Presses - open for a debate

[bigHUN]

I am reading these post about swagging presses for long time maybe years, so far I had not much interest to invest into that direction. Instead of making my own amo whatever design that would be - that amount of time I was investing into my shooting, training and practising.
It it not mine to say or proof that some new slugs design will (or not) improve the scores, but the pellets I am watching everyone makes are all the same cloning of existing shapes and parameters.

Recently I started shooting f-class longer ranges, a friend was reloading for me. At some point I decided with mutual interest to do reloading DIY -and invested into equipment.

And here comes my Question:
- Why reloading presses and in our OP the slugs/pellets presses - all rocker style? (came to my mind watching the europeanairguns new press and saw the guy was kind of wrestling with it - this comes if you don't eat a good breakfast first )
Why not rack and pinion or eventually shaft driven?
This question comes from a mechanical engineering point of view

 

[daddypaddy]

I am reading these post about swagging presses for long time maybe years, so far I had not much interest to invest into that direction. Instead of making my own amo whatever design that would be - that amount of time I was investing into my shooting, training and practising.
It it not mine to say or proof that some new slugs design will (or not) improve the scores, but the pellets I am watching everyone makes are all the same cloning of existing shapes and parameters.

Recently I started shooting f-class longer ranges, a friend was reloading for me. At some point I decided with mutual interest to do reloading DIY -and invested into equipment.

And here comes my Question:
- Why reloading presses and in our OP the slugs/pellets presses - all rocker style? (came to my mind watching the europeanairguns new press and saw the guy was kind of wrestling with it - this comes if you don't eat a good breakfast first )
Why not rack and pinion or eventually shaft driven?
This question comes from a mechanical engineering point of view

i wondered that exact same thing too.

 

[dgeesaman]

Reloading presses for sizing brass generate tons of force using a four-bar linkage that cams over slightly and just locks in the up position.

A friend of mine is pressing slugs using a cam over style press and he really prefers it. He basically watches the lead squirt until it stops flowing. This takes a few seconds and having the cam over means consistent press force without beating yourself up.

I’m sure that bullet swaging presses would also work but they’re probably overkill for slug swaging.

Arbor style bullet seating presses don’t generate much force. They’d never handle anything with slugs.

 

[bigHUN]

...Arbor style bullet seating presses don’t generate much force. They’d never handle anything with slugs.

I don't know, this why I was asking.
I am using a Wilson seating die, I have an older rocker style press right beside my HF "micro mill" with a pinion. I can feel much easier pressing the die with rack and pinion vs the rocker. For this reason I didn't invest $ for K+M or 21st Centuri bench presses, but I bought a press force pad from ali to monitor a consistency.

 

[dgeesaman]

I have a K&M arbor press and while it’s sturdy enough for seating bullets with heavy neck tension, it’s barely enough force to swage 177 pellets. And it would probably wear out the gearing quickly.

I also have a 1 ton standard type arbor press I use for swaging pellets and it’s pretty good for that with a longer handle. For forming slugs it might not be enough and even if it was it would take serious physical effort to hold the force for more than a couple seconds.

I haven’t done any swaging with my Rockchucker reloading press because it doesn’t fit in that press.

 

[Ezana4CE]

I have a K&M arbor press and while it’s sturdy enough for seating bullets with heavy neck tension, it’s barely enough force to swage 177 pellets. And it would probably wear out the gearing quickly.

I also have a 1 ton standard type arbor press I use for swaging pellets and it’s pretty good for that with a longer handle. For forming slugs it might not be enough and even if it was it would take serious physical effort to hold the force for more than a couple seconds.

I haven’t done any swaging with my Rockchucker reloading press because it doesn’t fit in that press.

@dgeesaman If I’m not mistaken the 1 ton Arbor presses are used in conjunction with the older styled GMI slug dies. @Engg.Ken can elaborate here better than I can. I’m just going on a vague memory of some YouTube videos I’ve seen.

 

[Corvid_hunter]

@dgeesaman If I’m not mistaken the 1 ton Arbor presses are used in conjunction with the older styled GMI slug dies. @Engg.Ken can elaborate here better than I can. I’m just going on a vague memory of some YouTube videos I’ve seen.

I've used the 1 ton press with the GMI dies. 2 ton would be better I'm guessing, but it works.

 

[Ezana4CE]

I've used the 1 ton press with the GMI dies. 2 ton would be better I'm guessing, but it works.

@Corvid_hunter Thanks for the confirmation. Which caliber did you use the 1 ton in making your slugs? Why do you say that a 2 ton would be better for you?

 

[sb327]

Typical swage presses (and reloading) change leverage ratio through the stroke. It’s higher geared mid stroke and as it nears the end of its stroke becomes extremely low geared. This small movement at the end is where the real work takes place. The rest of the movement is to allow us to place/retrieve our core/slug. Win/win so to speak.

A typical rack/pinion type press is the same gear ratio throughout it’s stroke. To be low enough geared for the hard part, it would be unreasonably slow for the rest of the stroke.

Dave

 

[Firewalker]

I went hydraulic for my dies. It's so much easier to flip a joystick then pull your shoulder out of the socket with a hand press.