Reloading...A dying art?

On the note of reloading. I am a draftsmen, welder, machinist, woodworker and general builder of things who gets paid to teach high school kids how to do such things. In college my roommate, another guy, and I had to come up with a project for one of our metal manufacturing classes. We settled on building a reloading press. It was roughly modeled after a rock chucker. We made a wooden pattern so that we could pour the frame out of bronze. We did not have the capabilities to pour iron, and felt that cast aluminum was to wimpy. We cast 3 of them, machined the castings on a Southbend lathe and a Bridgeport mill and machined all the other parts out of steel on the Southbend and the Bridgeport. We did all the drawings on a board with a tee square and pencils. I have no idea where the drawings are now, I wish I still had them. My roommate still has the pattern and uses his press for a few 223’s. We have lost touch with the third member of our group. My press sat on the shelf for 22-23 years. When I started reloading again I set up the press that I made in college. It has worked well, but needs some adjustments.

We knew nothing of steel alloys and how to properly harden steel. First thing I did was break the handle on it, so the one on it now won’t break. Due to being built out of mild steel some of the holes and pins are starting to ware and egg shape after about 1800 rounds being resized and loaded.

I either have to buy a new press or redo/replace those pieces out of a proper steel and harden them accordingly. It’s alot of work to build those pieces and would be so easy to just buy a press, but this one is all mine.

These trays are homemade too. 3D modeling software and a Haas
 

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littlebighorn said:
Well I'm thrilled to see many "young guys" have jumped into reloading.
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littlebighorn said:
Age is really irrelevant as long as we can keep Steve and Brian in business and keep the little black boxes flowing.
Regardless, keep cranking them out boys!
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Ha,?
I thought Steve and Brian were only in business to keep us shooting.
Matter of perspective I guess.
 
BFD said:
I think the worst thing a new loader could do is start with Hammers. They'll start off thinking hand loading is stupid easy and think us veterans are loons. :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:
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I have to agree @BFD !
The young man I'm mentoring is loading cup & core bullets.
I've gotten lazy loading these Hammers - they're so easy. I've had to dredge up "old" ways, tedious bullet seating depth changes. Multiple shooting tests, etc, etc, to get his rifle shooting well.
Hammers have spoiled me rotten!
 
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