Interest poll - LBT tool for making free gas checks

[45x4]

Veral:  the need for this is huge,  at $.04 per check now, I for one need a cost savings if I am going to keep shooting.

[45454]

Look up Paco Kelly.
At one time,he had the "FreeChek".
The article does have pics. 
Sometime back,an article in "Handloader" (?) comparing gas checks.
The store bought (Hornady ?) and the beer/soda can variety,to see
what happened to accuracy.
The beer/soda can gas checks were mediocre at best in accuracy.
In the end,the store bought were best.
(Please take this with 3 or 4 grains of salt.Doing this from memory..... )
http://www.leverguns.com/articles/taylor/freechec.htm

[Terbltim]

Veral,
I love the concept of your gas-check making tool.
I think it might work well with sheet-copper that can be had in surprising quantity, free, as scrap from the guys that install copper standing-seam roofing. The scrap from one roof project would make thousands of gas-checks.
Also, I seem to recall that Corbin Swaging would make a similar tool upon request. Expensive but only once. Readers might be able to get one there.
If you ever get your gas-check making tools into production I'll probably want one too.

[Veral]

  I had never once thought of using copper scraps from metal smiths as you mention.  That would make the tool affordable. as copper prices are through the roof.  If you buy it new, the cost for making checks is so high it prohibits buying a check maker.  The metal has to be very low cost to make it pay, which is why the large aluminum beer cans seem to be the best choice for metal at present.

  If checks were no longer available, we'd have a different matter entirely, of coarse.
 
  I've pondered the check maker a bit of late, but allowed the idea to just go 'through' my mind.  Gas check availability is good right now, even though expensive, but times are a lot harder than when I first wrote this up, which is a big concern for me, so far as the tooling up costs and whether it would ever pay back.

[odoh]

Having a gc making tool, I discovered that Friskies Cat Food cans make fairly good checks and have a white paint like coating on the inside which I select to be the outside of the check. Even the pull/peel back aluminum top works also.

[Terbltim]

Having a gc making tool, I discovered that Friskies Cat Food cans make fairly good checks and have a white paint like coating on the inside which I select to be the outside of the check. Even the pull/peel back aluminum top works also.

odoh,
That is VERY interesting indeed.
Do you have a "freechex" tool or a Corbin tool or what mfr. and caliber(s)?
I'd be interested in all you have to share about the tool and your use of Friskies cat-food cans for the gas-checks. I imagine others here would like to learn from this too. Do you use the tops and bottoms, sides?
More information please.

[Veral]

  I'm sorry guys, but the last several posts have not shown up on my screen, till now.

  About the Handloader artical, or any other, which showed accuracy to be better with factory checks. - I'm convinced the problem is with the standard practice of stacking thin checks to get some grip on checks shanks cut for factory checks.  Poor accuracy is certain.  Either material of proper thickness must be used or the mold must have the check shank opened up to provide a perfect fit for the thin checks.  If thin aluminum checks are a tight fit accuracy will be excellent at speeds very close to what factory checks will deliver from rifles, and probably at full power in magnum revolvers and anything with less intense pressures and velocity.  This factor is one of the main concerns I have, should I start producing gas check tooling.  I'd have to take on the modification of customer molds if the project was to fly. (Make a profit.)  Yet, many customers would want to make checks of a huge assortment of available material, which would mandate special check making tooling for each type of material, plus special sizes for check shank opening.  (Custom reamers, several for each caliber.)  The only way I see so far to make it work and not go crazy with all the variables is to make tooling for use with the large beer cans only.  One can find them easily even if he doesn't drink out of them. (If he does drink out of them very much he may forget what he is walking along the highway looking for!  See below.)

  I think it very thoughtfull of Friskies to paint the inside of their aluminum cat food cans, as cats with Alzheimers wouldn't make good pets. -  But why on earth do the beverage producers all leave the inside of their cans bare, for human consumption, with the aluminum which leaches into the drink a known and proven cause of Alzheimers!!!!!!??  The last time I drank out of an aluminum can was about 7 years ago, a 'friendship' can of pop that I took so as not to offend the giver.  The aluminum taste was sickening to me, because I wasn't used to it.  It will forever remain my last beverage, or food, from an aluminum can.

 

[Terbltim]

  I think it very thoughtfull of Friskies to paint the inside of their aluminum cat food cans, as cats with Alzheimers wouldn't make good pets. -  But why on earth do the beverage producers all leave the inside of their cans bare, for human consumption, with the aluminum which leaches into the drink a known and proven cause of Alzheimers!!!!!!??  The last time I drank out of an aluminum can was about 7 years ago, a 'friendship' can of pop that I took so as not to offend the giver.  The aluminum taste was sickening to me, because I wasn't used to it.  It will forever remain my last beverage, or food, from an aluminum can.

Veral,
I'm glad you added this remark about the aluminum cans.
I thought it was just me when I thought I was tasting the aluminum in those drinks. I gave up beer in cans decades ago. For that matter, since I can now count the number of beers I consume in a year on my fingers and toes I find that my opinion of "good" beer has changed a lot.
Back to the gas-checks;
I think if you ever do make a gas-check tool, just make it for one type of material. If it happens to be useful with other materials it'll be discovered and the info slowly spread about.
Here is a question on subject;
Corbin once offered tooling for placing a zinc washer on the bottom of swaged bullets. Some lead from the bullet would mushroom through the hole and hold the washer thus. Seemed like a neat idea but required the pressure of their swaging tools. My question is, do you suppose there is any merit to the idea of having a flat disk of metal under the bullet to perform the function of a gas-check. It would need "full" case-loading or some means to be sure the check stayed in place until fired but it seems like the idea might be workable.
What say you?