Making molds
- Thread starter Bigfoot
- Start date
Spent a few hours on this today , I had planned on getting both of the jaws finished today. , yea what the heck was I thinking .
I almost finished one jaw , I would have finished it but I somehow managed to drop my tap on the floor and broke the darn thing .
This is where I'm at after about 5 hours today . 45 minutes machining and the rest double and triple checking things as I moved along .
It paid off though , I am within .0015 of where I wanted to be .
You might notice on the left side the counter sink hole is bigger and slightly off set compared to the right .
This was on purpose to lose the corner radius ... you might also notice the little triangle piece left in the picture , I already removed it just didn't take a picture after .
I almost finished one jaw , I would have finished it but I somehow managed to drop my tap on the floor and broke the darn thing .
This is where I'm at after about 5 hours today . 45 minutes machining and the rest double and triple checking things as I moved along .
It paid off though , I am within .0015 of where I wanted to be .
You might notice on the left side the counter sink hole is bigger and slightly off set compared to the right .
This was on purpose to lose the corner radius ... you might also notice the little triangle piece left in the picture , I already removed it just didn't take a picture after .
Attachments
My girlfriend has the flue , so that means I got the flue by proxy , but in between the whining and complaining I've been sneaking out to the shop to play .
I still need to tap holes for the grub screws and send the jaws threw the surface grinder one more time .
But I now have two jaws that almost close properly ... a bit of spring from cutting the pockets was expected so it's no surprise I have about a .020 gap at top .
Everything else lines up as planned so life is good
I still need to tap holes for the grub screws and send the jaws threw the surface grinder one more time .
But I now have two jaws that almost close properly ... a bit of spring from cutting the pockets was expected so it's no surprise I have about a .020 gap at top .
Everything else lines up as planned so life is good
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I've had the flue so yea ...
But I wasn't feeling to bad today so I went out and turned my first cherry .
This is a copy of a mold that I lathe bored for my martini henry .
The mold turned out ugly , but it casts to the size I wanted and it shoots really darn good .
If I've done my ciphers good enough this should cut a bullet that is .469 dia 1.138 inches long and weigh in the neighborhood of 480 grains . In theory that is .
In reality I don't much care what it ends up being , just so long as it cuts a decent cavity after I grind the flutes .
And that's my task after dinner ... the first one is gonna be a dremel grind . ... who knew that tool grinders are some complicated machines to use
But I wasn't feeling to bad today so I went out and turned my first cherry .
This is a copy of a mold that I lathe bored for my martini henry .
The mold turned out ugly , but it casts to the size I wanted and it shoots really darn good .
If I've done my ciphers good enough this should cut a bullet that is .469 dia 1.138 inches long and weigh in the neighborhood of 480 grains . In theory that is .
In reality I don't much care what it ends up being , just so long as it cuts a decent cavity after I grind the flutes .
And that's my task after dinner ... the first one is gonna be a dremel grind . ... who knew that tool grinders are some complicated machines to use
Attachments
deltaenterprizes
New Member
I use a 60* dovetail cutter to cut the flutes
Ian
Notorious member
Dremels are for po-boys like me who only have a small lathe and grind single-edge cutters to re-cut cheap Lee moulds.
I have wondered for a long time now how effective it would be to use a chucking reamer as feedstock for a mould cherry. Seems that most of the work is already done, just some profiling and sharpening. A helical reamer might even be better.
I have wondered for a long time now how effective it would be to use a chucking reamer as feedstock for a mould cherry. Seems that most of the work is already done, just some profiling and sharpening. A helical reamer might even be better.
KeithB
Resident Half Fast Machinist
A straight flute reamer might work pretty well. The only downside I can see is that it is already hardened so all your shaping would have to be done with abrasives. Not a real problem if you have a tool post grinder but a lot of skilled work with a free hand grinder. Might be worth trying.
endwrench
New Member
Good idea! I just cut my first tapered reamer the other day and could only cut 3 flutes with a 6 sided collet holder and a standard mill bit. I bet I could cut all 6 with a 60° dovetail cutter.