10 G Hull conditioning

[William Davis]

Fair amount of effort cutting down 10 G hulls to 2 7/8. Cheddites hull mouth gets out of shape after a few loads. Insert SP 10 wad it wants to collapse . They work harden when fired too, more likely to splt. Federals and Remingtons to a lesser degree, still can be a issue. 16 G were you are limited to Cheddites, same problem.

I tried BP's hull conditioner, one size fits all gagues , tapered auminum with 1/4 shank, did not work well. taper only touched the edge, and the small shank soon broke off. Made up my own, simple, Lag screw with a wood plug. It works great, wood builds heat fast, plug is correct size to hold the hulls re-formed size. It’s easily made, screw the wood on spin in a drill press rasp and sand down to size testing the hull for fit as you go. One on the right in the picture is made that way.

Decieded to make a nice one on the lathe. Steel shank Aluminum plug # 2 in the photo , It works but Aluminum takes too long to build heat, wood is better. Then went to a Hybrid steel/wood. # 3 one without the wood , # 4 finished. I am getting 10 loads out of a Cheddite now. Added benifit the insert scrapes the hull inside cleaning out crud left behind. Never loose a huill when inserting the wad. I spin them in a lathe pushing the hull on by hand holding it for a few seconds then pulling off. I do 10 at a time turn around and load, then 10 more., doubt if it takes 2 minutes to condition 10 hulls.



http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...ictureid=11039

William

[Carl G. Bachhuber]

Very interesting. Way back when MEC sold a shell conditioner for the paper cases. It was a tapered aluminum mandrel with an internal heating element, gauge specific, and it worked great. Unfortunately it was way too hot for plastic (don't ask how I know this). With the cheap temperature controllers available today I have often wondered if I could find the 'right' temp for plastic? Unfortunately I gave all the old conditioners away.
C.G.B.

[William Davis]

You can overheat plastic hulls. When I first started using spinning mandrills turned them in a drill press hull clamped in a vise. Same rig I rolled crimped with. Clamped you don’t have any feel for heat, over heat the hull curls inward and ruined. Now I spin the mandrel horizontal in my lathe slower than the slowest drill press speed. Hand pushed on you can feel the heat and remove the hull when it gets warm leaving a fresh round mouth sized to suit.

Should say this additional loading step only useful with hulls that must be cut or are expensive. Several steps in cutting and skiving 10 G hulls and most times must be purchased, worth the effort to make them last.

William