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Recent content by wicket

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  1. W

    Metal fatigue

    It's atom exchange. With every shot a minute quantity of lead is absorbed by the gun, and a minute quantity of gun is absorbed by the bullet, over time the gun turns to lead. Meanwhile the kick of the gun creates an exchange of atoms with the shooter, making the gun more shooterish, and the...
  2. W

    Chain Fire

    Gene, how were your cartridges constructed, and did you take any steps to blow out or brush the chambers between shots? I would think that when the chamber went off it would fire the cap, but if there was some cartridge paper wadded in the bottom of the chamber, it might explain the cap not firing.
  3. W

    Capgun Caps

    Just remember that you're on a mission Bill, and think of the fun you'll have explaining why you are cutting up a mattress out in the alley behind Goodwill. I'd go with "I had money hidden in my mattress and my wife gave the thing to Goodwill without telling me".
  4. W

    Capgun Caps

    Bill, the rods for the leaves of the clover are .161, same as a #20 drill bit. They are made from spring steel salvaged from a discarded mattress which luckily for me matched a drill bit in my collection and saved filing them down on the drill press. The cap punch needs to match the gun's...
  5. W

    Capgun Caps

    Here's a photo of the parts Bill. There's a bail mounted on the plunger of the press. It swings down to press the clover leaf punch down into the die as you figured. Next the bail is swung up out of the way, and the plunger of the press is brought down a second time onto the cap punch, forming...
  6. W

    Capgun Caps

    Bill, actually I'm a carpenter, but I do own a drill press. The trick to the cloverleaf punch is to bundle four rods firmly together with a collar cut from black iron pipe, place the bundle into four holes drilled through two stacked pieces of bar stock, and drill the hole for the plunger for...
  7. W

    Capgun Caps

    The press was around thirty bucks Bill. The copper was free when I was rolling it out of scrap roofing copper, but I recently bought a roll online, I think it works out to a couple of cents per cap. The dies are home made from scrap steel. You hit the nail right on the head about the local...
  8. W

    Capgun Caps

    Here's my cap maker, based on a cheap arbor press from Harbor Freight
  9. W

    Capgun Caps

    I've got a bag full of the Italian ring caps that my kid bought for me to experiment with a couple years ago. There's very little powder in them, and I couldn't get them to fire a charge. I tried priming the nipple with fine blackpowder, but it didn't work for me. I've seen a lot of posts about...
  10. W

    Paper Cartridges

    Interesting point William. I cut a piece of the Chinese flash paper to the size I use for a .36, and loaded it into the cylinder with a lubed wad. Fired from three feet with a CCI cap, the wad bounced off a sheet of printer paper, barely leaving a dent. The piece of flash paper weighed .7...
  11. W

    Paper Cartridges

    The flash paper from Amazon turned out to be coming from China, so figuring it would be on the proverbial "slow boat" and ordered a couple of packages from Dreamland Magic. Worked out well, they both arrived today, though I notice that now Amazon is out of stock and not sure when they will be...
  12. W

    Paper Cartridges

    Gene...I just ordered some flash paper off Amazon to test. It's described as looking like tissue paper, hopefully it's no clumsier to work with than curling papers. The sheets are 8 1/2" by 14" with ten to a package for $16 delivered.
  13. W

    Paper Cartridges

    Which leads to the question whether an untreated paper cartridge burns at all when fired, or simply gets shredded, with some portions exiting the barrel while other portions remain behind. A simple speed test for powder is to ignite a small pile of it on a piece of ordinary paper. Fast powder...
  14. W

    Paper Cartridges

    Crockett, it's my understanding that the nitrate was in the tobacco, but that it's been eliminated because of all the public suspicion about additives. my only experience with employing additives to consolidate powder was sealing the open ends of filled cartridges with a bit of thinned Duco...
  15. W

    Paper Cartridges

    Gene, refrigeration is just a precaution I take to lengthen the shelf life. Residual acid can get trapped in the cell structure of cellulose and continue to react; degrading the product. To protect against moisture I keep everything refrigerated in zip lock bags. I swear by the wooden...
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