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Thread: For Sale: The Vortex Ball Roller!

  1. #21
    Kevin Tinny is offline
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    Hello, M:

    Have to admire the ingenuity of the gadget. The UTUBE video is great.

    I'll bite. What is that "rifle"?

    Smiles,
    Kevin Tinny

  2. #22
    Kevin Tinny is offline
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    Hi, Eggman:

    Maybe you were being humorous.
    Suggest you Google: " A New Look In Dimples."
    My father, scratch for at least 20 years, was Dr. Nicolaides' ball tester.
    Further and straighter!

    Respectfully,
    Kevin Tinny

  3. #23
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    I'll bite. What is that "rifle"?

    That's my near-stock Armisport 1842 smoothbore. It was glass bedded by Richard Hill and that's all that's been done to it.

    Steve

  4. #24
    gmkmd's Avatar
    gmkmd is offline
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    First of all, I applaud this Vortex device. If you are of a mind to stipple your musket balls, this looks like an excellent and efficient way to do it.

    Secondly, a musket ball is not a golf ball, and it’s stupid to compare them. For one thing, the dimples on a golf ball are perfectly and uniformly formed and distributed, while those imparted to a musket ball by tumbling them or rolling them on a bed of BB’s are quite random. But that’s besides the fact that they are vastly different with respect to the physics of their flight.

    Thirdly, and to my original point, why are guys putting so much extra time and effort into such unproven preparations?
    Glenn M. Kaye
    73rd New York Volunteer Infantry

  5. #25
    RaiderANV's Avatar
    RaiderANV is offline
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    They are by no means unproven. It really works.....
    Never squat with yer spurs on!!!

    Pat "PJ" Kelly #5795V
    Virginny & Texas
    540-878-8024

    MAYNARDS RULE!! & starr's DROOL!
    Hence the rust. MAYNARDAE LAUS DEO!

  6. #26
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    Secondly, a musket ball is not a golf ball, and it’s stupid to compare them. For one thing, the dimples on a golf ball are perfectly and uniformly formed and distributed, while those imparted to a musket ball by tumbling them or rolling them on a bed of BB’s are quite random. But that’s besides the fact that they are vastly different with respect to the physics of their flight.
    I'm skeptical of any aerodynamic benefit, personally. When I rasp my balls, either before, with files, or now, with the ball roller, I then dip them twice in Xlox lube (an alternative, much cheaper version of Lee Alox).

    This pretty much fills up all the stippling on the ball. It's not "smooth" after that by any means, but it's no longer rough, either. I tried shooting rasped balls with no lube and they fouled faster and I didn't see any improvement in accuracy.

    When I load my balls, they are a very close fit in my bore. So much so that often it results in an air cushion under the ball that requires effort to overcome as you drive the ramrod home. If you let go of the ramrod on a clean bore it can "bounce" your ramrod back out of the muzzle! Others on our team use an undersize ball with the same treatment though and don't have that "problem".

    Anyway to me, the biggest thing the stippling does is it gives a tooth for the lube to stick to, so it doesn't peel off during handling and loading. I tried lube on smooth, as-cast balls, and it had a tendancy to flake off in patches either when being stuck into the plastic tubes during cartridge making, or during extraction in preparation for loading, or on the muzzle during loading. I figured it was not conducive to accuracy to have uneven patches of lube all over the surface of the ball.

    The other thing I think the stippling does is it very slightly increases the diameter of the ball. So I get an interference fit in the bore when loading, but one that is deformable and thus still loadable.

    The final thing it does is it mostly obliterates traces of the sprue. I used to use a separate tool to cut away the sprue on each ball individually before rolling with files but now with the ball roller I skip that step as the fast and repeated rolling seems to mostly squash the sprue bump left by my RCBS mold and my Lee mold. Other molds with bigger sprue remnants might need additional treatment to get rid of the sprue.

    Thirdly, and to my original point, why are guys putting so much extra time and effort into such unproven preparations?
    I would not call it "unproven". People have been rasping round balls between two files for years, maybe decades. For me, this method of making smoothbore ammunition for N-SSA competition works. It worked when I used two files. It works for my teammates. Now, as I have said many times in other threads, I am absolutely certain that there are many different ways to prepare ammunition for any arm that will work. Like many of you, I spend a good deal of my free time experimenting with different loads and lubes and bullets, ever searching for that "holy grail" combination for one gun or another. Except my smoothbore. 70 grains 3F Goex behind a .678 RCBS round ball filed rough and double-dipped in Alox in my glass bedded Armisport 1842 gives me ragged-hole groups off a bench at 25 yards. It's good enough that I don't bother experimenting with aluminum foil or any other treatment. I'm sure they can be made to work, but I've already got a medal-winner combination so I'm sticking with it!

    If you've got another way to make round ball ammo that works in your gun, by all means, stick with it!

    But if you're rolling your balls between two files by hand, this device is going to save you a lot of time and effort. Like I said in the video - I mostly made this thing for myself because of how much I hated the tedious drudgery of rolling the balls by hand. When I realized how great it worked, I knew others would, too!

    The first batch of orders should be getting into folks hands any day now. Hopefully you'll get some other first-hand reports soon!

    Steve

  7. #27
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    All current orders are filled.

    Steve

  8. #28
    Timmeu is offline
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    Do you have any that are ready to ship?
    Thanks in advance!
    Pvt. Marty Richards
    111th OVI

    A distant relative of Genl. Stonewall Jackson but a Strong Union Man!

  9. #29
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    Sent out my last 2 yesterday - will be making more tomorrow.

    Steve

  10. #30
    Timmeu is offline
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    Cool! I sent payment by paypal today!
    Pvt. Marty Richards
    111th OVI

    A distant relative of Genl. Stonewall Jackson but a Strong Union Man!

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