I am not an engineer or tool and die maker but am keen to explore the possibility of drawing my own cartridge cases.  If it is of any use, I may mention that I will be buying a Corbin hydrolic press (Hydro Press) to make bullets and it could be used as a power source to draw cartridge cases.  I will be grateful to hear of any suggestions on how to get started on an affordable basis.  I don't have a million dollars to spend on a transfer press, so I am looking at ideas where I can get dies made to punch out brass buttons which can then be drawn into cups and ultimately into cases.  I imagine that I will need a lathe or similar tool to make the external profiles on the head and shank in the vicinity of the head.

Has anyone tried something like this before?  If so, was it successful?  What were the teathing problems and how were they overcome?

I look forward to any suggestions that can breathe life into this project.

Yours in good shooting,

Rob

I`m no smarty pant but i don`t think one of cobins presses would have enough ump to make cases.  Could be wrong like I said am it a smartypants.  

My family has done a lot of deep draw work. Mainly thin material formed into cups, but occasionally thinning the walls a little. Nothing like a cartridge case, but ...

Regardless of the power of a swaging press, the thing that's going to bite you is that you have to get the material moving and keep it moving. Otherwise, it's going to stick in the die and tear apart. So you really need a press with a crank and flywheel so you can hit it and get the job done. Or a fast hydraulic system.

You'll need a series of dies, and punches, and guide rings to maintain concentricity. And a lot of tonnage to get the cup formed from the slug to begin with. Plus, you'll have to determine through trial and error when to anneal the cups so they don't crack, and when to stop so they'll get work hardened sufficiently in the final draws to have the strength they need.

Could be a fun project, and something I'd like to play with someday, but I seriously doubt it's possible with hand power in a garage.

"Principle and Practices of Loading Ammunition" by Earl Naramore (published in 1954) has about 2 1/2 pages on the process of drawing cases in a commercial setting.  Suffice it to say that the process is very involved and the amateur is better served by lathe turning cases rather than attempting to draw them as the dies and equipment needed would be prohibitively expensive.
Send me an email if you want me to copy the info from the book and send it to you.

I tried to open the above and just got a blank page and froze up my computor!!!!! OPEN AT YOUR OWN RISK

Hmmmm...That's odd.  I had a similar experiece to Jim's when I tried to open the URL.  Mayber it's the difference in operating systems, or version of NETSCAPE.  Terry

j_c_johnson wrote on Dec 18^th, 2008 at 6:25am:


There are a few secondhand copies of this book available, mostly in America and Canada. See:- 

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Prices run from US$ 42.00 to $100.00 depending on condition plus of course, postage. 

I've just bought the Swedish copy as an early birthday present to myself. lol.

Harry

An excellent more modern book that covers the subject in detail is "Ammunition Making" by George E. Frost.  Published by the NRA.  1st published in 1990, ISBN 0-935998-57-8

There's a used one listed on Amazon.com
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Wayne