How Cartridge Brass is Made
Precision shooters favor premium brass from Lapua, Norma, or RWS. (Lake City also makes quality brass in military calibers.) Premium brass delivers better accuracy, more consistent velocities, and longer life. Shooters understand the importance of good brass, but many of us have no idea how cartridge cases are actually made. Here’s how it’s done.
The process starts with a brass disk stamped from strips of metal. Then, through a series of stages, the brass is extruded or drawn into a cylindrical shape. In the extrusion process the brass is squeezed through a die under tremendous pressure. This is repeated two or three times typically. In the more traditional “draw” process, the case is progressively stretched longer, in 3 to 5 stages, using a series of high-pressure rams forcing the brass into a form die. While extrusion may be more common today, RWS, which makes some of the most uniform brass in the world, still uses the draw process: “It starts with cup drawing after the bands have been punched out. RWS cases are drawn in three ‘stages’ and after each draw they are annealed, pickled, rinsed and subjected to further quality improvement measures. This achieves specific hardening of the brass cases and increases their resistance to extraordinary stresses.”
After the cases are extruded or drawn to max length, the cases are trimmed and the neck/shoulder are formed. Then the extractor groove (on rimless cases) is formed or machined, and the primer pocket is created in the base. One way to form the primer pocket is to use a hardened steel plug called a “bunter”. In the photos below you see the stages for forming a 20mm cannon case (courtesy OldAmmo.com), along with bunters used for Lake City rifle brass. This illustrates the draw process (as opposed to extrusion). The process of draw-forming rifle brass is that same as for this 20mm shell, just on a smaller scale.
River Valley Ordnance explains: “When a case is being made, it is drawn to its final draw length, with the diameter being slightly smaller than needed. At this point in its life, the head of the draw is slightly rounded, and there are no provisions for a primer. So the final drawn cases are trimmed to length, then run into the head bunter. A punch, ground to the intended contours for the inside of the case, pushes the draw into a cylindrical die and holds it in place while another punch rams into the case from the other end, mashing the bottom flat. That secondary ram holds the headstamp bunter punch.
The headstamp bunter punch has a protrusion on the end to make the primer pocket, and has raised lettering around the face to form the headstamp writing. This is, of course, all a mirror image of the finished case head. Small cases, such as 5.56×45, can be headed with a single strike. Larger cases, like 7.62×51 and 50 BMG, need to be struck once to form a dent for the primer pocket, then a second strike to finish the pocket, flatten the head, and imprint the writing. This second strike works the brass to harden it so it will support the pressure of firing.”
Thanks to Guy Hildebrand, of the Cartridge Collectors’ Exchange, OldAmmo.com, for providing this 20mm Draw Set photo. Bunter photo from River Valley Ordnance, RVOW.com.
Today, many if not the majority of brass cartridges cases are made by an extrusion process. Essentialy, extrusion means that a solid brass slug (or a heavy brass cup) is extruded or squirted through a die under tremendous pressure which causes the brass to flow. Extrusion is used to form many everyday products from rain gutters to spaghetti and has made most other forming methods obsolete.
Most cases can be brought to their final dimensions by 2 or 3 succesive extrusion operations as compared with 5 or 6 “draws” as shown for the 20mm case shown. This results in an economy that manufacturers cannot overlook.
Extrusion of brass cartridge cases is not new. Some WW I 30-06 cases were made that way. In the 1960s a similar process called “Forged From Solid” was used by makers of custom ammunition and most of the low-pressure black powder cartridge cases of the last 20 years or so were also made using similar processes.
With todays high tech machining options, making a headstamp bunter is a simple job that only a few years ago took considerable skills by tool and die makers. Bunters of past years were valuable tools and cartridge manufacturers were not about to throw them away unless absolutely necessary. Many times a bunter was adapted for use in headstamping other cartridges by simply grinding away part of the lettering. For example, during WW II when billions of cartridge cases were required, a “43” (1943) bunter was reused in 1944 by simply grinding away the “3” leaving the single number “4” which indicated a 1944 case. Many other examples of altered bunter use are known.
