Hollow pointing a mould

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I have a single cavity Lyman 454424 sitting around that I just don’t use. Why not hollow point it?
I wanted to try drilling the mould using the mill instead of the lathe. Turns out I like this method much more.
After learning not to fight the indicator by over adjusting things by cranking handles on the table I got it center per to within .0005 in both axis.

Drilled a hole .161 with plans to use a .163 rod. Rod can now be polished to a snug fit.

That is all I did tonight. Next up is making the pin.

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Ian

Notorious member
Good, you're finally getting some decompression time. That looks about like the original factory pin size for that mould. Is that the one with the dinged corner that you fixed?
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
That is the mould. You can still see the ding in the top of the mould.
In the past I turned the pins from larger stock but I finally broke down last year and got some ground and polished drill rod in a couple sizes. Way easier.
 

Ian

Notorious member
If you really wanted to get shmancy you could buy a pin reamer 001" over your standard polished rod size and not have to turn the rod down. Practical only if you're going to do a bunch of them the same size, but reamers sure do make a nice clean hole.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I have considered a reamer. Would certainly make life easier.
 

Ian

Notorious member
A mill and a 4th-axis rotary table with indexing wheel:

 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Paul bought a bunch of wood spools on Ebay to use for handles like this. Buckshot used the same at times. Cheap and easy!
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Need to get some cast and see how they do.
Get a mill and they are pretty easy Ian. The mill makes the drilling and tapping so much easier. I love power tapping. Lots of oil and 65 rpm with tap hand tight in chuck. It will likely slip before it breaks. Spiral point and spiral flute taps are awesome.

I slotted the screw with a hacksaw using a blade JW sent me. They are Swiss made I believe. I have never used hacksaw blades that cut like these. These are amazing.
 

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
One of my favorite 45 molds!! Nice work Brad!

Im STILL looking for my 2 cav... Dont know how but I cannot find it!!! GRRR. I also have a newer with a round grease groove single. I found a 452424 W/round Groove, but dont like that as much as the 454. Funny how different the "same mold" can be.
CW
 
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Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I think my 2 cav 452424 is round groove? Haven’t used that mould in probably 15 years so.......
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
The handle is a wooden spool from thread. Paul bought these on eBay many years ago when he wanted me to HP a couple moulds for him.
This is the first time I didn’t use epoxy to hold it on. This one has a .5” shank that is a snug fit in the center hole in the spool. I then cross drilled and pinned the handle on.

In ways the fun of this kind of stuff is figuring out how to make it all work and go together. How wide a flange for the collar. How large a head on crew that holds pin in place. How big, long, and shape of pin.

This was all done on the fly. I probably should measure things and make some drawings for future use.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Seat of the pants and ehhh, that looks about right are my principal MOs when enginerding things like this, nothing wrong at all with that. Artistic Privilege if you will. Cross-pinning the handle and base to the spud is the only way to go IMO, epoxy gets gooey when the pin gets super-hot.

I think most thread spools are maple or birch.