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Well I finally got some time off work and ordered some equipment so lets get started on another hobby!

 

Monday I spent $277 on Amazon and got the Lee Classic Turret press, The Lee book, A nice scale, primer pocket tools, Lee decapping die, Lee .45 carbide dies and a powder scoop set to get started.

 

I'm hoping to get a nice set of calipers and a hand primer this weekend at the Oaks show.

 

I started to make a tumbler today, here's how that went...

 

I went to Lowes and man I'll tell ya that stuff aint cheap. I got a 10' peace of 6" pvc, two end caps and some heavy duty screws.

Then over to Home Depot and got for a 1 1/2"x 3/4" pvc trim and 4" knock out plug. 

 

I got home and drilled a 4" hole in one of the end caps

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Then cut a 19" piece off of the pipe and three 19" pieces of the trim. Sanded everything smooth and installed the trim by pre drilling the holes and countersinking them with a counter sink bit. Used the heavy duty screws and walahh

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I was going to glue them on but of course my PVC glue was no good,,, sad face...

 

So I got a little bit of a start on the machine end...

Took some 1" box tube I had and made a frame.

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Then I got hungry and ate some dinner, sorry, no pic...

 

Tomorrow I have some goodies coming in the mail and I will get some more work done on the tumbler.

 

I'm new to this and would love all the constructive criticism youze guys can throw at me.

 

 

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I was going to glue them on but of course my PVC glue was no good,,, sad face...

 

 

 

I hate when that happens

 

 

My only criticism --  The agitators in the drum do take up a ton of space -- at least thats the way it looks in the pictures

 

I hope there is enough room for the pins to interact with the brass --  Personally, I'd rip those pieces of trim in half  

 

 

I also wonder why you went with cutting the PVC cap to accept a plug instead of a reducer fitting and a rubber cap --  Just wondering what your thought process is here

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lol,

I was thinking the same thing but I'm a little hesitant to put them on the table saw because I think it was you that was saying that PVC tends to grab the blade and throw it back at you.

I probably should rip them though, I'll try a practice piece tomorrow and see how it goes.

 

I couldn't find a reducer and figured it would be a little cheaper to just cut a hole in a cap. 6" fittings are really expensive.

 

Thanks Jer

 

 

If anyone needs any 6" PVC pipe let me know, I have over 8' left.

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Those trim pieces won't bind on the table saw ---  They are made to be cut  --  It's PVC pipe that wants to pinch the blade when you make the 1st cut lengthwise thru the pipe

 

 

Lowes or a supply house are the only places you'll find the reducers locally --  Not at HD --  at the Supply house the price goes up

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Cool thanks. Do you think 19" is too long? I want to be able to do at least 500 pices of .45 at a time.

 

19" is a little long but should work fine -- Mine are 14" when I build them

 

You'll do 900 to 1000 .45acp easily in a 19" drum --  gonna need 12 to 15 pounds of media

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Impressive. Nice job and I'm looking forward to the rest. If you bought the Lee carbide .45 die whys you also buy another decapping die? Are you going to decap in different stages? The die set comes with all 4 necessary dies I thought?

 

I have a large order of reloading equipment sitting in my amazon wish list just waiting for me to pull the trigger. I chose the Lee Classic Turret press as well.

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Maybe I better cut it down some, I don't want to spend $100 on media right now. (gona look for that at the Oaks show too) Thanks bud.

 

Right now I would buy media on ebay -- there are a couple of vendors selling the stuff at almost what I was paying for it

 

I needed to buy it 300 pounds at a time to get those prices

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Thanks every one,

 

I got the decapper because it says that the one that comes with the 4 die set is a resizer too, you cant put dirty brass in a resizer because it will scratch it.

 

I got my tumbler finished tonight and just have to paint it tomorrow, will post picks when its all together.

 

I cut the drum down to 15" and the trim pieces inside down to a 1" height, looks a lot better, ripping them on the table saw was just as easy as cutting wood.

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Can somebody post a link of this tumbler set up. I'm behind the 8 ball and am very intrigued

 

 

 

 

Oops - didn't realise what was being built - sorry.

 

So what do you put in a wet tumbler

 

your questions should be answered in that link from Steve

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Got the tumbler finished today and its pretty smooth, little slow though so I'm going to put a smaller pulley on the shaft next time I go to Fazzios.

 

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Rubber feet

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One tip if anyone builds one, grind a little flat spot on your driven shaft for the set screw on the pulley to seat on.

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Got all my reloading equipment and bolted the press to the desk. I wasn't sure how solid it had to be so I took two steel plates, one on top and one underneath with the bolts going through all of it. Its really solid.

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The bulk of it...

