Making molds

[Bigfoot]

Hi guys

New guy here , I found this place by accident while doing some random searching for info on making bullet molds . I also happened to notice there wasn't any politics or any of the if you don't do things my way your an idiot type of stuff happening so I thought I'd give things a try

I've got it Into my head that I'd like to give making a few bullet molds a try .
I know very little about making molds and I am definitely not a master machinist so this will all be brand new to me .

However I have picked up just barely enough information to have decided that I am going to go with the cherry method . I have a lathe , milling machine , self centering vise and a universal tool grinder .
Along with plenty of free time . So the very basics are covered there .

I have a feeling that this is going to turn into a rather long and involved project so I am going to tackle one aspect of the process at a time .
I've picked work holding as my first challenge , I have the vise you see below , it's nothing fancy , just a Chinese 4 inch self centering vise . I need to make some sort of fixture to hold the mold halves .
Maybe some of you guys have already done this and can throw some ideas my way . Or Maybe you've seen something that looked like it might work . Or you just have an idea .
Toss em at me .
My only idea so far is to make an extra thick set of jaws and mill a pocket big enough for the mold haves and just use some set screws to hold things in place .

 

[waco]

Bigfoot. Welcome to the board. You will like it here. Lots of good guys...smart guys. We got some pretty darn good machinists as well. Someone will be along soon to help you with your mold project.

I'm looking forward to seeing your progress and results. Good to have you here!
Walter

 

[Ian]

If the vise ways are extremely tight and jaws repeatably meet in the exact center, it should work. Others will have some ideas about securely and accurately clamping the blocks to the vise jaws, probably involving milling a purpose-built set of replacement jaws for the ones already there. I envy your position of having tools and time.

 

[Bigfoot]

Thank you
This should be a fun endeavor . The idea to do this came to me because I have a few rifles I'd like to shoot and molds are expensive
Not that I'll save any money .
The vise is actually pretty decent , the lead screw is accurate and it repeats to center . And once I did some surface grinding on the Gibb strip it's smooth and tight .

 

[Ian]

Yeah, I'm still waiting to cash in on all the money I was supposed to save by casting and handloading! It's let me shoot ten times as much and buy a lot more guns, but hasn't put a dime back in my pocket. Doing it because you can instead of paying someone else to do it for you is reason enough.

My mini-lathe has in fact paid for itself fully in gunsmith fees alone since I bought it a few months ago. We won't talk about the money I've spent on lathe accessories and tooling, though

 

[KeithB]

Wrote an article about making the tooling and ultimately a multi cavity mold by lathe boring. It's in Word format, if you're interested I'd be glad to send it to you as an email attachment.

 

[Bigfoot]

Thank you , I do believe I have already found it . From the university of Indiana maybe ?
It was one of the first things I found on the subject , it also did a pretty fair job of convincing me that given my very very limited skills
Lathe boring is a route best left to those who aren't hacks

 

[Pistolero]

Keith,
I don't believe I have seen that article. Is it up on the web somewhere?

Bill

 

[Bigfoot]

Making Multi-Cavity Bullet Molds - University of Southern Indiana
DOCUniversity of Southern Indiana › Science

I tried to post a link but it was to long , cut and paste that in your search box and it should show up easy enough .

It's a very good read

 

[fiver]

Keith wrote it Bill.

in the old days they used a cherry and closed the mold halves together cutting the design in the mold.
the jig they used was pretty much nothing more than a pair of angle iron brackets with set screws on one side.
the other side set the depth for the first cut based on the mold block size.
the second was set by moving the vice over a set amount and the cut and close was repeated.
once the set-up was worked out everything become pretty much standardized and a set point for the vice edge could be made for the table speeding things up even more.

to do it without a cherry.
the closing block method will still work.
you just need a slightly modified D reamer for the nose shape, lube groove depth, and gas check shank. a J cutter will do the final width cuts on the drive bands.
any additional features such as a convex nose shape or a bevel base will be done by depth stop in a third operation on the closed, or closing mold.
a copy of most handgun molds can be done in 2 operations.

but what do I know I don't got a lathe or a mill.

