lead toy airplane mold/ help needed

[gunoil]

i have mold for toy lead airplane. wonder if any members have ever cast with lead toy molds. Would like a few tips. I want to make a few and epoxy paint them.

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k511/putt2012/e68823a2.jpg

real hard to find info on al gore's web.

[richhodg66]

I've never done it, but have always been intrigued by it. Tin soldier molds used to be very popular I understand. Seems like lead fantasy figurine molds came into their own a few years ago, not sure they still do.

Seems like the alloy the hobby shops used to sell for casting them was mostly tin from what my dad told me. You may want to look around for some thrift store pewter. Could you post a pic of the mold?

[jabo52521]

Yeah. Sour love to it.

[kenyerian]

Dad helped us kids mold toy solders back in the 50's. I was pretty young then but if i remember right we just used old lead pipe. I'm not sure what happened to the molds. We did a lot of fishing and went through a lot of sinkers so when dad was making sinkers we would get to make some toys. If we broke any of them we would just throw them in the pot and recast them. We used model car paint to paint them with.

[Blacksmith]

I did lead solders as a kid (I wish I still had that set) you smoked the mold with a candle we used plumbers lead. Those were the flat kind. I have also cast more modern ones in silicon rubber molds they were with a pewter alloy (full round figures).

If I was to do it today I would do it just like casting Boolits.

[Sasquatch-1]

+1 on the thrift store pewter. Might even be a good use for some of the zinc WW if you can get the mold hot enough without damaging it.

Would love to see what they look like in various stages as you make them.

[theperfessor]

A friend of mine was into casting lead figurines. He used to sell them at his church's flea market every year. He sold the molds a few years ago and gave me all his left over castings. I've got about 200 lbs of toy soldiers, etc.

I won't sell them for the same reason my friend got out of the business, they will eventually get melted. Why not sell them?

LIABILITY!

Imagine being taken to (federal) court for selling a kids toy made of LEAD!

Not to rain on your parade, but think about it before selling anything that could be taken as a kid's toy made out of lead. Better to be safe and not sorry.

[Blacksmith]

One of our advertizers, Roto Metals, sells several lead free pewter alloys.
http://www.rotometals.com/Pewter-Alloys-s/23.htm
As the professor says probably better for a toy sombody might give to a kid.

The wing is marked U.S. Army so it is probably from Army Air Corps time frame.

[Bad Water Bill]

I can remember casting lead soldiers on the cast iron stove in the basement.

Do not ask me for ANY info as that was well over 65 years ago and I am lucky I can still remember my name.

[gunoil]

thanks , rotometals is in my favorite places. I will post pics of finished painted airplane. My new lee 124gr RN 6-cavity came in. Got lube reccommended by member here on ebay.




harleykitplane.com

[Hamish]

Yeah. Sour love to it.

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Thanks for posting a pic of the mold. Neat stuff.

[WILCO]

I am lucky I can still remember my name.

I just read the name on my underware......... :mrgreen:

[Blacksmith]

So you are Fruit of The Loom!:kidding:

[429421Cowboy]

That means not buying used underwear!

Very neat mold! I would love to see pictures of the steps after you cast a few.

[plmitch]

What a great mold!!! Please post a pic or two when you do cast with it.

[Longwood]

.

harleykitplane.com



I doubt if they get far with that project.
Harley Davidson shut down HogAir.
Many of those new aircraft design people are scammers with no intention of ever producing a product.
They take customers and investors money then disappear.

The plane kit looks like it needs to be soldered together.
The alloy you cast them with could be an issue if that is the case.

[Love Life]

I have a couple of toy soldier molds spanning from the Civil War to World War Two (Soldier era, not manufacture date). I use 20:1 PB:Tin to start. If that doesn't do it then I adjust alloy as needed (read add more tin and less lead). I have used close to pure lead, but never got the results a higher tin alloy gave me.

I do several things:
Preheat cavities with propane torch (burn the old out of the cavities)
Set molds on hotplate. I only cast one mold at a time. It is hard to keep a "4 cav" toy soldier mold up to temp.
Have patience. My reject rate is above 50%. That is because I only keep the dang near perfect ones!

Surprisingly I get better results ladle pouring my toy soldiers than I do using a bottom pour running full out.

When you cast a bunch of toy planes I would love to see some of them.

[geargnasher]

I haven't bent my mind to it, but I'm certain you could use a lead-free alloy of some sort and still be able to solder the parts together with a lower melt-point solder. I'm thinking mainly tin-based alloy.

You could also cast them out of pewter (new or scrap pewter) and epoxy the pieces together with JB Weld or similar.

Gear

[gunoil]

will get pics of (3"wingspan)airplane mold piece completed w/paint.

i cast (my first)124 gr ,6 cav mold, 9mm RN last nite an aloxed em. Are great!

I may hunt some pewter for 3 inch lead aiaplane mold.

LONGWOOD; brett (hogair)is still in bizz, with indian motocycle.

LONGLIFE:will try hot plate, You say tin soder will mix with lead at what temp?

[msgtusarmy]

what ever you do do NOT use any zinc based metal..I have seen these mold MELT pre heating with a torch...Caution !..the mold is zinc....use a high tin alloy only!. the melting point is much lower than lead and casts much better, if you can get a lead free pewter it will cast much better. I have some of the orig molds from this company that made that mold you have .They made many military molds as well as cartoon strip characters of the WW II time period. The company split and the brothers went seperate ways, one taking the military molds , the other taking the Cartoon Molds. The cartoon molds tooling were destroyed during WWII for the metal for the war effort.:killingpc
Sad..there are far and few molds out there of them. A company called Castings still produces the military ones . Hope that helps , good history lesson too...

[Blacksmith]

Amazing they still sell a metal mold similar to the one in the OP. They have a lot of other interesting molds maybe I'll have to expand my casting activities.

They also offer silicon rubber mold making kits. I wonder if you could make prototype cast Bollits in a silicon mold to test boolits before cutting a cherry? Make a prototype on a lathe, previously split before turning, then make the mold halves. Cast, size, lube and shoot then make adjustments before you make a cherry and cut a mold.

Might be a niche market for someone with a lathe making prototype Boolit molds.

http://www.miniaturemolds.com/index.htm