Cool info. I want to see how the extrusion ones are made. Is the bottom formed out of the extrusion or is it attached somehow?
How do you buy the cartridge case making machine or equipment and components and how much do they cost?
Question:
Where can I send a RFQ to get proposals for tooling and machines to produce the Cartridge Case?
Is there a company web site I can go to to learn more?
Is the Retractor Groove Machined into the case or is it part of the draw operation
Is there a lot of Brass waste, is the case pinch trimmed?
I am interested in the 5.56 and 7.62, possibly the 50 Caliber too
Thank You
Larry
Larry,
If you have some questions, please feel free to call me. I might be able to help you and explain the expense involved.
Dan Powers
888-393-0694
Precision Ammunition, LLC.
Tampa, Florida
Where do I get more information regarding the machinery and the pricing thereof for cartridge case-making. If at all possible, I would appreciate the above information regarding both the “draw” process and the “extrusion” process.
Dan….the making of cartridge cases…the equt ect….what and how much?…..thanx
I was wondering about what brand of machinery makes brass cases?
Where can they be bought?
What are the calibers they can make?
What are the prices?
was wondering about what brand of machinery makes brass cases?
Where can they be bought?
What are the calibers they can make?
What are the prices?Where do I get more information regarding the machinery and the pricing thereof for cartridge case-making. If at all possible, I would appreciate the above information regarding both the “draw” process and the “extrusion” process
so who makes the equipment to build riffle brass
rifle brass presses?….where and how much?….any older outdated stuff around……?……any dvd instructional material out there?………..jo_retsof@yahoo.com……i need info!…please
I understand that machinery has been being produced for wholesale manufacturing of saleable product on the open market, but what types of laws are in congress that might allow a “seizure” of said equipment from a private residence, especially if its intended usage was the manufacturing of one caliber (.45 Long Colt) for the use of the owner in his own revolver (hunting) endeavors? Can, if this action be deemed worthy enough in pricing (per round) to do so by citizens, we be “raided” and enforcement be brought against us? Where might I go to find out how eligible I am to actually doing this myself for my own firearms?
First off I would be interested in knowing is this extrusion process somewhat of an injection mold the brass is being forced through? If so where would you find such molds? If not where would you find information on minimal scale extrusion equipment? Also with the capablity to melt brass what would be the likelyhood of being able to pour a cast of a brass casing for a specific round persay (cast would have to be made from a lathe) but pour the cast regardless and still meet the pressure requirements for the base cap and proper mixure of metals in the brass itself due to the melting process? I can melt for swagging purposes I am just trying to find out if I can extend my melting to possibly producing quality safe to fire brass for my rifles? Thanks to anyone who has any insight.
hey jason, if you have access to a lathe, you could make your own progressive forming dies and punches, and rig it either to a 5 tonne turret press, or if you dont have one/cant afford/not enough space, look around for some structural steel and a heavy duty vehicle jack, and weld up a pressing jig. which would also work, it’s a bit of a trial and error process, but my 9x19s are perfectly safe to fire, i dont want to try the necked cartridges because the neck forming can be a bit tricky.
as to your casting the brass idea, i personally wouldnt feel as safe firing cast brass rounds, because the brass in normal manufacturing processes undergoes quite a good deal of compression, which prevents the back from rupturing during firing and would definitely not be a safe choice to try reloading after firing.
btw make sure you anneal the brass properly between each draw, or the brass will tear.
a set of forming dies and punches are easily enough made in a lathe (i would recommend appropriate tool steel and hardening procedures) and parellel processing can be introduced for industrial scale production, with the gear being scaled accordingly, and multiple annealing beds of progressively lower temperatures for a more flowing production line so production isnt uneconomicly slow due to the time necessary to anneal the brass holding up the punching procedures.
thats how we do it underground anyway
So in essence it is way more expensive to have a custom case made than to try to find an already commercially made case that is already available and then trim it down to what you need. for say a .454 Casull Semi-auto pistol.
