Neck turning "platform" ....

wquiles

Well-Known Member
While shooting my JES .358Win custom mauser, I noticed how sometimes it is very hard is to close the bolt a live round, so by using a permanent marker I was able to identify that the neck area was the tight area, and that it was not uniform.

I got the Hornady neck turning tool, but hated the whole "manual" thing with the drill,etc.. I wanted something more stable and solid, so I made a platform for it. I bought these really cheap linear rails on ebay for about $25-30:
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I started by cutting leftover steel (basically steel I already had):
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Until I had enough pieces to create a mockup:
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wquiles

Well-Known Member
I started welding ...
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Make sure I can support other similar drill-powered tools in the future:
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Here is the welded unit. Yes. Overbuilt. I know. But it was cheap and easy to make:
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Drill and screw the Hornady Tool and the linear guides:
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Then add the platform for the drill:
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Ian

Notorious member
Man you're industrious. I still use the Forster lathe with the screw feed.

Don't get Rick going in trimmers or he'll bust out the photos of his one-off custom case lathe.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Ah it's just a Forster with a bit of modifying. Like 5 output shafts, chain & sprocket drive, two motors. Does everything to brass that you don't need a press for. Let the chips fly. :)
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Yeah it is, after 25 plus years the main motor decided it had seen enough brass.
 

wquiles

Well-Known Member
Ahh, I forgot to share a picture of the rejects. You can clearly see the necks in these were uneven, in some cases by a lot:
Screen Shot 2020-03-13 at 10.23.58 AM.png
 

popper

Well-Known Member
Do the same with factory BO (or any cal) and you see the same. Fire those and turn again - they aren't 'rejects'. You will be surprized by the 'end product' and performance. Thickness will effect neck tension but no other real effect when firing.
 

Rick H

Well-Known Member
I have a Sinclair neck turning tool. Hand operated and am quite satisfied...actually turned over 3000 223Rem cases putting in a "lifetime supply" of fully prepped cases for my 4 .223/5.56mm rifles. All once fired Federal Match (the price was right....free). I never tried to clean up all around the neck...only taking the high (thick) side. Usually 1/2 to1/3 of the neck was untouched. Improved concentricity a lot.

Did it make an appreciable difference? Not much, eliminated a few flyers. I also turn all of my 7x30 Waters cases (all formed from 30-30) and my 7mm Rem Mag and 6mm Rem.

I guess I just don't understand the need to motorize the project, it takes almost as much time handling the cases as doing the actual turning of them.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Thickness will effect neck tension but no other real effect when firing.

Neck tension sure but also with the brass thicker on one side it will hold the loaded round off center by an equal amount, meaning the center line of the bullet is held off center the center line of the bore.
 

popper

Well-Known Member
Agree Rick but for most rifles no difference to see on target. Converted brass has case wall thickness variation, true necks not so bad, couple thous. at most. As new brass quality goes down, may cause some improvement. Was telling Will that his 'rejects' will work fine.
 

wquiles

Well-Known Member
Do the same with factory BO (or any cal) and you see the same. Fire those and turn again - they aren't 'rejects'. You will be surprized by the 'end product' and performance. Thickness will effect neck tension but no other real effect when firing.
Thanks. I can take like 10x of them and compare them with the other ones "without" defects and see how they compare at 100yards. Should be fun :)


I guess I just don't understand the need to motorize the project, it takes almost as much time handling the cases as doing the actual turning of them.
I tried it "by hand" and I simply didn't like the manual part. This feels better to me. Just personal preferences :)
 

Ian

Notorious member
Just personal preferences :)

Yep.

I have the means and motive to do similar but decided long ago it's just more trouble than it's worth. Mowing through a thousand cases is a lot of work but taken 100 at a time isn't so bad. Monotonous tasks can be relaxing to me, and that makes case prep and bullet casting pretty much the definition of "hobby" to me. I like the depth feed control of the Forster tool much more than the handhelds or Hornady arrangement. Case necks turned on tje Forster look like they were turned on a lathe with the leadscrew under power.

I also agree with Rick H and Popper, shoot them all and re-turn what you think are duds, most likely they won't be.
 

wquiles

Well-Known Member
Today I got some simple wood spacers to mount the other tool mounted as well:
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