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- Feb 2, 2019
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It's looks like a great way to experiment a bit without spending a fortune on molds. How much difference in diameter is there between your mold body and the bullet diameter as cast? Thanks.
At a guess, a couple of thousandths smaller than the mould body, depending on the metal composition. Soft lead seems to be coming out smaller than the harder stuff. Lately, I am mostly working on getting the sprue of my aluminum .50 caliber mould to work right.
I made the .45 out of 1 1/8 steel round stock and the .50 out of 1 1/8 aluminum round stock. The .50 reamer measures about .495 and the bullets come out about .492; the .45 reamer measures about .454 and the bullets come out about .452. The soft lead .45's fall out of the mould and the harder bullets need some encouragement.
Thanks! That helps. I had in mind an adjustable mold to use in a .40 cal cartridge gun, paper patched as well as in a .40 cal ML bullet gun to hunt. The paper patched bullet wants to be about .012 smaller. I figured to cast to size for the paper patched bullet and bump it up to size for the ML. That's the plan anyway...
OOPS!Thanks! That helps. I had in mind an adjustable mold to use in a .40 cal cartridge gun, paper patched as well as in a .40 cal ML bullet gun to hunt. The paper patched bullet wants to be about .012 smaller. I figured to cast to size for the paper patched bullet and bump it up to size for the ML. That's the plan anyway...
Thanks! This listing has the best pictures of an ICAM I've yet seen. They will be invaluable for improving my own versions. Again, many thanks!This is very cool! I found an original mould listed on eBay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/283994027382?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649
I just use regular old 1-1/2” X 1/4” cold rolled steel for my sprue plates. Skim cut each side on the mill and drill the holes. Use an 82* countersink for the the actual sprue hole, wet sand with WD40 or cutting oil on a flat surface and you got it. Steel is much harder than lead, and I’ve never had one wear out.I used an a 4 1/2" angle grinder to cut off the tip that goes into the saw, then a bench grinder to grind off the teeth. I used a propane torch to anneal the saw blade where I drill for the 8-32x3/8 machine screw I use to attach mould body to the sprue and the holes into which the lead is poured. Saw blades are HARD.
View attachment 6352
The large hole in the corner is for the machine screw, the larger of the two holes in the middle is that into which the lead is poured, the smaller allows the air out so the mould will fill.
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