.he CHAPTER 20 CORBIN HANDBOOK AND CATALOG NO. 7, PAGE #

                            TAKING CARE OF YOUR DIES

           A  good quality bullet swage die should last a lifetime in normal 
     operation.   With  the right lubricant and normal  pressures,  wear  is 
     virtually non-existent.  Here are some tips for avoiding damage:

          (1)   Use only CLEAN components.   Never use dusty,  corroded,  or 
     dirty lead or jackets in the dies.   Keep a clean work area.   Wipe the 
     inside of the dies with a clean cotton swab prior to use.   Never put a 
     die away with a component inside it,  especially one that has been used 
     with Core Bond.  If you tumble or vibrator polish your components prior 
     to swaging,  make absolutely sure that no abrasive compounds have  been 
     added  to the polishing medium.    Abrasive additives will embed in the 
     jacket  and  core material,  and will act just like laps  to  wear  the 
     surface of the die when you swage the bullet.

          (2)   If you should stick a bullet in a die,  never try to  drill, 
     dig,  scrape, or pry out the bullet.   Certainly never  heat the die to 
     melt out the stuck bullet,  as this will ruin the precise temper of the 
     metal.   Instead,  use  the methods outlined in the  book,  "Rediscover 
     Swaging".   No  tools  are required,  and the methods work 100% of  the 
     time.   A detailed description is also given in the "World Directory of 
     Custom Bullet Makers", on removal of stubborn stuck bullets.

          (3)   Do not attempt to "improve" the dies or punches  unless  you 
     are  willing to accept responsibility for the warranty yourself.   If a 
     punch  or die does not seem to be the right size,  send it back with  a 
     note and samples of your components.  If you decide to go after it with 
     a file,  you've probably spoiled it for anyone else to use,  so sending 
     it back then doesn't help anyone.    By now,  any basic design problems 
     have been solved a thousand times over,  and any problems would  either 
     be  misuse,  a  defective  part or the wrong part  sent  by  error,  or 
     mismatch of components to the dies.  These can all be solved by a phone 
     call or, at most, an exchange or replacement.  

          (4)  Use the right lubricant.  Most problems with stuck bullets or 
     hard operation can be traced to lubricant (or lack of it).

          (5)  Never force any component into a swage die,  if the component 
     is  larger than the bore of the die.   This is a major bad thing to do.  
     You can destroy the die, the punches, or both.  If a part won't go into 
     a  swage die by hand,  then do not force it  under  pressure.   Swaging 
     always increases the diameter,  never reduces it.  To "swage down" is a 
     contradiction.  You can "draw down" with an open-end ring die.

          (6)   Use jackets and core lengths recommended for a given set  of 
     dies.   If  you  want to experiment,  bear in mind that you will  quite 
     likely reach some limits for any given shape and size of die.  Each set 
     has  a wide range of latitude in bullet weight,  but you cannot  always 
     make  both the weight and the style you want in the jacket you  select.  
     Sometimes,  you have to trade off one parameter against another to make 
     the  system work with the available supplies.   Part of  the  practical 
     side  of  bullet  making  is recognizing that  some  of  the  arbitrary 
     specifictions  can  be  moved  one  way or  the  other  without  really 
     affecting  the  bullet performance.   If you are practical  about  your 
     bullet design, you will have no trouble coming up with designs that are 
     easy to make in existing equipment.  

          (7)   Swaging pressures are high because of the small area of  the 
     typical  punch,  through which all the force of the ram is  channelled.  
     It is NOT necessary to use all your might to operate the press.  If any 
     operation  seems  to  be  taking  more  than  a  comfortable,  one-hand 
     pressure,  then it is likely something is wrong and you should find out 
     what it is.   I have seen .243 caliber punches shoved into a .224  die, 
     drawing  down the solid tool steel of the punch and wrecking  it.   But 
     the  operator kept on making bullets with his newly-formed .224  punch, 
     only returning it when he finally realized that the operation took more 
     force  than  it should.   I have gotten back point forming dies with  a 
     piece  of  solid brass or copper pushed into them,  which  started  out 
     being  7/16-inch  diameter  (.4375").    The  die  bore  was  .429-inch 
     diameter.    You can't do that.    Use a draw die first,  to bring  the 
     material down to less the bore size.

          (8)   There  may  be some initial confusion over the  punches  and 
     dies.    It  looks  like  confusion could reign  supreme  whenever  you 
     accidently mix up a set of dies with another one.   But  actually,  the 
     components will serve as quick gauges to sort everything fast.  All you 
     have to do is slip a punch into the die to see if it fits.  To discover 
     which caliber of die you have,  just slip a jacket into it.  If it fits 
     easily but closely into the core seater, then you have the right die.
          Core  swages  have punches that fit closely into the die  on  both 
     ends.   Core  seaters have an internal punch that fits the die bore and 
     an external punch that fits either the die bore (semi-wadcutter styles) 
     or the jacket inside diameter.   A micrometer is handy for checking out 
     the  dies.   If  you  have a set of 9mm and a  set  of  .38  dies,  for 
     instance, there is only about 0.003-inches difference, at most, between 
     their bores.   You cannot see that small a difference.  So, make a lead 
     core  using whatever external punch fits easily into the die.   Measure 
     the lead core.  That's your caliber.  

          (9)   If you should ever find yourself getting frustrated  over  a 
     seemingly  difficult  problem  in  swaging,  don't  keep  fighting  the 
     problem:   give  me a call.   With thousands of people around the world 
     now  making their own bullets,  and with a history of better  than  two 
     decades  of  operation of the equipment,  it is unlikely that you  have 
     equipment that won't work or that the process is too difficult for you.
          The  odds  are that (1) I didn't write  the  instructions  clearly 
     enough  and a little discussion on the phone or in a letter would  make 
     some  point clear to you that solves everything,  or...  (2) Someone in 
     the shipping department picked up the wrong die or punch when they were 
     testing and packaging,  and you got it,  or... (3) You are trying to do 
     something  that  seems  reasonable to you,  but  which  a  little  more 
     experience  with  the  principles of swaging would quickly show  to  be 
     impractical or impossible.  
          In  any  case,  remember that help is a  phone  call  away.   Most 
     problems  resolve themselves with great ease when the die-maker gets in 
     on the case.   Sometimes a die or samples may have to be exchanged, and 
     in  difficult  cases  where  you are  trying  to  make  something  with 
     components other than those we used to design the set,  it may take two 
     or three exchanges to solve the problem.  But rest assured, you are not 
     alone to solve everything yourself.   I have had a taste of that in the 
     computer industry, where you can spend tens of thousands of dollars and 
     get a shrug when nothing seems to work right, the warranties all expire 
     before you even figure out that the system isn't working right, and you 
     wind  up with no choice but paying more for something you  should  have 
     gotten  in the first place.   Corbin is noted for outstanding  support, 
     and that is the way it should be.

