If you own an RCBS Primer Pocket Swager and digital calipers...

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mcofboise

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... I have a favor to ask. First, I am an idiot. I had a chance to buy one of these last week at a gun show for $15 and have been kicking myself ever since for walking away without it. But I'm a DIY kind of guy and figured I could make a tool that would work adequately, since I really only care about swaging .223 and not very much of that. So today I chucked up some sufficiently hard steel in the lathe and made a tool that almost works. I figure I must have missed something obvious, and since nobody near me has one I can examine, I throw myself on your mercy. I measured the primer pocket in a piece of PMC brass and a small rifle primer, then made a punch that duplicates the primer pocket dimensions: .174" diameter by .121" depth. Like I said, it almost works. So if somebody could, please measure the little nubby punch on the RCBS small rifle tool and riddle me this:
1. What are the actual dimensions of their punch?
2. Is it straight walled like a primer seating punch, tapered, or otherwise shaped differently? (I've slept since I looked at one and can't remember what it actually looked like) (24 megapixel macro pics might help also :p )
3. Any other obvious thing I'm missing? Besides brain cells?

And if you're scratching your head (shoot, I'm surprised I've kept your attention this long), I built a punch to replace the primer seating stem on the Rock Chucker priming arm. The body of it is full diameter fit of the ram slot, so the casehead bottoms out on the punch, rather than the swaging part pushing on the web of the case.
Thanks in advance. You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

mike
 
Both large and small swage punches are .100 to .102" long, the part that goes into the pocket. The diameter of my punch is .173" for the small swager and .2085" for the large swager. Both swagers are slightly rounded on the ends. The part that does the swaging is a tiny radius at the shoulder of the punch. don't know the radius dimension but it's about .015 ". So the .173 and .2085" ends in a radius. .100" minus the radius of about .015". The little radius is doing the swaging and making a radius on the lip of the primer pocket.
 
Yeah you are not trying to reform the entire pocket. You are trying to open up the top that has been crushed and put a radius on that outer edge for feeding a primer in again. the rest of the primer pocket will remain the same. Try to duplicate a radius on a standard round and that is about what mine look like when finished.
 
Doh!

Of course! I did miss the obvious. Thank you one and all for the info and the pix. I truly appreciate it. I'll see if I can over-engineer a proper punch this time. Again, my thanks, and if it works, I'll give you guys all the credit.

mike
 
Success!

Thanks again, guys. I made a new punch out of stainless steel and tried it out on several types of cases and it worked very well. Doesn't take much effort to knock the crimp out of the way and primers seated properly, nice and snug. I owe my success to all of you.

mike
 
IMG_0272-1.jpg
Notice chamfer to make starting a primer possible.
IMG_0274.jpg
Obviously to use the chamfer you have to swage to the hilt.
IMG_0275.jpg
IMG_0281.jpg

I don't have the measurements (not where I can do that tonight) ...but you already have that and you seem to have met your goal too.
Hope the pictures help anyway.:)
 
Thanks, GW

Those pics are awesome. Seeing that detail makes me think I may work the tool over some so it works a bit more efficiently. I left myself some room to play with the radius. Good stuff.
 
Nice pics,GW.My next camera is going to have the macro?? function/focus.Also,am still learning this computer thing,not so good posting pics either. Lightman
 
I built a punch to replace the primer seating stem on the Rock Chucker priming arm.
Click to expand...
I don't think that is going to work for ya.

It takes a lot of force to swage a primer pocket crimp.
You can't swage it by pulling on the case rim with a shell holder without bending or pulling off the rim..

The RCBS & Dillon tools support the case from the inside with an adjustable rod in the die.
Then the steel sleeve on the RCBS sets around the ram and pulls the case off the swage punch.

It takes a pretty good force to do that too.

rc
 
RC

My tool only supports the rim. It is held in place by the shell plate. Other then the first one I haven't damaged any of them even the steel cases. The first one I didn't know how to adjust the tool & bent the rim.
 
Measure before and after, when using the RCBS primer pocket swage/primer pocket crimp remover sort your cases by measuring case head thickness, measuring a case for thickness as in case body and case head is something reloaders omit, some weigh then assume military cases are thicker because they are heavier, that is a bad habit, because case head thickness on ‘later model 308 W cases can vary .030 thousands, does not seem like much but that is enough to render the anvil rod scrap, there is a good chance they will replace the part that is rendered scrap, and that is OK, I do think they should charge something for the education, UNLESS, the instructions omit that little tid-bit of information.

F. Guffey
 
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