I would like some information about the making of
pistol brass cases. nice information here.
thanks
I wear who ever makes the first machine for home use that will make rifle and hand gun brass will be a very rich person, I would buy one and if i couldn’t afford one, me and some friends could, that would be great I hope some one reads this with the know how and the money to make it work
I am looking for information on how I can make .380 Auto casings. I am currently remachining 9mm Luger and
Marikov casings to match .380 case specifications. The remachining takes about 7 minutes per case and then I
have to change the head stamp. I want to see how long it takes to manufacture a new case vs remachining. I get
my parent casings by finding places where they practice and collect the spent casings left on the ground. My
raw material cost is currently nothing but I fear that it may increase as people save their casings instead of
discarding them as they are currently doing. I have checked with casing manufacturers on availability of casings and the projection is about February of 2010.I want to be a local supplier of handgun casings supplying the needs of the local market.
Can anyone tell me where to find prints to make brass cups?
To you guys interesed in making your own cases, I am in the process of making my own dies and press to make .380 acp cases. The brass needed is alloy 260 brass 3.2mm thick punched to 12mm discs then progressively drawn and trimmed to make .380acp brass. The extracter groove is cut on a lathe and the head and primer pocket is formed by a bunnter. Until you put a primer, powder, and bullet in the case it is a brass stamping and I know of no laws outlawing brass stampings.
Let me know how your .380 brass experiment turns out.
sjbiars ((at)) yahoo ((+)) com
I am a provider of used brass an sell thru my e-store. although I dont want to make brass cases. I would like to sell some. If any of you begin to make .380 brass, perhaps you would like to market them on my site. kensbrass.com
So how do they “neck down” the shell?
I understand the die for the outside.
Is there anything fits inside to keep the angled area consistent or to keep it from deforming away from the outside die?
Thanks
Just a few clarifications of how ammunition cases are made. First, almost all brass-cased ammo, if not all, is made by the drawing process. The only extrusion process I am aware of is for the aluminum cases made by the boys in Idaho, and that is a very special process. The cases are formed at very high speed so the metal does not have time to work harden. Special presses and special knowledge are required.
As to brass case making equipment, it is readily available. Most of the major manufacturers in the USA us surplus ordnance factory equipment from WWII. This machinery was very heavily built and lasts forever. Even the US Army plant LCAAP still uses a lot of this equipment, though they have spent a great deal of money in the past 10 years on new machinery and new processes.
If you want to go into the case making business, let me know. We have quite a bit of machinery available, and we are constantly getting more in. The basis process is start from a purchases cup, draw it to length through two to four draws, trim is, head it once or twice, turn the head and extractor groove, anneal the body, taper for rifle cases, and final trim. Depending on what caliber you are making, the process is either simpler of much more complicated.
It’s not cheap to get into this business, and we are at the peak of the market now. If you start making cases now, you could be bankrupt in a year if the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down. There will be a lot of surplus capacity on the market when that happens. That said, if you have the money, we will sell you the equipment and the know how.
Jester,
The necking operation on cases is done with an external forming die, not unlike a resizing die. It generally takes two to three progressive steps, with the incoming parts prelubricated and dried. Before the necking operation, the cases body has to be annealed and pickled (washing in dilute acid to clean the anneal carbon and to etch the surface), then washed in a lubricant and dried.
There is no internal profile mandrel for the shoulder and neck angle, but there is a sizing mandrel which is pulled out through the mouth of the case after necking to make sure the ID of the case mouth is correct. Some processes pull the sizing mandrel out of the case mouth while the case is still in the necking die, as this gives a much more precise ID and OD of the case mouth, but the amount of metal working required results in very low tool life and further work hardening of the case mouth.
