Paper Patch question

[bobw]

Good luck Dave, another thing you can do to build consistantcy is to make sure your patches are uniformly wrapped from one bullet to the next. I suggest a patch board for this. bob

[Dave Roelle]

Well Foot-----i'm a step ahead of ya for once -----------milled the patch board out of a sheet of delrin i had at the shop, its good enough for now , i intend to add a patch "fence" to keep the patch lined up and a bullet stop to position the slug the same place each time.

Tried wrapping both wet and dry----had better control of things dry ----------others have stated that wet or dry didn't make any difference in accuracy ---------- i'll try this batch dry and the next batch wet and see what happens.

Thanks again Bob

Dave

[powderburner]

when you get the right length for the patch and are wrapping dry you can mark the nose of the bullet with a cone shaped punch so then you can put the patch on at the same height each time , .With practice it will become second nature and you can tell if a patch is long or short,just by look and feel.

[Dave Roelle]

Got it Dean-------practice is a big part of getting the patch started correctly for sure-------i will mark the mold--

When i do my part the patch fits perfect-----------i ground in a hardened cutting template, seems to work well cutting the patches

Need to train my big clumsey fingers now ------------or perhaps talk my bride into helping out hmmmmmmmmmmm need to study on that a bit

Thanks for the help---its truly appreciated

Dave

[Stephen Borud]

Dave you want to mark the bullet not the mold. I don't want to see a mold get hurt. I built a brass washer to mark my bullets to line the patch up. I turned the I.D. Of the brass so it was a tad smaller then the O.D. of the bullet. Take the brass marker and give it a twist and boom there is where you start your patch. It takes a little practice. Good luck

Stephen

[Dave Roelle]

Ok Stephan i understand-------its an easy way to create the witness mark------

If i have any luck with positioning the bullet on my patch board and also lining the patch up with a fence relative to the bullet i may not need the witness mark---------keeping things "squared up with each other" seems the trickiest part of the patching operation

Thanks for helping me understand

On another thought------

Did you dig up any material for your mold making ???------i have some fine grain cast iron bar if you would like to try it out-----happy to send you enough for a few molds

I have some blanks made and stress relieved and haven't had any time to work on them

Keep well and stay safe

Dave

[Stephen Borud]

I built an aluminum block that's over at my buddies machine shop awaiting them to CNC Mill the bullet out, and I wait. I've built a few cherries but never could get the cutting angles right to make a clean cut. I don't want to buy a cherry I would just like to get a CNC Mill and be done with it, but have other things to get first, my boys need milk I would like to try some of your material, that would be awesome. I would be more than happy to build you a marker or something else in trade if your interested? I don't use a paper patch board, don't have experience with that. I do dry patch all my bullets and use the aforementioned marker.

Thanks Stephen

[Dave Roelle]

Hey Stephen:

No need for a trade at all, be happy to send some material along to you----------this cast iron was for a job and is a drop with no use other than playing with molds and such.

As much as i like building my own stuff i can't get machine time on our CNC mills for "government work" right now---the shop has been growing at about 26% for the past two years with overtime the rule of the day.

I'll keep practicing patching--and continue with my patch board to see if i can get reliable control of rolling the patches on at the right place every time.

Let me know the address where you would like the material sent

Dave

[Stephen Borud]

Thanks Dave. I will PM my address

[Dave Roelle]

Got it Stephen-----------i'll get a package out to you this week.

Also i made the die to mark the patch position on the bullets-----works slick-thanks to you and Dean for the tip.

I also spent some time wrapping bullets yesterday evening---the "free hand" wrapping method works well !! seems i had better luck getting a perfect "seam match" that way last evening.

We'll see how the loads works come saturday on the sillywett range

Dave