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I knocked out about 450 primers from some .45, it was pretty fun.

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I went to the Oaks show today looking for some powder, some tumbling media pins and the hand primer. Nobody had any pistol powder except that guy in the corner ( I think its called H&H Reloading) and he only had IMR 700X.

 

I asked for all the powders that youz guys recommended in my "Whats the best .45 powder" thread and he said I would have better luck finding the Holy Grail...

 

I also didn't find the SS media pins so I got ten pounds of the Lyman green corn cob media. The same guy had it for twenty bucks so I figured I would try to use it in my tumbler dry and see if it works for now until I get the SS pins. I really didn't want to mess with dry tumbling because of all the health hazard that goes along with it but I have lots of 3M respirators with 2097 filters and if its really dusty when I open that bad boy up Ill throw on a tyvec suit. It would be kinda fun to freak out the neighbors too with all that stuff on messing with that big drum that looks like a freaking pipe bomb...

 

On a good note I did find the Lee Ergo hand primer... smiley face

 

 

That powder is kinda weird, its little round flat flakes. The Lee book says N/A for what dipper to use with it so IDK if the dipper set came with one small enough. I know I have a ton of reading to do before I can even attempt to make my first round.

 

At first when I got all this stuff and unboxed it I was a little intimidated but I read the general instructions that came with the press and feel a little better about it.

 

I glanced through the book and it seems to break it down pretty good so I think I should be all right. Everyone starts somewhere right...

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References for you. I believe you said you are reloading 45ACP.  IMR700X will work very well for this.  Burn rate is between Hodgdon Clays and Titegroup.  Care should be exercised with the charge as you do not have a lot of room to work with.

 

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi-data/instruct/Dippers.pdf

http://stevespages.com/page8a.htm

http://www.imrpowder.com/basic-manual-inquiry.html

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Thanks T Bill,

 

The dip set came with a pretty cool slide chart that has the info like the first link.

 

The Stevens link says for a 230gr bullet ;

700-X From 3.1 grains to 5.1 grains

CCI-300 Primer

 

 

 

and the IMR sight says;

 

230 GR. HDY FMJ FP  4.4-4.9

230 GR. LRN                4.5-5.0 

 

Witch one is right? I want to load 5 rounds of the lowest charge I can and go test them.

 

I have 230gr Total Metal Jacket bullets, what does HDY, FP and LRN stand for?

I'm also using Winchester primers.

 

Looks like as long as I don't exceed 5 grains ill be safe but I probably wont need to go that high anyway.

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You will never have the same reloading data from different sources.  Everybody's data is different based on brass, primer, bullet seat depth, and finally the gun tested in.  Then the data is "lawyered" up.  Never load less than the starting weight, hangfires may result.  Never load top end loads to start, dangerous results are possible.  45ACP generally is forgiving caliber as it has a low CUP pressure and the pressure curve is not that bad.

 

In 45ACP fast powders generally do not push heavy bullets well. IMR700X is a fast powder.  Makes great target loads.  This is why you start low and work your way up to your prime loading charge, looking for pressure signs. 

 

More reading is now required on your part.  Here to help.

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Hornady full metal jacket flat point

 

Lead round nose

 

Now since you didn't know those basic reloading terms I suggest you read up more on reloading before you start cranking put ammo.

I knew you were gona say that lol. I'm reading the book right now and its pretty good.

Thanks bud

 

You will never have the same reloading data from different sources.  Everybody's data is different based on brass, primer, bullet seat depth, and finally the gun tested in.  Then the data is "lawyered" up.  Never load less than the starting weight, hangfires may result.  Never load top end loads to start, dangerous results are possible.  45ACP generally is forgiving caliber as it has a low CUP pressure and the pressure curve is not that bad.

 

In 45ACP fast powders generally do not push heavy bullets well. IMR700X is a fast powder.  Makes great target loads.  This is why you start low and work your way up to your prime loading charge, looking for pressure signs. 

 

More reading is now required on your part.  Here to help.

Awesome, thanks for breaking it down for me.

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Taking a little break from reading, the Lee book is awesome, I like all the history thrown in there.

 

I had the brass in the tumbler for about 3 or 4 hours today with the Lyman green corn cob media and 4 used dryer sheets.

This is definitely my first and LAST time dry tumbling, I'm ordering the SS pins tomorrow!

The brass came out pretty clean but most of the flash holes had a piece of media stuck in them that I had to pluck out with a pick.

It was also a little dusty so I had to wipe it off and Qtip it out.

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I wiped down 50 cases and primed them, its pretty fun using the hand primer. After the first ten or so it broke in and was super smooth, I got the last 40 done in what seemed like three minuets.

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