Repair of an Ohaus Mould

[Ben]

I bought an Ohaus, 38/357 Wadcutter mould from Bass Ackward.
( I wonder the age of this one ? ? ? )
As he was boxing up the mould, he noticed that it had some damage.
He said that the mould belonged to his Dad.
I looked at his photos and felt that I could make the necessary repairs to the mould. I agreed to buy the mould knowing that it was damaged.

The damage was on the sprue end of the mould in the area of the " bevel base ". I have never been particularly fond of a bevel base mould.
I use a Lyman 45 to lube and size and we all know what happens with lube under pressure with a bevel base design.......

I thought ....Ummm, I'll remove the damage in the mould with my .360" dia. , 6 flute reamer and gain a 2nd benefit of not having a bevel base that will allow lube to run under the base of the bullet .
( Obviously , I removed the bevel on both cavities ).
The use of the 6 flute reamer worked great , in my opinion.

Thanks Bass Ackwards for a nice mould !
I hope that putting this would back into commission would have made your Dad proud ! !

Ben

 

[Ian]

Nice work, Ben, looks good and even. Interesting how a .360" tool didn't clean up the mould all the way. What size do they cast?

 

[Pistolero]

Looks good. I think I may have tried tapping a smooth bar of steel the right diameter
down into that cavity, only the rear portion, of course. The idea would be to see if I could
peen the metal back in place. Probably a bit smaller diameter would be needed to concentrate
the force on that small area. Tricky stuff.

But, your repair was totally successful, good job.

Bill

 

[Ben]

Nice work, Ben, looks good and even. Interesting how a .360" tool didn't clean up the mould all the way. What size do they cast?

Ian,

They drop at .3587 "
Here is the finished product as they fall from the mould.

 

[Ben]

I stand corrected.
My reamer is a .359 ".

 

[Ben]

Interesting how a .360" tool didn't clean up the mould all the way.

I tried not to enter the mould with the reamer more than about 1/16 ".

 

[Bass Ackward]

Molds were meant to be used. Glad you salvaged it! Enjoy!

 

[Ben]

Just for the record.
An as cast bullet ( no lube ) weighs 152 grs.
12 grs over the ID on the mould.

Ben

 

[Dusty Bannister]

If Ohaus like RCBS was spec'ed with 1-10 that would probably be about right. I believe that modern specs are not the same though. Depends upon what your alloy is.

 

[Ben]

My alloy is clip on WW's with very little tin.

Ben

 

[Bass Ackward]

If you took a skim cut off the top of the blocks, that could solve both issues. (Bad spot & Weight)

 

[Ben]

The weight of the bullets now is of little consequence to me.
I'm happy with the mould.

Ben

 

[Dusty Bannister]

The RCBS Cast Bullet Manual was first printed in 1986 so is dated as to value of COWW. Page 12 gives some information on molds cut for 1-10 and molds cut for Linotype. I marked in the margin 1-10 but am not sure I can verify the source on that. So here is both for a bullet of close to that weight.

Bullet weight in Lino 147.0 grains, cast with WW would be about 7.2 grains heavier.
Bullet weight in 1-10 at 150 grains, cast with WW would be heavier by 1 grain.
Anyway, that is what the book says, so while it is heavier than marked, it is not really off all that much.

 

[Dusty Bannister]

Definately not a deal breaker on any slight difference in weight as long as the mold runs well. It can make it interesting when one weighs a cast bullet and then looks for the mold by ID before remembering that little fact about what alloy was used to spec the mold.