Bullet Molds

[Bob McDowell]

Okay, so here's what I'm picturing. Someone come tell me this is dumb and won't work:

Print bullets and sprues with a 'tray' on top for the unmelted lead. I'm thinking small blocks of decent quantities. Twelve, maybe? I don't know how well molten lead flows, but the basic concept is something like this (for eight Bullets):

[ tray1 ].....[ tray2 ]
||.||.||.||...||.||.||.||
B..B..B..B...B..B..B..B

Pour plaster over the whole mess, up to the top of the trays, and form a block. Burn out the plastic, blow out the ashes, and put lead in the trays. Put the whole block in the furnace and heat beyond lead's melt point. Let cool, then shatter the block, retrieving the lead. Trim the excess and save for the next block.

I'm picturing scaling this out by the number of blocks you can reliably heat in your furnace.

I am not at all versed in this, though, so if the idea is stupid, that's totally fine. Just brainstorming...

If the idea is not stupid, though, a guy could make a product out of the printed assemblies. You'd need one for each block of bullets you wanted to make, since they and the plaster casts are destroyed in the process.

[powderburner]

use the pla to make the mould with the cavity already cut into it, then make the mould with the lost pla/wax procedure.

[Nuclearcricket]

Dean, that would be a way to get your molds started. Dress up the outsides and drill and ream the alignment holes and drill and tap the rest of the holes and the chuck it up in the lathe to finish things out. I think that in the long run you would have almost as much work in starting out with a casting as you would starting out with good quality bar stock.
Sam

[powderburner]

it isnt there yet, but the way its going as as fast as it is going ,I bet within 10 years we look back on this conversation and laugh how simple it was at the start.

[Kurt]

Boy Sam; I wish it would be that easy to make a mould
Happy New Year to y'all


Kurt

[Nuclearcricket]

Yes Kurt, if it were that easy to crank out a mold every back yard machinist would be turning them out. I have made one nose pour, adjustable hollowbase PP mold. I have also redone a Lyman .38 Postel mold with the oversize nose to .40 cal. This was all done when I had a full Machine shop access. Not easy to do when you only get a half hour a day to work on your own stuff. It was a lot of work and not every thing turned out well. My hat is off to those that do turn out the quality lathe bored molds these days. Even those that make really good cherry cut molds are to be commended as those cherry's are still a lot of work to make.
If one were to set down and figure how much time they would have to put in to make a good mold, even if you were using aluminum, and then figure out a decent wage rate, you might be surprised at how much it would cost to make that mold.
For those that have the time, skills and equipment, and want to try their hands at making a mold, Please do, it can be a fun, rewarding and educational experience. As for me, maybe some day I will play around making another mold, maybe. Other than that I will patronize those fine people out there that are turning out the excellent quality molds available today.
Sam

[Dave Roelle]

If you want to have Touchy-Feely-----use the bullet solid model to turn the first "plastic" or lead'' for that matter "bullet" to fuss with and then cut the bored cavity with the same solid model with appropriate shrinkage cutter path offsets for the alloy/shrinkage----a very simple matter using Mastercam----all digital control-----no repetitive duplication loss of original intent.

One solid model design------ good to 32 0r 64 decimal places

One machining program same accuracy---- if the lathe and the mold holding fixture are up to specs

Done deal

Keep on havin fun

Dave

[Kurt]

Dave, it's cheaper to buy a mould

[Nuclearcricket]

Yes Kurt I fully agree. Till you purchase and then learn to use mastercam ( expensive software but very good), and then invest is a good quality cnc lathe, the tooling, and a nice mill to do the secondary work, the electricity and shop space for all of these fun toys you would still be way much farther ahead to patronize someone all ready in the business.
Now you don't need to use a lathe but it would make it easier. I say this because a while back I read a discussion on one of the sites and I honestly don't remember what one it was but it dealt with cast bullets. The guy had access during off hours to a high precision cnc milling machine and made some very very interesting bullet mold. He would cut them in brass and aluminum but was using end mills in the .010 diameter range. The bullets were very interesting, not very practical for the most part but definitely not something you run into every day.
Sam

[Stephen Borud]

What interests me is how the old timers built the bullet cherries! I've built a dozen or so cherries that have failed! I've read The book on Pope and there is a black and white picture of a dozen or so of his cherries, but you really can't see how they were built. I would love to see some originals. I've been told that I would need a grinder attachment to actually build a good cherry. It's been a few years since I have built a cherry I might have to revisit it this winter and see if I can build a better one. I experimented with different angles and the number of cutting edges. The best I could do was have a bullet that was about .004 out of round. I'm not sure if I warped the bullet cherry when I heated it up a dunked it in oil to harden or not, but I'm guessing I did. Has anyone fondled an old original cherry? I also wonder how out of round the original bullets might of been. I know Sharps and Ballard and I'm sure others had swaging tools to make a better more consistent bullet.

Stephen