In any case, the case goes through “neck and mouth” annealing after the tapering operation to relieve the stress built up from the necking operation, to soften the neck so it can “obdurate” or seal the chamber against blow back, and to soften the mouth so when it is crimped to the bullet, stress cracks do not develop.
In the US military production, the neck and mouth anneal “corona” or annealing mark must be left as proof that the anneal was performed. For commercial brass and most other countries’ military brass, this proof is not required, so the brass is pickled after the necking operation. That is the main reason US military brass is normally not as pretty as everyone elses, but it is generally much better structurally.
Rod,
Could you please inform me how to contact you? An e-mail or phone?
Write me to rdll500 at yahoo dot com
Regards.
You can contact me directly at rodneystaylor@gmail.com. Send me an e-mail and I will reply with my phone, etc.
Just a little more on how cartridge cases are manufactured. Worldwide, there are two similar but distinctive processes used to make most of the small caliber brass cased ammo. I am leaving out the aluminum case manufacturing as that is a unique process developed and used by only one major company, and it wouldn’t be fair to them to tell the little that I do know about the process.
What I refer to as the US process starts from coiled 70%cu/30%zn brass (cartridge brass) that is annealed, then fed into a double acting press where a round blank is cut, then a cupping punch pushes the blank into and through a forming die. The formed cup pops out the other side, where it is collected, washed, annealed, pickled, lubricated, and dried.
Cups are generally formed in multiple tooled die sets, with each stroke making five or more cups. The more cups made per stroke, the less percentage of scrap generated and the higher the production rate.
The cups are fed into the initial draw press, where a punch pushes them through a die stack, typically three dies high. The dies are normally lubricated with a constant flow, and it is common to put spacers between the dies with channels to allow the lube to flow to all of the dies during the forming. At the bottom of the die stack is a stripper made up of steel jaws and a spring to hold it together. The stripper generally mates into a conical stripper ring to add a bit of closing force as the drawn case component is pulled from the punch.
Additional draws are performed as required to reach the final o.d. and length, and in some cases, an interdraw anneal is performed to relieve the stress built up by the cold working in the draws. Generally, the components are washed before anneal to prevent the lubricant being baked onto the surface, and after the anneal, the components are pickled in a mild acid bath, then washed and dried. The acid bath can remove the carbon that would be on the component if it had not been washed prior to the anneal, but the pickling bath gets dirty quick as a result, and a carbon residue will often be left in and on the cup. Draws do not like dirty cups!
The pickling wash is a very critical step in the process. After the annealing, the grain size of the brass has grown, and the pickling etches out between the fully formed grains, leaving a microscopically rough surface. This rough surface helps to carry the drawing lubricant through the draws, reducing the surface friction between the brass and the draw dies.
On the subject of draw tooling, most high production operations use carbide dies for the forming operations. Punches are mostly steel, though you will find some unique metals being used in the heading operation, especially for the stem, or internal mandrel. When using steel, brass tends to load up on the surface during cold working, even with a flood of lubricant. The loading of brass onto the working surface of punches and steel dies will cause case scratching, high draw loads, and host of other undesirable problems. The loading can be reduced or eliminated by flash chroming the draw punches. Dies are not typically chrome plated as they are frequently polished or otherwise reworked (it is common practice to take the third die in a die stack, once it has worn our or become scratched, and rework it to the dimensions of the second die in the stack, and so on. This reduces the tooling costs and inventory required to support a production operation).
In modern production, such as for 5.56mm cases, the interdraw anneal has been eliminated. For 7.62mm, an interdraw anneal is still in general use.
After the final draw, the component is trimmed to length. Historically the trim is made on dedicated lathes, using either a pointed tool or a rolling cutter wheel. The use of pinch trimming has become much more common in the process as it can be combined into a drawing operation, eliminating a machine and a process step.
Following final draw and trim, the component is washed and dried. Some processes apply a light lubricant prior to heading, or the component is not washed after draw and the draw lube dries on the case. Generally, the drawn part needs to be dry when it goes into heading as moisture on the heading bunter can cause distortion in the primer pocket during the heading operation.
