Here is a neat tool to make if you have a couple of days and a few hundred bux. Pays for itself pretty quick too. Pushes Bullets out hydraulically with grease. I used to push them out with a high pressure grease gun but I kept running into ones that it wouldn't budge. The nice part about doing it this way is there is no risk of damaging the gun at all. Any fool that can cut a thread and drive a reamer can make it.

http://youtu.be/6fVJP7oYAjc

http://youtu.be/vlhpdZaVaQ8

I've followed your build and videos on the HG, Forum and am really glad to see you join over here on AR. Real good stuff, Sir.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of your contributions here!

quote:

Dulltool17

Well, when you come up with a good trick that works well and makes life simpler you should pass it on. If you don't, it eventually gets lost.
Besides, if I post here once in a while I can harass the hell out of old Lambert. That's almost like FREE entertainment. But not quite free. What goes around, comes around ! lol

Speerchucker

I followed your posts on Practical Machinist.

Glad to see you here.

quote:

Originally posted by speerchucker30x378:

quote:

Dulltool17

Well, when you come up with a good trick that works well and makes life simpler you should pass it on. If you don't, it eventually gets lost.
Besides, if I post here once in a while I can harass the hell out of old Lambert. That's almost like FREE entertainment. But not quite free. What goes around, comes around ! lol

You do not sound like a very nice person at all!

You are the sort of man who will get along just fine here in our worship!

I sometimes think we spend more time being nasty to each other than actually doing something useful!

Thank you for posting this here, very informative indeed.

I saw this method, kinda neat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txt9ytUXOpE

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by speerchucker30x378:

quote:

Dulltool17

Well, when you come up with a good trick that works well and makes life simpler you should pass it on. If you don't, it eventually gets lost.
Besides, if I post here once in a while I can harass the hell out of old Lambert. That's almost like FREE entertainment. But not quite free. What goes around, comes around ! lol

You do not sound like a very nice person at all!

You are the sort of man who will get along just fine here in our worship!

I sometimes think we spend more time being nasty to each other than actually doing something useful!

Thank you for posting this here, very informative indeed.

Dear Saeed

I have known Butch Lambert for a very long time. He is a friend of mine. I have leaned a great deal from Butch and I hope that he can say the same for me. Please, kindly do not read things into my posts that are not there. There was no intent to post anything "NASTY" at all.

Rod Henrickson

quote:

Originally posted by smokeeter:
I saw this method, kinda neat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txt9ytUXOpE

I actually played with that method in 22 rim fires a bit years ago. One of the instructors at the Colorado School of Trades Gunsmithing brought it up when I was there 35 years ago. From his point of view it was a bit dangerous to apply the technology to high powered rifles and big handguns. After doing this stuff for a living for 35 years I tend to agree with him.
It seems that a few people blew up their guns or bulged the barrels playing with it. His theory was that the weight of the water is added to the weight of the bullet and it's sort of like accidentally shooting a gun with a cleaning rod in it.
If you can balance the powder charge exactly to just what is needed to push out the bullet you are fine. The problem seems to lie in the fact that there is a very slim line between just enough and WAY to much.
You have to remember that say a 30-06 is designed to operate with around a 180 grain piston. When you add the weight of the water you suddenly have a 1000 grain piston to get moving. We all know what can happen when you accidentally load a 220 grain bullet with a 150 grain charge.
One safe way of doing it might be to use black powder. It is VERY hard to get a charge of black confined enough to generate enough pressure to blow up a modern barrel. The black powder substitutes like Pyrodex on the other hand are a different type of chemical altogether and can generate some nasty pressures if held back enough.

Speerchucker30x378, can you give a little more information on the design? Size of the piston and type of seal used at the muzzle. I have some bulleye shooters that can use this set up.

quote:

Originally posted by J_Zola:
Speerchucker30x378, can you give a little more information on the design? Size of the piston and type of seal used at the muzzle. I have some bulleye shooters that can use this set up.

I actually documented the whole build of what everyone eventually named "the contraption" over on the Home Gunsmithing forum. Pretty much everything neded to build one including machine setups is in that post. It's a little to big to just copy and paste over so I'll just give you the link to it. Next time I start one of these kooky projects I'll post it here as well.

http://www.homegunsmith.com/cg...5;act=ST;f=3;t=29914

Damn Speer, I was beginning to think the brilliant trolls on the Practical Machinest forum gave you enough heart burn that killed you. We have a couple azz holes on this forum, but for the most part a bunch of intelligent good guys.
Glad to see you here.

quote:

Originally posted by butchlambert:
Damn Speer, I was beginning to think the brilliant trolls on the Practical Machinest forum gave you enough heart burn that killed you. We have a couple azz holes on this forum, but for the most part a bunch of intelligent good guys.
Glad to see you here.

