DIY Wads

[smokeeter]

I decided with all of the wad options I would try making my own.
I had previously used fiber wads exclusively in my smokeless builds with the exception of lubing them myself, I had pretty good luck with these and I previously bought ready made .60 thick wads.
I bought a cheap chinese punch set from harbor freight but the size I required for .45 cal bore wasn't included in the set so I ordered a single punch in 12 mm size which fits snuggly in the .45 cal bore. The only thing I did was turned down the shank to fit in my drill press since I didn't want to hammer out the disks. The drill press works great I just needed to put a backer under the material so not to damage the punch.
I also bought some stiff felt sheets from Amazon these are 12X12 1/8" thick sheets 10 in a pack.
I made .45 cal wads from felt , some thin foam packing material and poly wads from discarded washer anti freeze bottles. Gunna give them a try and see what works the best.
The felt wad is in a .45 cal barrel stub I had to see the fit.

 

[ElDiablo]

Not sure if they ship to Canada but many of us buy the 1/8” hard wool felt from Duro-Felt and punch our own as well.

http://www.durofelt.com/image_84.html

 

[anonymouscowherd]

Yeah, check your felt, it may not be real felt (there should be no synthetics in it)

 

[eekjellander]

Yeah, check your felt, it may not be real felt (there should be no synthetics in it)

Not an issue been a consumer of Dura Felt for yrs an thousands of wads , also buy sheets for Poly wads

 

[Frank in Fairfield]

Neat

 

[CVA Fanboy]

I have been making my own for a while now. So much better and easier, Harbor Freight Punches, had to buy a 9/16ths separately for my .50 LEE R.E.A.L yes I have no regrets in leaving the taylor mades on the shelves, I bought 3 swatches of duro-felt while ago, (2) 6 x 33 and a 10 x 33 still got the 10 x 33 and 2 pieces of the 6 x 33 left I believe the 6 x 8 now, all in inches of course, Harbor Freight Punches are a dream, trick there is gotta keep em sharp, if your not going to take a few after each cutting session to sharpen, it leads to a little trouble

My basic order is closeouts such as

Item	Width	Length	Thick	Color	Density	Price	Qty Available
FM18101OWH	29 3/4"	10"	1/8"	Off-White	0.36 gm/c3 - Hard F-1	$17.00 each	4 pcs - 297+ sq. in e

 

[bronko220002]

been making mine too with durafelt for a while now. Its a good way to pass the time. I do it the same way. Works great in a drill press. The only thing is you can only cut about 6 or 7 then you have to push the wads out of the punch. If not you have wads flying all over the workshop. Ask me how I know...LOL

 

[smokeeter]

been making mine too with durafelt for a while now. Its a good way to pass the time. I do it the same way. Works great in a drill press. The only thing is you can only cut about 6 or 7 then you have to push the wads out of the punch. If not you have wads flying all over the workshop. Ask me how I know...LOL


put a sleeve over the punch

 

[Terry C]

I have the punches for shotgun reloading but I may have one that will work on my 50 cal. muzzy. Thank you guys for sharing this.