Making Hollow Points

[Rockchucker]

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i403/ronthompson5231/IMG_0380.jpg

Making hollow point boolits has got to be the hardest of all my molds to pour. the heat has to be turned so high to get the proper fill out. But sometimes we get lucky, this time I really cranked up the heat around 850 before the nose would fill out. Using a 50/50/2/2 alloy. that being ww, pb, tin,and a little lenotype to sweeten the pot. Would some of the members here post some pictures of there HP's and their alloy.

[x101airborne]

To solve your fill out issues, try using a ladle to pressure pour. That is EXACTLY what my 50 Beowulf molds used to do. Gearnasher brought a ladle and taught me to use it. Perfect nose fill out every time at 740 degrees. My alloy is plain old 50 / 50 WW / scrap. When I get loose later I will try to post some pics.

[cbrick]

They turned out great, almost to purdy to shoot. Well, almost.

I also get better HP noses from ladle pouring. It's not cranking up the pot temp that got it to working, it's the mold & spud temp. If the mold & spud is properly pre-heated the alloy temp can be kept at a tin saving 740 or so.

Rick

[Rockchucker]

Guess I'm not thinking this out very well, guess my question is how is the ladle pour better than the bottom pour if matching the volume of the stream is close to the same, to improve the nose fill out. In between the pours when I remove the pin it's placed back onto the single burner I use to keep the mold hot until I release the boolits from the mold, at that point it's reinstalled into the mold and the process is repeated. Seems that pin is the key factor here and I could easily be wrong about that also.

[fredj338]

I cast my HP about the same as anything else, 700deg or so, 25-1, 20-1 or a 50/50 lead/clip ww aloy. Pressure casting is the way to go IMO. If you are adding lino, yo uare going the wrong way IMO> Any antimony only makes the alloy more brittle.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/fredj338/452-251.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/fredj338/452-268-1K.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/fredj338/45-215gr.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/fredj338/9mm-136-1200.jpg

[USSR]

fredj338 nailed it. 25-1 is a very good alloy, and avoid antimony.

Don

[-06]

Why can we not fab a simple jig and drill the tips out. Seems it would be real easy and quicker than trying to pour them--cheaper also. Anyone tried it? If not I will give it a shot and report.

[Rockchucker]

The reason I added just a little Linotype was my mold dropping smaller boolits and I'm getting a small amount of leading, It's hard to size a .4515 to a .452. I love the Lyman 230 RN HP and their RN design but I've had fits trying to make larger boolits from them. Lementing it and now I've got foil tape in the blocks and that has issues. seems I get finning on the boolit now, Instead of dealing with this issuse much longer I think It's just time to get a new mold that drops at least a .4535 like it's suppose to and be done with that problem. Oh, and yes I've sent undersized molds back to Lyman, They say, and you've heard this before, it's not Lyman #2 alloy blabababababa.

[fredj338]

Why can we not fab a simple jig and drill the tips out. Seems it would be real easy and quicker than trying to pour them--cheaper also. Anyone tried it? If not I will give it a shot and report.

They do but casting is actually way faster & with interchangeable pins, you can vary the expansion for diff vel. Not to mention you can only cast or swage a faceted HP, & they work really well.

The reason I added just a little Linotype was my mold dropping smaller boolits and I'm getting a small amount of leading,
Instead, try adding just tin. It makes it a little harder, but doesn't make it brittle. I don't mind getting a little leading. It's not like I am shooting 100s of my LHP w/o cleaning.

[leftiye]

Take the wood handle off of the hollow point pin. Use a mold heater with an aluminum plate with a hole in the middle (1/2" to 1") over the hot plate. This allows you to set the mold on the surface of the plate with the pin extending down the hole. Work the hollow point pin with pliers. This allows you to crank the mold temp clear up until you get frosting, not that you in any way would want to. More importantly, it allows you to heat the hollow point pin in the mold. Now you could even cast hollow points with a 600 degree melt temp. I don't even know why a large mold/boolit should be a problem! When you're keeping 90 plus percent of the boolits cast, drilling noses is the hard way.

Rockchucker - Lap your mold out! Heat the whole mold between casts. Inspect your boolit while the mold is on the heater. The aluminum plate stores heat and evens out the hot plate's fluctuations. It heats up the mold fast! Casting speed now has nothing to do with mold temp.

P.S. I bottom pour.

[Alchemist]

The reason I added just a little Linotype was my mold dropping smaller boolits and I'm getting a small amount of leading, It's hard to size a .4515 to a .452. I love the Lyman 230 RN HP and their RN design but I've had fits trying to make larger boolits from them. Lementing it and now I've got foil tape in the blocks and that has issues. seems I get finning on the boolit now, Instead of dealing with this issuse much longer I think It's just time to get a new mold that drops at least a .4535 like it's suppose to and be done with that problem. Oh, and yes I've sent undersized molds back to Lyman, They say, and you've heard this before, it's not Lyman #2 alloy blabababababa.