Heading is generally performed on a horizontal toggle press, and most heading presses head one part per stroke. In the past, heads were formed in two steps, with a first step partially forming the primer pocket and also flattening the base of the draw component. This step is called by many names including bunting, pocketing, flattening, pre-pocket, etc. The second step forms the finished primer pocket and stamps on the headstamp, which can indicate the manufacturer, plant, year, and a host of other info. The US 5.56mm ammo from LCAAP made on the high speed equipment for years displayed a series of dots that were binary code for the station number the case was made on.
This second step is called heading, pocketing, bunting, etc., so it is not always clear what is being discussed unless you clarify the terms. The heading bunters can be made as one piece or two pieces where the pocket punch and the headstamp section can be separated. The headstamp can be formed on the bunter face by engraving (not easy or pretty), EDM (easy and pretty), or by a process called hobbing where a hobbing punch is used to form the bunter using a hydraulic press. Hobbing has the advantage of workhardening the bunter during the forming process, but EDM’s advantages have pretty much displaced hobbing.
The typical US heading operation forms a flange on around the head of the case as a result of the metal flow during the heading. Metal flow is critical to the internal hardening of the head of the case, and without proper flow, the primers have a tendency to fall out with regularity when fired. If you section a case head after heading, polish the surface, and etch it with acid, you can see the flow lines of the metal grains resulting from the heading. If the closed bottom of the drawn component is not fairly flat internally, the heading bunter can displace a plug of metal from the bottom before impacting the internal heading stem or mandrel, and little or no cold work of the head material will occur, and the head’s internal hardness will be too low to hold the primer or prevent other distortions during firing. To prevent this from occurring, the cupping tooling can be changed to reduce the crowning of the cup, or a flattening step can be used prior to final heading.
Internally the case is supported during heading using a mandrel or stem that has a profile that matches the internal profile of the post headed case. The stems can be of hardened steel or other dense, non-ductile metal. Ferrotic has been used with some success for these parts.
After heading is complete, the case is headturned on a dedicated lathe using a formed cutting tool that replicates the finished head form, including the chamber on the case head rim, the head diameter, the extractor groove, and the angle leading up to the case body. The cutting tools can be profiles ground into straight tool steel or profiles ground into round washers of tool steel. The round style cutters have the advantage of being easily resharpened, and they can be resharpened numerous times.
Following head turn, the cases are washed, body annealed, pickled, lubricated, and dried. The tapering of the case and the forming of the shoulder and neck can be done on horizontal taper presses, which are not common in large manufacturing operations, or on vertical presses with indexing table. The indexing table allows for multiple tapering steps on one press, and can include high speed milling spindles to trim the cases to final length before they are ejected from the press.
Following the tapering operation, the cases are washed, then neck and mouth annealed. For US military cases, the anneal corona is left in place as proof.
The flash hole in the primer pocket is typically pierced using a punch and mandrel die. In military operations and high volume commercial production, this is done at the primer inserting machine, but for case only manufacturers or for component sales, the cases can be pierced on dedicated punch presses. Failure to pierce a case is a critical defect in military ammunition, so redundant inspections are performed to assure that the flash hole is present.
To be continued…
The prior piece on US manufacturing process did not address the 5.56mm manufacturing at LCAAP. Back during the early 1970’s, a program called SCAMP (small caliber ammunition modernization program) was finally put into production. The basis model for case, bullet, priming, and loading was 24 station rotary turrets turning at 50 rpm for theoretical outputs of 1200 parts per minute. LCAAP has multiples lines for each component.
In order to reduce both capital cost and complexity, the SCAMP case making systems had some shortcuts in the process. Only two draws are used, with no interdraw anneal, and the final draw includes a pinch trim for the drawn part. The components are carried through the system in silicon bronze clips mounted on RC60 chain, and each process step (1st draw, 2nd draw, heading, headturn, piercing, 1st taper, 2nd taper, and final trim) are 24 station presses. A cup entering first draw at Station 1 will exit final trim from Station 1, and station identity is maintained through all the process steps including the washes and anneals.
