Making Sizer / Reloading dies

I wanted to have a sizer die / case forming die for one of my vintage rifles so I could run a Nitro for Black load in it.

Obsolete Caliber dies are available for the 450 no1 Express BPE from Australia but $600 Inc freight
So time to make one

I made a die body from 416 SS and threaded 1 1/4" for the big RCBS press i do most of my case forming on.

I made a chamber cast of my 450 no1 Express.
This gave me the sizes I wanted less about a thou for my die.
I bored through the entire die blank to the neck diameter.
And then pre bored out most of the shoulder and taper to make it easier on the reamer

Attachment 265660

Then I made a 4 flute die reamer with the neck as a solid pilot.
I fluted and put the primary relief angles on in the dividing head on the milling machine.
I put the secondary relief on by hand with a fine file but not touching the last fraction of the cutting edge.
Hardened the reamer but didn't bother tempering it because it's a one use reamer really.
Then I lightly sharpened the final cutting edge by hand with a fine Indian stone.

Used it just like a usual chamber reamer and plenty of Reaming oil.
It cut very nicely
Attachment 265661

I cut the die a little deep and formed a new case from a donor virgin 470 nitro case suitably shortened and annealed
Tried that case in my chamber and it was a fraction long for my block closing behind it.
The smoke shows that the shoulder is too far forward

Attachment 265662

So I shortened the die body by the amount the case was protruding by and tried again.
Case chambers perfectly with die body hard down on shell holder

Attachment 265663

My hope is that this dies being based on my actual chamber will be much kinder to the brass
The British 450s varied a lot in actual chambers and the modern dies are likely to over work the brass

I'm happy with my 6 hours of work / learnings

Attachment 265664

And next time I do one it will likely only take 2/3 rds of the time this one took

Fantastic job there!

Awesome!

That's bloody awesome

Clever bastard🙂

What material did you make the reamer from?
Cool project.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by veitnamcam

What material did you make the reamer from?
Cool project.

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15mm silver steel

I've never been a fan of silver steel reamers
But if you make them as a proper fluted reamer with proper primary and secondary relief they can be very effective
With them all being for one off projects it's just cheap and easy with silver steel.

I turn down the shank end to fit in a battery drill so I can turn it as I heat it with a big LPG blow torch
Also good to have it turning as you plunge it vertically into a drum of water to quench

S600 tool steel is vastly better but needs to go out to be hardened and tempered
Silver steel is easy to do yourself and you can knock a job out the same day

Have you ever tried the powdered case hardening stuff that comes in a bottle?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by inglishill

Have you ever tried the powdered case hardening stuff that comes in a bottle?

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Yes

And I've done proper case hardening

Nice work, I like the idea of revolving when quenching

I was alway taught to quench when hardening, in oil not water, I was told it was less liable to lead to cracking

We have a few knife makers on the forum who would know a thing or three about hardening ;-)
My neighbour farrier who did his apprenticeship in 1940 was dissolving soap in water to make the hardening more gentle.
The kind of steels he was using then were probably simpler than our modern compositions

I do have a 200 litre drum of quench oil and I will try that also

But I did ask when I brought some silver steel recently if it was oil or water
They said water
But I will do a couple of test pieces and try both

I did another one of these a few days ago.
Same technique but much bigger for the 577-500 #2 Express

Went pretty well also.
Just a lot harder to get up to heat for hardening because it's a massive reamer

The up side is it forms a case more easily that the factory dies because the body is a few thou bigger and is a better match to my chambers.

Attachment 270767

Pretty even size, shape and volume of swarf in the flutes

Attachment 270768

It's a tiny shoulder in a long tapered case.
But it was quick to cut and the long pilot worked well

Attachment 270769

Next job is to work out how to make a seating die with the same reamer.

This will make any big bore obsolete Caliber or wildcat reasonably easy to make a custom die set for

That reamer looks like it cuts nicely. Its so satisfying making your own cutting tools, for them to then work well.

If your struggling for temperature off your torch, think about making one of these (not mine, pillaged link) https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/...ssues.1540935/

I made one years ago and its perfect for this type of thing. Mine gets used all the time.

wowee!

Good work! I made my first die set at high school when the metalwork teacher was otherwise occupied. It took a few weeks then followed that with a set of bullet mould blocks that fitted Lyman handles. The calibre was .38 S&W for the S&W Victory revolver I bought on a street corner for 8 Pounds. Life seemed simpler back then when you couldn't buy that sort of thing in pistol calibres. Good old Kiwi ingenuity.