for smaller automatic cannon. The latter unit is around $7000 bare.

I happen to have an industrial hydraulic unit w/ 3 phase 3 hp motor made to produce 1500 lbs/in (which is not high for a hydraulic pres)s but which would be adaptable with miscellaneous plumbing to fit their basic hydraulic press with the attached hydraulic manifold. I could really go to town with something like that.

Swaging pressure has a lot to do with alloy hardness and the final bullet ogive shape.
I think if you mould a soft lead billit to about the final shape and finish it off in the press , then a RCBS rockchucker should have enough leverage right at the end of the stroke.

If you use a Rock chucker press to swage hard cast lead into bullets you will be getting oversize pins and boring the links. Ask me how I know......

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Originally posted by PaulS:
If you use a Rock chucker press to swage hard cast lead into bullets you will be getting oversize pins and boring the links. Ask me how I know...... Speer, Sierra, Lyman, Hornady, Hodgdon have reliable reloading data. You won't find it on so and so's web page.

you got to fill me in. Did you brake your pins? How dose the swaging go in with it? Also Do you add a pip or what not to your handle to lighten your effort? My rock chucker is by far better then that lee press I have!!
I see in you also do not list lee in your list of reliable reloading data! good choice!