Do you have any idea what size drill and what size tap I would need to modify one of my fired cases to be used with the Stony Point OAL gage?

Sorry Turkeyshooter--

I've never seen one.

Turkeyshooter,

On the one I have right here, the shank measures... oops, this ones for JBelk, sorry.

Got this off AR a while back. I haven't verified this however. You may have to order it off the web as it's not common.

Stoney Point Tap:
5/16 X 36

Take Care,

-Steve

OK Malmborg, you got me on that one. I'll rephrase my question to does anybody know what it is?

Turkeyshooter,

Since I am a poor sharecroppers child I don't have coin to drop on the fancy tools. Like you I need to look at a picture and make my own.

Here is what I did:

Full-length size so the case goes into the chamber and size the neck so it'll grip a bullet lightly or turn the bullet in a drill motor while holding emory cloth on the shank.

Buy a brass toilet fill tube from the hardware store. Drill out the base of the case and turn the case onto the tube.

You are done.

To use: insert bullet, insert assembly into rifle chamber, insert clothes hanger (straightened) into tube and push bullet into rifling. Remove hanger and assembly. Very carefully measure using a comparator.

Hope yours works as good as mine. I think I paid $1.29 cents for mine.

Turkeyshooter,

I will verify Steve's reply. Mine measures 3/16 x 36 and requires a .277 or .278, tap drill... A "J" or "K" letter drill will do it.


Regards,

Malm

Turkeyshooter,

Correction, I meant to say "5/16 x 36". I don't know where I got the 3/16 at... Sorry.

Malm

Brownells gave me the same info, they have them too.

I got a better plan than brass off a toilet. Look in the hobby section in a hardware store or building supply store. They have hollow brass tubing used to build models I guess. 7/32 or something like that. Take a fired, decapped casing. The brass tube you want will almost fit into the primer pocket. The same display also has solid brass rod, one of which will fit into the brass tube. Drill out the primer pocket and solder or superglue in place. Now fit a bullet you want to fire deep into the neck. (Forgot to add, that you don't want to use a resized neck.) Stick the whole thing into the chamber, then use the solid brass rod to gently push the bullet up to touche the lands. Remove and measue. I made one one these. It cost one casing and about $1.50 and it works and works well.

OK, I have a new question. Would it be possible to run a die over the stoney point gage to change it to a more popular thread size, without ruining the gage.

Roger,

Is there a provision to lock the rod in the tube at the point when the bullet hits the lands like the Stoney Point provides? How would it be accurate without it?

I don't see why the thread couldn't be recut. I already have several of the modified cases, so I'll just get the tap.

Turkeyshooter,

You can use what ever diameter and thread pitch you wish. The diameter of the threaded piece, only has to be large enough to allow a rod of your choosing, to pass thru it's center... The brass isn't very thick thru the flash hole so pick a thread size that is common, with as fine a thread as possible so that you get more than 1 or 2 threads holding.

Malm

G.Malmborg,

What I was asking was, if I could recut the threads on the Stoney Point gage. I don't want to ruin it.

Brent,
Or anyone else for that matter, where would I buy a 5/16-36 tap. I have looked everywhere locally and no one has them. They are not a common size. That is why I asked if I could recut the threads on the Stoney Point gage that I own.

TS,

I don't know about locally, but I emailed Brownells for the size, I guess I assumed they have it. Here was my contact.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brent Moffitt" <bom@gci.net>
To: "Beckey Anderson" <tech@brownells.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 9:19 PM
Subject: Re: bom@gci.net

> Thank you for your help, it's very much appreciated.
>
> Sincerely,
> Brent Moffitt
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Beckey Anderson" <tech@brownells.com>
> To: <bom@gci.net>
> Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 6:11 AM
> Subject: RE: bom@gci.net
>
>
> Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We certainly do appreciate
> your interest in Brownells.
>
> Thread size is 5/16"x36 t.p.i.
>
> Best regards,
> BROWNELLS, INC.
>
> David Kaiser
> Technical Services
>
> DK:ba
>
> Brownells, Inc.
> 200 South Front Street
> Montezuma, IA 50171
>
> Telephone 641-623-5401 ext: 8456
> Fax: 641-623-3896
>
> www.brownells.com
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bom@gci.net [mailto:bom@gci.net]
> Sent: Saturday, April 20, 2002 2:23 AM
> To: Beckey Anderson
> Subject: bom@gci.net
>
>
> Name: Brent O. Moffitt
>
> email address: bom@gci.net
>
> Last Page: http://www.brownells.com/TechCorners/SearchCriteria.asp
>
> CustomerID:
>
> Message:
> Do you know what tap to use for making custom cases to use in the Stoney
> Point OAL guage? I had seen one somewhere specifically mentioning it but
> have not been able the find it again.
>
> Thanks for the help.
>
> Brent
>

Can't you just buy a Stoney Point case, already tapped, for about 5 bucks?

Turkeyshooter,

If you have access to a lathe and a dremel tool with a cut off disk, you can quickly make a tap that will work for what you need.

With a lathe, tread a piece of tool steel to 5/16 x 36. Using another tap as a pattern, use the dremel tool to cut flutes in the body and to cut the lead angle into the threads similar to that of the other tap. Within no time you will have functioning tap that will work with brass.

If you wish to harden it, take a magnet, a bucket of cold water and a propane torch. Use the magnet to hold the tap by it's point over the bucket of water. Apply the torch to the tap as evenly as you can to the point where the piece falls from the magnet into the bucket of water. This is the "upper limit" quench, and the tap should now be brittle at this point.

Clean off the scale and carefully reheat the tap until it just turns the color of straw and then quench it in water. It should now be tempered enough to serve you well for a long time.

Good luck,

Malm

Hello Malm - may I add a refinement to your description?

I had made a reamer blank for a 0.270 Win. I used a cutting torch to bring it up to hardening temp and then quenched it. It came out of the water looking like a banana.

I went to an old toolmaker friend - he chuckled when I showed it to him and explained that no matter how I had turned and waved that torch around, the last surface that I had heated would always have been hotter than the opposite side - and a bent reamer was guaranteed.

If the section was thicker I "might" have got away with delaying about 5 seconds or so between last flame and water. This would have given the steel a chance to even out the temperature difference.

He recommended that I make up a flask out of a piece of pipe and a baseplate. The height of the flask to contain all but about 1/2" of the end of the reamer. Put the reamer into the flask and pack the flask with borax. Apply the torch to the outside. Keep adding borax so that the reamer in the flask doesn't see any air. When everything is up to temperature, lift the reamer out by that little 1/2" that was sticking out and plunge the reamer vertically into the water bucket - but DON'T move it about.

It seemed an awful amount of fuss and bother to me - until I did it. The blank came out unscaled and as straight as a die!

Pleased as punch with the blank, I took it to my friend and showed it to him - he just grinned and asked me why I hadn't machined it down to size and sharp before doing the hardening?

I stared at him and tried to come up with an intelligent comment. Failed.

Next reamer was roughed out, fluted, sharpened i.e. finished completely and then hardened by "the method" - it only needed a bit of final stoning .....

Done them that way ever since.

cheers edi