Following the headturning and piercing, the cases are washed, annealed, and lubricated before going through tapering and final trimming. After final trim, the cases are washed, then neck and mouth annealed. A high speed gaging system is used to gage all critical dimensions and some surface flaws before the cases are ejected from the manufacturing system.
The truncated 5.56mm process operates very close to the theoretical limits of cold drawing from brass, and it took some time to fine tune the process to ensure that the cases produced were acceptable. That said, there is no competing system in the world that can produce 5.56mm at the rate produced at LCAAP.
As mentioned at the start, the other process commonly found is what I call the European Process. Manufacturing plants around the world use either the US Process or the European Process, depending on the sphere of influence under which that country falls. Reflecting the rather fluid states of influence, it is not uncommon to find both processes in use making different calibers of ammunition reflecting the real politic of the era the lines were installed.
I was raised on the US Process, and I have spent most of my life working with systems based on this process, but I honestly feel the the European Process is the better of the two. It flows more logically and is metallurgically more sound. Both processes make good or bad parts, but I have found the Eurpoean approach to be much more forgiving.
As in the US approach, most of the European Process is based on blanked and drawn cups as the input material. Through this step, the process is the same as the US Process.
That said, there are several systems in use around the world that cut and form cups from wire, using a multiple die, multiple blow header to form a cup, rather than forming the cup from coiled strip.
The big advantage of using brass wire as the input material is the lower cost of manufacture of the wire versus the strip, and the much lower scrap percentage of wire based cups versus strip bases cups. In the end, though, the main concern is producibility, and I have been in several plants in various parts of the world that had the machinery to make cups from wire, but they could not buy wire of sufficient quality to make ammunition. As a result, there are several heading machines to produce cups from wire sitting idle in plants from South America to the Middle East.
The case making process starts with cups, either blanked & cupped, or headed, which had been annealed and pickled, and passes them through a series of draws. The early European processes tended to dedicate one machine to one step, which resulted in a lot more machines and a lot slower production rate. Over the past thirty years or so, the Euro process has been refined and speeded up, so today, they are the best source of new machinery in the world.
Current technology would see the case cup enter a press where the draws and pinch trim were performed, the cases removed, cleaned, annealed, pickled, and dried, then re-fed into the same press but in later stations, where they would be headed, tapered, and pierced. For higher output rates, the process would be split, with the drawing and pinch trimming performed on a duplex tooled press so that two parts were made per stroke on that press, and then the annealed parts would be fed into a heading, tapering, and piercing press that made two parts per stroke. The “standard” stroke rate for new presses is 120 strokes per minute, so you could either make 120 or 240 ppm, depending on which approach was taken.
Note that by annealing the parts after the final draw and before the heading and tapering, a process step has been removed. Body anneal is not required, as the whole drawn case was annealed before the heading. The heading can now cold work the case head without effecting the anneal of the body of the case which will be subsequently tapered.
After exiting the press following the heading, piercing, and tapering, the parts are washed and dried, then fed into a combination headturning and trimming to length machine. This is the pivot point where the Euro and the US processes diverge. In the US process, the headturning is performed before the body anneal, while the Euro process waits until after the body anneal and taper to do the headturning. The US process uses the headturned extractor groove to hold the case during the tapering operation, while the Euro process does not rely upon this.
In addition, the US process uses an “open die” for the heading operations, which results in a flange being formed during the heading. Typically, the flange is a 45 degree angle out from the body of the case, allowing room for the metal to flow so that the cold working will harden the internal areas of the head surrounding the primer pocket.
The Euro process has depended much more on a two blow heading process, so they typically use a “closed die” for the heading operations. Very little or no flange is formed during the heading operations, but rather they depend on a back and forth style of material flow, where the pre-pocket forms some of the primer pocket but also pushes the face of the head up. The following final pocket forms the finished primer pocket and the headstamp.
