Blank die bodies

Bavarianbrit

Well-Known Member
I know some of the US companies sell a basic threaded die with a small hole for users to make their own specials but shipping and customs etc would be a pita..
I needed to have a flat ended one for one of my ideas and found these that seem to be Volvo wheel bolts so must be OK steel, they arrived today black nitrided finish plus the thread is a nice wobble free tightish fit into the press.
 
I know some of the US companies sell a basic threaded die with a small hole for users to make their own specials but shipping and customs etc would be a pita..
I needed to have a flat ended one for one of my ideas and found these that seem to be Volvo wheel bolts so must be OK steel, they arrived today black nitrided finish plus the thread is a nice wobble free tightish fit into the press.
Wow! Out of the box thinking! Another possible "fix" are redundant .32 ACP or .32 S & W Long dies.
 
I know some of the US companies sell a basic threaded die with a small hole for users to make their own specials but shipping and customs etc would be a pita..
I needed to have a flat ended one for one of my ideas and found these that seem to be Volvo wheel bolts so must be OK steel, they arrived today black nitrided finish plus the thread is a nice wobble free tightish fit into the press.
Now all you got to do is not mess it up when you ream in the chambering😁.

Oh, did I mention that I once had a wheel come off my Volvo …?🤣
 
I need to drill and ream one out to 0.502 for my muzzleloader as bought .50 calibre casts are too small for my bore, they slide down.
 
I don’t want to appear to be stupid but what do you intend making with the wheel bolt ?
Will it be a bullet sizing die ?
 
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I know some of the US companies sell a basic threaded die with a small hole for users to make their own specials but shipping and customs etc would be a pita..
I needed to have a flat ended one for one of my ideas and found these that seem to be Volvo wheel bolts so must be OK steel, they arrived today black nitrided finish plus the thread is a nice wobble free tightish fit into the press.
What a good idea, that nice smooth shoulder just perfect for chucking up then turning down the rest of the head a little smaller. Turn it around, chuck up again on the shoulder and start boring it out. Hopefully the thread will be pretty concentric with it too.

I see it has about 17 threads, which I suppose might be a bit limiting for some applications. I'd expect the steel to be good for wheel bolts, selected for its tensile strength properties rather than hardness. So maybe not ideal for making e.g. a custom die for resizing brass, but fine for what you intend. Hopefully pretty easy to machine as well.

FWIW, here is a titbit about the type of steel used for such things:

The metric grades are set according to rules set by the ISO (International Standards Organization). There are four common metric grades: 5.8, 8.8, 10.9, and 12.9. Each grade has a specific bolt strength. The higher number means the higher the tensile strength of the bolt.

The minimum tensile strength of grade 12.9 wheel bolts is 1220MPa which is far exceeds the standard grade 10.9’s.


I need to drill and ream one out to 0.502 for my muzzleloader as bought .50 calibre casts are too small for my bore, they slide down.

All that said, wouldn't' it just be an awful lot easier to buy a Lee .501" bullet sizing die. If necessary it is easy enough to hone these larger, various techniques, either by hand or better in a lathe, using abrasive paper. E.g. I did just that to enlarge a 0.311 die to 0.313 for my 303 British cast lead bullets.

Bullet Sizing Kit .501 - Lee Precision
 
They were cheap so why not. I have 50x .500" hard cast lubed hunting bullets brought back from the USA and I have just taken a .550ish toolmakers internally ground tube square ended of course I placed it onto the vices anvil dropped a bullet down it then slipped a.450"ish hard ground bar I had laying around on top, two medium bumps with a ball pein hammer and the bullet up went to .5025" diameter & being slightly shorter now it fits snugly in my muzzleloaders bore. Necessity being the mother of invention and a it would be a shame to waste my engineering apprenticeship, I had some fun which is what muzzleloaders are for me. Michigan Detroit in the early 80s had a great club for paper punching where I went twice a week so kinda rekindling old memories for me.
 
Many years ago l had a similar problem, the problem being was that the cast lead bullets l was buying (.300 Rook) were too large in diameter only by a few thou so l purchased a second hand case length trimmer die in .243 and had it opened out to .297 and at the same time the engineer made a lifting punch (for want of a better word) on top of which l placed the oversized bullet and when passed through the die it shaved the whole circumference to .297.
It changed the accuracy of the rifle dramatically.

Not a muzzle loader I’m afraid !

18912476-B09B-460E-9FD8-6012AFB3C7D1.jpeg
 
I know some of the US companies sell a basic threaded die with a small hole for users to make their own specials but shipping and customs etc would be a pita..
I needed to have a flat ended one for one of my ideas and found these that seem to be Volvo wheel bolts so must be OK steel, they arrived today black nitrided finish plus the thread is a nice wobble free tightish fit into the press.

Din 10.9 so will be tough to machine, probably need carbide tooling, however like the creative thinking in using them
 
My neighbours son in law works for the best toolmaking company in Bavaria which is located near us and I gave him one of the Volvo bolts and asked him to make it into a reducer die going from .323" over a conical centre section down to a .318" diameter to be able to resize standard Mauser bullets down to the older diameter. I saw it today and it looks very good, just the .323" diameter needs another half thou taking off to let the bullet enter the die better. Onwards and upwards.
 
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