Found a FIX for the SP 45 acp

[Blue68f100]

Got tired of the Small primer 45acp getting mixed in with my LP. So I decided to fix the SP ones. What I did was re-machine the primer pockets.

I have been collecting these SP 45 acp for some time now. Not wanting to use up my SPP on 45 acp, I decided to convert the SP to LP.

Since I have a small end mill I decided needed to make a set of special jaws to hold the brass. I used a boring head and bored a hole 0.471" with a sheet of paper between the halves. That way I will have 0.003" clamp/crush force. The next step was to enlarge the SP pocket without going any deeper. Since the brass was mixed lengths I did not bore to the bottom. I stopped 0.003"-0.008" depending on brass length.

45acp Jaws.

13/64" (0.204") end mill down 0.110-0.115" deep to remove the bulk.


Now I finished reamed the hole to 0.209" Since reamers will not cut on the bottom the depth stops at the original pocket depth.


I beveled the top edge and now ready to go.



Took me around 4hrs to process ~300 pieces.

 

[Walkalong]

Cool.

 

[41 Mag]

Yep, I think that little projects like that are what keeps our company from picking us up a small mill and lathe.

 

[horseman1]

That is some really nice work. Thanks for sharing..

 

[gamestalker]

Interesting idea. Thus inspired another thought, that being if other small pockets could be safely be converted to large?

GS

 

[KansasSasquatch]

It's cool if you can prove that it can be done. But wouldn't it be easier to trade them off for LPP brass?

 

[Havok7416]

I agree with KansasSasquatch. I know quite a few people that would love to trade or buy it off you. I don't mind SPP and the way I see it, it's all going to end up that way eventually. Have you fired any of these modified cases yet?

 

[Walkalong]

Some folks would love to have the SPP brass, but trading them wouldn't be nearly as cool.

Enjoyment doing a small project like that, priceless.

 

[dragon813gt]

And I thought sorting them was tedious work.

 

[Blue68f100]

I agree with KansasSasquatch. I know quite a few people that would love to trade or buy it off you. I don't mind SPP and the way I see it, it's all going to end up that way eventually. Have you fired any of these modified cases yet?

I have not shot any yet but I have loaded them up. I won't get a chance to shoot till next week. The pockets were very tight but seated ok.

 

[Reloadron]

When I retired last year I lost access to our machine shop that served me so well for 25 years. That is about all I miss.

Really nice work and once you make your fixturing looks like things go quickly. Thanks for sharing the images, pretty cool.

Ron

 

[mgmorden]

I agree with KansasSasquatch. I know quite a few people that would love to trade or buy it off you. I don't mind SPP and the way I see it, it's all going to end up that way eventually

Yeah - I have to admit that while it currently bugs me, if I could ensure that ALL 45 brass was SP I'd switch it over in a heartbeat. Much less work to changeover the press from 9mm or .40 and less primer types to stock (though admittedly I timed myself one day and even working at a non-rushed pace it only took about 15 minutes to change my LnL from LP .45 to SP 9mm).

In the meantime though, this is definitely an interesting project, and certainly its nice to file such info away in the "maybe I'll need it someday" category . Heck I once made about 200 7.62x25 cases from .223 Rem brass. Aggravating and not worth it, but educational for sure .

 

[Otto]

Took me around 4hrs to process ~300 pieces.

Seriously? Wow....

 

[cfullgraf]

It's cool if you can prove that it can be done. But wouldn't it be easier to trade them off for LPP brass?

Sometimes the getting there is as rewarding or more so than the end result.

I find all sorts of uses for my lathe and mill to get a project done quicker and more to my satisfaction than futzing with some public source.

Blue68f100, nice job.

 

[1KPerDay]

Nice job. Personally I save the SPP brass I sort, load it and shoot it in matches where I know I'm not going to be able to find my brass.

 

[Blue68f100]

Interesting idea. Thus inspired another thought, that being if other small pockets could be safely be converted to large?

GS

Yes, provide the brass is large enough. I know 308 come in both sizes. A simple way to make a clamp is put a piece of paper between the 2 halves, then use a chamber reamer to cut the pocket. Since the chamber reamer will be larger than the brass it may take multiple pieces of paper. Once ounce you remove the paper you will have that much thickness as clamping force.

One thing I noticed on the SP brass is the flash hole is very uniform.

With the 0.2090" reamer the pockets were plenty tight for fitting a LP (0.210"). I could have gone 0.0005" larger (0.2095"). These are not very expensive, $16.

 

[gamestalker]

Cool, and educational as well. You just never know what could happen that might force us to expand on our creative skills to get the job done. And it's nice to know that if need be, one could adapt to over come a supply and demand issue.

GS

 

[il.bill]

A job well done - it looks like an enjoyable and rewarding project IF you have the equipment and the time to do it.


I sort my .45 ACP cases by primer size after cleaning. I do not mind doing it since it is just an additional time to look over the used brass cases. I usually prefer the small primer pockets since my Lee Auto-Prime XR priming tool large pistol tray lid often acts up, even with rubber bands holding it in place, and wastes my time as I insure none of the LPP flip over. Just today I was priming my 'pre-sorted' small primer pocket brass and was aggravated to have the priming tool act up and double stack / not seat the SPP. After spending several minutes disassembling and trying to figure out what was wrong or broken with the stupid mechanism I figured out the cause of the time-wasting malfunction - two clean and shiny cases fooled my eyes and actually had LPP pockets.

"D'oh!"
Blue68f100 could have easily processed a couple dozen pieces in the time I wasted today.

 

[tspot100]

Hmmm interesting. My solution for lpp 45acp is to toss them . I only have spp 45acp. 8 k or so. Only have a handful of large primers..wish there was a way to shrink the primer pockets... Perspective.
I'll start saving my lpp cases and offer them up here when I get enough

 

[AlliedArmory]

I really like my SP 45ACP. Makes it so that I don't have to change primer sizes on the press since I reload a lot of 9mm and 223.