Rockchucker,

Check this out:

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=124154

NOE moulds don't throw undersize boolits.

Cheers

[white eagle]

all I do is ladle
never had a problem with any mold

[Rockchucker]

Alchemist, That's a fine looking mold, I'm going to check into it further tomorrow, I got to do something.

White Eagle, What makes ladle pouring better that bottom pouring for hollow points, Several have said the same thing?

[flipajig]

Easer yet cast your RNFP or your SWC and use a drill and drill out the nose with a 1/8 and then widen out the mouth with a 1/4 or 3/8 drill bit

[Hang Fire]

Take the wood handle off of the hollow point pin. Use a mold heater with an aluminum plate with a hole in the middle (1/2" to 1") over the hot plate. This allows you to set the mold on the surface of the plate with the pin extending down the hole. Work the hollow point pin with pliers. This allows you to crank the mold temp clear up until you get frosting, not that you in any way would want to. More importantly, it allows you to heat the hollow point pin in the mold. Now you could even cast hollow points with a 600 degree melt temp. I don't even know why a large mold/boolit should be a problem! When you're keeping 90 plus percent of the boolits cast, drilling noses is the hard way.

Rockchucker - Lap your mold out! Heat the whole mold between casts. Inspect your boolit while the mold is on the heater. The aluminum plate stores heat and evens out the hot plate's fluctuations. It heats up the mold fast! Casting speed now has nothing to do with mold temp

leftie is dead on with the above. I HP a mold and had trouble until tried what he recommended, now it throws them near perfect.

[Rockchucker]

I do use the aluminum plate on top of the hot plate but never thought of drilling a hole for the pin to go thru, great idea. Hope that knob comes off without destroying it. I'm also going to lap that mold out some more after I find some more 9/16 nuts to pour my lead thru. Thanks for all the reply's guys. I would still like to see some of your pictures. Got an email from Magma yesterday, said my Star shipped...yea hoo!

[MikeS]

I've only ever cast HPs with 2 different moulds, so my experience is limited, but I found that once the moulds were properly preheated that I could cast HPs with my pot at the same setting (650F) as I cast my other boolits with. One of those moulds was a Mihec 200gr 45 cal boolit, the other was a Lee 2 cavity 228gr 45 cal mould modified by Erik @hollowpointmold.com using his new v2 inset bar system. I've since sold the Mihec mould, as my gun didn't like them (it doesn't like any boolit where the nose goes directly into the driving bands without a shoulder of some sort). I haven't tried the HPs from Erik's mould yet, I'm hoping that due to that boolit design needing to be seated sort of deeply, so the nose starts tapering much quicker, that my gun might let them chamber the way they should.

[fredj338]

Easer yet cast your RNFP or your SWC and use a drill and drill out the nose with a 1/8 and then widen out the mouth with a 1/4 or 3/8 drill bit

It's just not easier. You do one step w/ a HP mold. Casting & then drilling, it's multiple steps, no way is it faster. You want faster, get a Cramer mold done by Erik & HPMS. A 4cav Cramer casts as fast as a 4cav solid.

[Blammer]

I just use normal WW's nothing special, I cast fairly hot and FAST.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Cast%20boolits/45ACP/DSCN8022.jpg

[Blammer]

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Cast%20boolits/45ACP/DSCN8024.jpg

[Rockchucker]

Nice looking Hollow Points Blammer, The noses look filled out nice. I'm definably removing the wooden knob on my pin and heat it thru a hole in my aluminum plate.

[finishman2000]

i'm makin hp's with my mastercaster. pops them out like chicklets. also hollow base wadcutters.

[DLCTEX]

I heat the pin with a propane torch and then cast fast with a preheated mould. Good boolits from the start to finish.

[leftiye]

I guess you could set the mold on a hot plate with a plate on top, and pour with a ladle while the mold was still on the hot plate. Shouldn't slow anything down much if any.

[Nrut]

White Eagle, What makes ladle pouring better that bottom pouring for hollow points, Several have said the same thing?
Ladle pouring is akin to pressure casting with a bottom pour pot that has a nozzle that fits the spure plate..
Like LEE pots..
Keep the pot at least half full..
I don't ladle pour and I have "zero" problems filling out with HP molds..
Sometimes I pressure cast and sometimes I don't, depending on fill out..
Same goes for non-HP molds
I don't heat the HP pin every cast either, only when needed and only buy sticking the pin in the melt..
My alloy's are straight WW or 50/50 WW/pb..
Pot temps are seldom over 750*, usually closer to 675*-700*..
I cast FAST once the mold is up to temp and vary my casting speed to mold temp and bullet quality..
If you don't use BullPlate then get some..
BullPlate has improved my casting than any other product..

oh and don't buy any more lyman molds unless you want to size your bullet down for PP use.. :popcorn: