Ian
Notorious member
I understand....
20 grand and countless hours of study and practice later I can single-point vent lines, bore cavities, make cherries from tool steel rod, heat treat and hone them, make blocks, pins, screws, and sprue plates from scratch, hollow point, inset bar hollow point, make hollow base or nose pour moulds, make companion sizing dies to fit a press or lube-sizer, nose punches, uniforming dies, plus custom expanding dies, neck sizing inserts, in-line expanding and seating dies, and so on.
The machines are relatively inexpensive. The tooling and instruments are what get ya, because when you're chasing tenths inside a mould cavity or tramming blocks in the mill, only the best will do.
This brings up another point. On occasion I offer to repair or alter a mould for someone for free, and they invariably want to pay me for the services. I have to refuse because a fair price for even a simple job is several times the cost of the mould. An hour or two spent fixing the problems the mould has that prevent accurate alignment and setup, an hour or two more of setup time, time solving problems, maybe grind a special tool, 30 seconds to make the cut, a few minutes to measure the results, $10-15 in electricity to run all the lights and machines for the several hours, and I've already worked my full time job and commuted two hours that day, you couldn't possibly justify in the value of a bullet mould enough to pay me "what it's worth" or what a job shop would charge for the same quality of work. Removing or enlarging a gas check shank--ACCURATELY--is probably a $250 job by the time the alignment issues are corrected, the top face of the blocks are skimmed off perpendicular to the Z-axis of the cavity (moulds are usually not bored straight to begin with unless Tom, Veral, or Miha made it), and the main features of the cavity cavity are set up and adjusted so they are perfectly centered with the spindle on the X and Y axis. Sure, you can just clamp it up in a squared mill vise, find center with your wiggler or edge finder, and bore our the gas check shank but it's kind of a waste of time unless the mould is first tuned up and then set up perfectly true to begin with. I refuse to charge because IF I take on a job it's part of my fun hobby and we both get happy for only a few bucks in freight and electricity.
Oh, and despite what Brad implied, the equipment WILL pay for itself eventually if you put it to work fixing your guns and making reloading and casting tools. I have a little lathe that I've modified a bit that I gave $700 brand new in the crate and with it have rebarreled and rechambered a multitude of rifles, threaded a dozen or more muzzles, recrowned more than that, milled dovetails, fixed or modified dozens of bullet moulds, made heaps of reloading tooling, and so on. It paid for itself and a lot of tooling in gunsmith fees with the first three guns I fixed with it, and I didn't have to wait for the work to be done or waste time commuting to the 'smith.
Last edited:
They do offer small shank gas checks, Sage's used to carry them, and still might. Haven't checked. 
