So now I've got it in my head that I want to buy metalworking tools so that I can manufacture dies to form brass cartridge cases from raw 260 alloy. Well...cost-wise, it's not so great.
Check it out. A .45 ACP case is about 83-85 grains. At 7000 gr/lb, that's 0.012 lb. For a 0.125" thick, 12 in x 12 in sheet, one calculator indicates 5.544 lbs. Assuming around 86% utilization of the sheet for forming the cups, at $80 per sheet, that's around 20 cents a cup. And that's without amortization of tooling costs, or the cost of annealing and pickling, or operator time! Since one can get new manufacture, reloadable .45 ACP for about 30 cents a round, this isn't exactly cost-effective.
One would almost have to smelt and extrude one's own raw brass from scrap to make it worthwhile. Then the impurities and maintaining the alloy composition would come into play. TANSTAAFL, eh.
Along the lines of smelting, I found a site, Backyard Metalworking, that talks about casting and such using limited tooling.
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