Thanks Old Timer

I was talking to my favorite frog, Guillaume from Montreal and he said that he went down to Texas in March to squint at some barrels. Told me the weather was warmer in Quebec than it was down there. Less snow too. Silly Frenchman probably flew to Minnesota by mistake. Everyone knows it hasn't snowed in Texas in 200 years. LOL

I actually used to hang on your posts in Practical Machinist, Rod. I got more pragmatic info from your posts than all the others combined.

You've got a lot of great knowledge to share. I hope you find this a very welcoming place.

As Saeed will undoubtedly confirm, you probably want to avoid the Political Crater, if at all possible! LOL!

Thanks speerchucker30x378 for the link. It gave me some ideas and killed some others. I need to find some time to build one.

Dulltool17
Yeah I see a lot of the old posters from PM are now using this forum. I picked up quite a few good things in the PM forum but it sort of got over run with kids and arm chair machinists.

J_Zola
The only downside I have with the bullet press is that you have to charge a lot per job to make it pay. I figured I had roughly $1,000 labor into the tool and about $600 in tooling and materials. I have been charging $150 for each bore I clear with the intent of paying for the costs and seeing profit after about 2 years. The up side is that it's virtually risk free. It's almost impossible to damage anything while using the press.
The only other concern is pressing bullets out of #1 conture barrels. There definitely could be a risk of bursting really thin barrels. According to what I dug out of the Machinerys Handbook, the 3/4x16 TPI thread is capable of generating 13 ton which is very close to the burst pressure of thin barrels. So far I have had no problems and I cover the thin ones with rubberized carpet when I press them out. I may just be a bit paranoid, but I will continue to do so until I get fully comfortable with the machine.
Even in the test pushes that I have done by pushing long bullets from one end to the other, I don't think I have used much over half the potential power of the press. I used to push bullets with a 14,000 PSI grease gun and it worked 80% of the time so I think just about any bullet can probably be moved with no more than 8 or 9 ton.

Speerchucker

Have you ever tried pushing a bore snake out with this method ?

How are you sealing the grease at the muzzle ? Tapered nozzle against the crown ?

quote:

Originally posted by Craftsman:
Speerchucker

Have you ever tried pushing a bore snake out with this method ?

How are you sealing the grease at the muzzle ? Tapered nozzle against the crown ?

Not with the "contraption" yet, but lots of them with a high pressure grease gun. If it's only a short length of bore-snake you have to drive a lead piston in first to push on it. If you don't, the grease migrates through the material.
In the video pushing out the bullet and doweling a lead piston had to be used to drive out the wood. The grease would simply have gone around it otherwise.
The delivery system uses a 50 degree center made of brass to seal against the crown. The center is no harder than a bullet and the sharp steel crown simply cuts into the brass when you put on the pressure with the tailstock.
I make the centers with a 1/2x28 thread so as they get too cut up to seal properly I can just screw them out and re-surface them in the lathe. After 10 or 20 uses they get to short and have to be discarded and a new one made. It only takes 10 minutes to make a new one.

ADD NOTE:

If a bore snake isn't broken off, just stuck, I hold the barrel in a padded vise and tie a powerpull off to one of the machines and suck them out with that. One of my competitors back east holds the barrel in the vise and uses a piece of aircraft cable tied to the bore snake and clamped into his mill vise. He then just hits the power feed on the mill and sucks them out that way. As long as you pull them straight and don't cut them against the crown, they will always pull out.

Massive amounts of carefully controlled and applied tonnage, beats hammering and swearing every time!

quote:

Originally posted by butchlambert:
Damn Speer, I was beginning to think the brilliant trolls on the Practical Machinest forum gave you enough heart burn that killed you. We have a couple azz holes on this forum, but for the most part a bunch of intelligent good guys.
Glad to see you here.

All we need do is get Dwight Scott here.

But first one will have to teach him what a computer is, and how it actually works.

I could just hear him say "OH JEEZ!"

Saeed,
You have Dwight pegged. I haven't spoke to him recently. Has he conquered the sleeping sickness?

Dwight is doing great.

He is doing some fishing I understand

I need to call him.

Yeah, if I don't like a movie, I generally just pack up and walk out. I don't hang around and waste my time just because I invested $20 in the flick. It's a big world and there are lots of other things out there that are more entertaining and worthwhile to do.

Besides I have a boat under rebuild, plenty of time expended there. I am lucky and live 1 mile from salt water.[/QUOTE]

OH MY ! ! ! !
A hole in the water that you pour money into until it sinks. LOL

My buddy sells custom river boats for a living. His favorite line is:

"boat - - B O A T. Acronym for: B.reak O.ut A.nother T.housand" LOL