Thread: Making a Swaging Press

Hi Everyone,

I have started work on building a swaging press over the last few days.

Based on this idea here Lets make a Swage press



I have always wanted to play around with swaged bullets and I have a couple of projects on the go that I want to make some heavy for caliber lead projectiles for.

I may also have a go at making .223 projectiles from 22lr brass but I already have a few thousand 62gr projectiles so probably wont for a while.

My main plan is to use it to make unusual projectiles I cant otherwise buy. For example a 9mm 250gr flat nose bore rider so it can be chambered in a standard .357 Sig chamber and not have to be seated deep into the case.

I have experimented with making the dies and have been somewhat successful, so now that I know I will be able to make dies for it, Im making a press.

This thing is all heavy steel and is about at the limit of what my machines can handle easily, I started cutting everything to rough size a while ago and have since moved house and setup a new workshop.



Im using Chinesium hardened ground shafting for the guide rods and a length of 4140 steel purchased from Homebrew.357 for the central ram.
It turns out the shafting is not hardened at all, which actually makes my job easier.




Only just fits in the bandsaw. I had to flip it over to get the whole way through and use a small fan to cool the motor.





I made the top and bottom plates and drilled and tapped each end of the guide rods and did a quick assembly



I was planning to use proper bronze bushes but it was going to add up to about $120 for what I needed. Then corona happened and im working on this in lockdown, so I decided to just make the bushes from brass i can always replace them if they wear out in the future.



Ill keep you all updated.

Looking good so far. I built one some years ago, made a few dies, swaged some 357 projectiles out of 9mm brass, made a de-rimming die for 22lr brass and that's about where it stopped due to to many other projects, one day I hope to get bake to it.

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another awesome job here!

Looking good. I build the same press a while ago. Its HUGE!

Some awesome gear it that workshop cool work on the project to

mean! what blade you use on bandsaw? I did something silly and broke my 10- 14 the other day, waiting for lockdown to finish so I can get another.

So you can't stage on a normal press? Are they too weak?

Originally Posted by Friwi

So you can't stage on a normal press? Are they too weak?

You can do some swaging on good quality reloading presses but only small caliber easy stuff. Forget trying it with something like a lee press. For working on larger stuff, you need a stronger press. Plus all the dies are designed for this type of press and wont work on a normal reloading press.

This design has a reloading mode (longer stroke than the swaging mode and add a case holder adaptor to the ram) So I will be able to use it for that if whatever im loading wont fit in my lee.
This design is overkill, it could be about 20% smaller and still have enough travel and power for swaging but the other guys that have built this design seem happy with it, so I just copied the plans and converted them to metric. Plus I had a lot of the steel on hand already.

Originally Posted by bully

mean! what blade you use on bandsaw? I did something silly and broke my 10- 14 the other day, waiting for lockdown to finish so I can get another.

Im not sure the tooth count. Quite possibly a 10-14, its certainly not a fine blade. I always buy good quality Starrett blades and always have at least one brand new one on hand for when they break, though I havnt managed to break one since starting to buy Starretts. I run the saw on the slowest setting, and use plenty of cutting oil. A blade can last a very long time like this. Once I start having to add weights to the head of the saw to get it to cut, I change the blade.
Do you have a tig welder? if so, you can rig up a jig to tack the blade back together and then grind it smooth. I have done that at work a couple of times if we get caught short. Its not great but it will keep you cutting for a while longer.

Originally Posted by SixtyTen

Im not sure the tooth count. Quite possibly a 10-14, its certainly not a fine blade. I always buy good quality Starrett blades and always have at least one brand new one on hand for when they break, though I havnt managed to break one since starting to buy Starretts. I run the saw on the slowest setting, and use plenty of cutting oil. A blade can last a very long time like this. Once I start having to add weights to the head of the saw to get it to cut, I change the blade.
Do you have a tig welder? if so, you can rig up a jig to tack the blade back together and then grind it smooth. I have done that at work a couple of times if we get caught short. Its not great but it will keep you cutting for a while longer.

I do have a tig, and was thinking of having a go. I do have a spear 18tpi blade, so havnt tried the tig. did you chamfer then tig with filler ? what does the jig do? just hold it together and flat?