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General Black Powder => Percussion Caps and Primers => Topic started by: mike116 on April 07, 2024, 08:18:46 PM
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All credit goes to CC member Rick Foster (DragoonRick). I took his idea and research and made my own version of a DIY percussion cap maker.
I made mine from brass in the same manner as Rick but adapted it to a reloading press hoping to produce caps with more speed and less effort. I think I had a small degree of success.
It's all pretty much explained by the pictures and captions.
I made two sizes of star mandrills, one for 1/2 inch disk and one for 7/16 disk and a punch that mounts in a spare crimping die I removed the crimper from. The punch is mounted to the press with a Lock-n-Load adapter.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53639223479_f156d6b075_c.jpg) (https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53638000692_068555b097_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53638887846_575a3057e4_c.jpg)
I cut off a 45-70 case and soldered the bottom to the star mandrills so it fits in a #8 shell holder.(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53638000747_2587e46f0f_c.jpg)
Punch out disks from aluminum cans or I prefer the new style aluminum beer bottles, they are made from heavier aluminum. I annealed the aluminum before punching out the disks. It is necessary to anneal whatever aluminum stock you use.
Set a disk in place..
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53638887816_41daf4eced_c.jpg)
Pull the press handle. The cap drops out the depriming hole in the press ram.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53639102233_f9762cd233_c.jpg)
I made two sizes when I discovered that the bigger 1/2 inch disk made the cap skirt too long to fit on some nipples on smaller guns like the .36 cal Pocket revolvers.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53639341665_6a85ec8c2d_c.jpg)
I tested both sizes and had moderate success, 60% with 2 German made roll caps in each cup. Then tried 3 caps in each one with no improvement. I'm going to order some of the "Prime-All" compound from 22 ReLoader and see how that works. I'm not willing to crush match heads and glue stuff in place just to make a few caps.
All in All I'm not sure this DIY cap making is worth it. I'm embarrassed that I spent the amount of time and effort I have spent on this. I will never ever make a cap as long as I can buy them. It's too tedious and boring for me so I am now more willing to pay higher prices for the caps I need.
I can now rest assured that I can make my own caps if needed but I'm praying that it never comes to that. Tomorrow I'll be ordering some RWS caps. Powder Valley still has some in stock.
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Want to add.... My hat is off to anyone who is willing to fiddle with making caps and paper cartridges and the like. I have tried it all and would rather show up at the range with a powder flask, projectiles and ready made caps.
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I'd make them out of plastic ring caps before I'd go to the trouble of punching out aluminum ones.
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I'd make them out of plastic ring caps before I'd go to the trouble of punching out aluminum ones.
I attempted to get the ring caps to work a year or so ago. They just didn't set off the powder charge. 1 or two out of ten is all that worked for me.
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I was getting 3-4 out of 6 with Pyrodex. I feel like I could have improved it but I got tired of fooling with them.
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WOW!! Mike, that is an impressive little setup that you made there. It looks like a ready made kit that one could sell/buy if they were so inclined. Great craftsmanship and ingenuity! It does sound tedious and boring, I have to agree with you. Let's hope and pray for better days ahead.
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Hawg, that's exactly my problem. I'm tired of screwing with them. Same thing happened to me with paper cartridges.
Zulch, I have lots of things to work with. Tools and materials are readily available so it makes it easy for me to try things like this. DragoonRick figured it out, I just made a similar set up.
By the way.... I just ordered 500 RWS 1075 caps from Powder Valley.
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Hawg, that's exactly my problem. I'm tired of screwing with them. Same thing happened to me with paper cartridges.
Yeah, me too. I sold my 63 Sharps because I wasn't using it because I got tired of making cartridges for it and they were easy to make.
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I had a similar go with experimenting about a year ago, after Rick's thread. Shortly thereafter I bought 1000 caps from Cabelas.
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I had a similar go with experimenting about a year ago, after Rick's thread. Shortly thereafter I bought 1000 caps from Cabelas.
I've got about that many.
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For years I have bought one tin of caps whenever I saw them for sale. I stopped when I had 40 packages (4000). I realized I was down to 30 a couple weeks ago. That's when I decided I had to learn to make my own.
I may have panicked a little early.
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I went through a simular deal with the Mag Spark system.
Purchased them and got my Lyman rifle set up to eccept them.
Never even fired a shot with them.
It's just something to fall back on if I ever find the day when I can't find caps.
AntiqueSledMan.
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Mike, that’s really impressive very well done. It does take a while.😊😊😊😊👌👌👌
Inspires me to look at a brass “star”.
Thanks
I d really like these threads to pull more folks into the forum.
Rick
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I’m going to continue to make em. Even if they show up in stores. I guess I’m a contrarian
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I’m going to continue to make em. Even if they show up in stores. I guess I’m a contrarian
I am now prepared for the worst. I have lots of powder, I have what is necessary to make powder, and now I could make caps if I need to.
I have no plans to make either one, but my back up is in place.
I received 500 RWS 1075 caps on Wednesday from Powder Valley Inc. Very Fast shipping by the way.
Thanks again to Rick for doing the hard work. I would not have bothered if not for his thread. I too hope this could bring more interest to this forum.