The origins of the difference in the processes probably relates to the use of “Boxer” style primers in US type ammo, and “Berdan” type primers in Euro ammo. That the Berdan in Berdan primers was a New York native and Boxer was an Englishman only adds to the confusion.
Most Euro processed ammo has the flash hole drilled, rather than pierced. This originally was due to the very small diameter of the Berdan type flash holes, which could not be reliably pierced due to the ratio of the hole diameter to web thickness. Skinny punch, thick metal, not good. Only the later machinery, tooled to produce the Boxer type primer pockets, can use the piercing method described above.
Now, the Euro cases are exiting the tapering operation without a headturn and without a final trim. The next step, following a wash operation, is the headturning and trimming, which is performed in a dedicated lathe. As the component is now tapered, it can be pushed into a fixed conical collet, and turned. Cutters for the headturn approach straight in to form the extractor groove and head form, while a single point cutter is introduced at the mouth end to trim the case to length. Many of the mouth trim cutters operate on two axes, so they can cut the case to length, then chamfer the inside of the case mouth to make inserting the bullet easier.
Following the headturn and trim, the cases are washed and a mouth and neck anneal is performed. Euro process cases are often washed after these steps, but it is not uncommon to see NATO homologated countries leave the anneal corona in place like the US military ammo.
All of the above commentary has been related primarily to the manufacture of rimless, necked rifle cases, with an emphasis on the military types, and all relating to brass. I have no experience, but I have been told the steel case manufacturing process is very similar, but a bit more strenuous. Additionally, steel cases must be either treated after manufacture, using lacquer, phosphate coating, copper washing, or some other sealant, or the case cups must be made from “clad steel”. Clad steel is steel that has a brass layer plated to both sides prior to the cupping operation. The cladding operation can be anything from explosively clad brass to electrochemical plating. The brass cladding acts both as a seal to prevent moisture reaching the steel, and as a sacrificial element to minimize corrosion.
Pistol case manufacturing is generally much simpler, but of similar process. Making rimmed cases of any type (.38 Special for example) is a bit more difficult as the case head must be formed out much further than a rimless type head, but it is easily done on available surplus machinery.
If you have any comments, corrections, or questions, let me know.
How they manufacture those spiral wrapped cartridge case?
Thank you very much.
Spiral wrapped cartridge cases, also called SWCC, are made from either 3 or 4 prefabricated components and then assembled in a single press operation. The assembly process is company confidential so I can disclose. The process is very fast and economical with respect to only requiring one press operation and no thermal heat treating operation. I have worked 25 years for the manufacturing company that produces these items still today.
I want to buy the mini cartridge case brass machine and know how already.
someone present to me with the price
Thank you very much.
Dear Rod Taylor,
We are making two draw case cups i.e. 5.56, 9 mm & 7.62 etc. in 70/30 & 90/10 brass alloy.
Can you guide me about profile designing of the die. Most of the time with our dies (= die profiles) we faces the loppiness problem.
regards
Jay zarekar.
Hello Sir:
Where do I get the Machinery to make Brass Cases, and How much will it cost me?
Rod, you are freaking awesome. I’ve learned more about this topic from your posts than the past 4 hours of rubbish I’ve read on the interwebs. Hats off to you, sir!
Rod
Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge
What kind of lubricant is used as drawing lubricant.
Just want to say thank you for sharing your knowledge so comprehensively. Looking at the numbers of casings produced one would assume a “not so complicated” process, but when fully explained it commands respect for those who do this as an industry and, there is true art as much as science to be able to consistently produce mass quantity.
why don’t some one make 218 bee brass, from what I read about people trying to find the stuff, you could sale a ship load
Good day,
I need information regarding manufacturing, machines needed, availability & pricing to produce 9mm brass. Quantities 1-2Million per month. Can you assist please. i am in South Africa. Thank you.