RCE Presses

[Buckshot]

..........I'm going to post several detail photo's of the press, so maybe it'll help out some of you guys who might be using it as a basis for your own.



LEFT PHOTO Die station, looking down. RIGHT PHOTO Looking up, underside of the platten/die station. It appears the head of the ram and the platten are pressed together. There is zero evidence of being threaded, or other means of retention.



LEFT PHOTO Platten at full extension. The slot bottoms at 5.375" from the TOP of the platten, which is the critical measurement. RIGHT PHOTO The .750+" bore in the ram to contain the ejector is 4.25" long from the top of the ram.



LEFT PHOTO The ejector rod in place with the keeper rod through the ejctor rod body, with the spring resting on it. THis keeps the ejector rod down in the ram. The platten is at full extension. If there had been a die in place it would be in the pressure/swaging position. RIGHT PHOTO The platten down. The ejector body hits the ejector bar which causes it to stop while the ram continues down. The ejector pin is then forced up through the die body to eject the core or finished slug.

[Buckshot]

LEFT PHOTO Top bar showing toggle arm, and guide rod nylon insert nut. RIGHT PHOTO Toggle arm pin. I suppose a hardened dowel would be a good cost effective and accurate pre-made part to use?



LEFT PHOTOIt appeares that the guide rods are merely sitting on top of the base, with (probably) an unthreaded shoulder going through the base, and threaded only on the end for the nut? Seems the most logical to me. RIGHT PHOTO A view from the side showing the toggle and ram pin locations. If the arms weren't made long enough to increase the ram's stroke for use as a reloading press (a waste IMHO) it could sit closer to the bench. However, the way it's sitting now hasn't presented any problems.



Ram, toggle and toggle arms pivit pin detail. The ram has a bronze bushing that it's pin goes through. The toggle arms do not and bear on the pins directly.

..................Buckshot

[Buckshot]

LEFT PHOTO Is the ejector pin and body. Merely a .750" OD piece of W-1, and could easily be common 1018. The large hole at the bottom of the body is to accept the rod which the pressure spring sits on to keep the ejector assembly down in the ram. The hole above it is threaded and has a sockethead screw bearing against the ejector rod. All this does is to keep the pin from being casually sucked up out of the body. It does NOT retain the pin against any swaging forces. The pin sits against the bottom of it's hole in the ejector body.

If you make an ejector pin to form hollowpoints, you can vary the depth of the HP 2 ways. One is to make .750" OD washers of varying thicknesses to go UNDER the ejector body in the ram.

RIGHT PHOTO This is simply to show the die and ejector body and pin relationship, fully down. You can see the tip of the ejector pin in the mouth of the die. In this position the ejector pin body would have stopped against the stop bar that goes through the ram. While the ram continued downward, the stopped ejector pin would push the core or slug up and out of the die.

..............Buckshot

[ANeat]

Great pics and info, Thanks..