 

[KeithB]

Actually it was (still is?) on the University of Southern Indiana website while I was employed there but I didn't pay attention to what happened to my stuff after I was retired for disability. Usually they clear stuff off the servers after you no longer work there. I'd post it here but the site isn't really set up for archiving stuff. Glad to send a copy to anyone that's interested. It's in Word format. (Note: I use OpenOffice (freeware) instead of MS Office for Word and Excel files.)

The two main reasons I tried lathe boring was (a) I didn't have a really good way to make a multi flute cherry, and (b) I wanted a method that would allow me to compensate for wear of the cutter or make bullets with the same profile in different calibers.

Lots of ways to make bullet molds, from low tech to high tech (if I did it now it would be on a CNC lathe or mill). I urge the OP to post their progress with lots of photos, we all like machine shop porn.

 

[Rick]

It's still there Keith. I cut & paste the following into internet search . . .

Making Multi-Cavity Bullet Molds - University of Southern Indiana​

DOCUniversity of Southern Indiana​

Oddly it didn't give a link to the University web site, rather it directly opened the document in Microsoft Word. I had never seen that happen before and because of that I don't have a link other than above. But regardless it is there in it's entirety. ​

 

[KeithB]

They may have archived it somehow. I know a lot of retirees who published articles in juried journals and archived them on the website. I heard there were some complaints from the Emeritus faculty (I was granted that status about 18 months ago) that their contributions to the university and their professional work wasn't available online. Some of these folks do consulting or get another job and wanted their stuff to be legitimized by being on a trusted university website. My stuff was never published in any professional juried journal, I write for fun and to share ideas. My job never depended on publishing so I wasn't sure any of my non-academic work was archived.

 

[Brad]

http://www.usi.edu/Science/engineering/moldfixture/MakingBulletMolds.doc

I have read them this numerous times. Typical Keith writing. Clear and concise with excellent explanation of why things were done the way they were. Obviously the writings of a person who knows how to teach and explain.

This is a real treasure Keith. I do hope you still have the mould.

 

[KeithB]

Still have everything, tooling and all. Just no time to make any molds for fun right now and no reason to make them for a profit, there are way too many really good mold makers out there right now doing much better work than I could imagine. I love seeing how other people do things, will watch this thread w/interest.

 

[Brad]

We are in the golden age of mould makers. Very much so.

What you did with your write up was make the rest of us realize how much time and effort was involved in making moulds. The process is more impressive than the product at times and we have some impressive mould today.

 

[Bigfoot]

Lots of good info here already

I chose the cherry method because it is the best fit for my available tools and abilities .
It might be apt to say that in my ignorance I've convinced myself it's the best fit .

But back to work holding , what fiver describes is very similar to what I have in my head .
With that in mind I already went out and lit a fire in the shop and as soon as I get some lunch in me I'm going to go out and see what I can come up with .

 

[KeithB]

I chose the cherry method because it is the best fit for my available tools and abilities .

Exactly!

 

[fiver]

the reamers I described was from information smokey joe sent me a number of years back when he wrote a real good article for the fouling shot.
he sent along a little DVD he made with some pictures and such.
the rest I picked up from reading about how they made molds back when a lathe/mill was pretty much the only game in town.

 

[Bigfoot]

I tried to get something done today , but it sure seemed like every time I turned around I had someone else in the way of progress .

I did get a start , I found some stock to make a new set of vice jaws.
Managed to get them squared up and gave them a quick trip threw the surface grinder so I know they are the same size .
And I have the holes drilled for the locating pins and mounting bolts .

Not near as much done as I would have liked to see , tomarow I'll get the pockets milled out for the mold halves and drilled and tapped for the set screws .