copper tape/foil

[Frank46]

Got a question. Has anyone here ever heard of using the copper tape/foil that is used in working with stained glass for increasing the diameter of a boolit. Supposedly these rolls come in different sizes as to width and the idea is that you cut to the diameter of the existing boolit then apply the tape minus its backing thereby exposing the glue. I have heard this some time ago but cannot for the life of me remember where (CRS) Frank

[Texasflyboy]

Here is a nice article on taping molds. It works, I've used it for some time with my enfields.

http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting/castingcouch/index.asp

[Shepherd2]

I don't see why it wouldn't work. I have a roll of the tape from back when stained glass was a hobby of mine. The roll I have is labeled 1/4" by 36 yards. Twenty years ago it wasn't very expensive. I don't remember if it came in various widths since I didn't work with it much. The adhesive should hold up to heat. In stained glass you fluxed the tape and coated it with solder using a soldering iron, of course.

My caution would be about somehow getting boolit alloy on the copper foil. Might be like sweating copper pipes. Shouldn't be a problem. I've got a mould I want to "Beagle" and I've got the copper foil so I'll give it a try.

[sundog]

Yes, it's commonly reffered to as 'beagling' after its inventor, our very own, Beagle. Many of us have been doing for quite awhile now, and in most cases, it works very well. The tape is aluminium, not copper, and can also be used for shimming, as it stays in places while working.

I enjoyed the article, although I breezed through it fairly quickly. It seems to be a synopsis of what has been discussed here and on the old shooters board, and fairly well written. The full color photos lend a great deal to the discussion. Too bad the writer didn't give credit to Beagle as I suspect he got the idea here. I suspicion that because he also mentioned 6.5 Swede and a custom mould that he didn't have any experience with - may very well be the group buy OF mould. Anyway his comment about the Swede not shooting cast is not correct, it can. It does. One thing not mentioned is critical in that the tape must be evenly distrubuted to avoid any type of misalignment, mainly tipping of the blocks. sundog

[44man]

Guys, I think Frank was asking about wrapping a boolit like a paper patch. Doesn't sound like a good idea though because I don't know whether it would separate in the bore and cause an obstruction. If it would glue on good with the self adhesive and could be wrapped around under the boolit base it might stay on but what a mess the base would be, no longer flat and even with messed up edges.

[JBMauser]

I read your question and I think you are looking to patch up the bullet with the copper foil rather than beagle up your mold. I have not done this but I would think that if you used the same principals as used in paper patching it should work. With a paper patch you want the bullet to be at least the dia. of the bore. That means that if you dropped the bullet down the barrel it would just ride on or be slightly etched by the lands. you could easily push the bullet through the barrel. The thickness of the foil would be equal to the hight of the rifling. I think the concern would be if the core bullet was to small it could strip from the jacket /foil and be left behind in the barrel. This sometimes happened to guys who took military ball ammo and cut the tips off to make them lead head hunting bullets. The cores went down range and the jacket stayed put. You will have the friction of the copper foil and the adheasion of the glue to figure in. if the glue lets go before the copper slides...well. My guess and it is only a guess is that the friction of the copper would be greater than the release of the glue even with the pressure of the compression of the core as it hit the lands. I would be interested in your results if you move forward with this project. You may want to consider paper as is commonly done as it has much less friction than guilding metal. JB

[44man]

JB, you said it much better then I did. The only caution we should have put in is that he has to look down the bore after every shot, forever, and not depend on some leaving OK. It only takes that one------------

[Frank46]

Guys, Thanks for the comments. The article in question did mention applying the coper foil/tape after removing the backing. Much like some of today's rubber strechable electrical tapes. The jist of the article was to use the tape much like paper patching to increase the diameter of cast boolits that are not large enough to fit its intended bore. And I whole hartedly agree that one should examine the bore for any copper tape/foil that could possibly cause a bore obstruction. If I could only remember where I read about it. May well have been the CBA. Thanks Frank

[beagle]

sundog...Yeah, he got it here. That's Ultramag44 and use to post on Shooters. He and I have corresponded for years.

No matter who writes about or claims it, me and Orygun Mark did it first with maybe a little help from Petey./beagle


Yes, it's commonly reffered to as 'beagling' after its inventor, our very own, Beagle. Many of us have been doing for quite awhile now, and in most cases, it works very well. The tape is aluminium, not copper, and can also be used for shimming, as it stays in places while working.

I enjoyed the article, although I breezed through it fairly quickly. It seems to be a synopsis of what has been discussed here and on the old shooters board, and fairly well written. The full color photos lend a great deal to the discussion. Too bad the writer didn't give credit to Beagle as I suspect he got the idea here. I suspicion that because he also mentioned 6.5 Swede and a custom mould that he didn't have any experience with - may very well be the group buy OF mould. Anyway his comment about the Swede not shooting cast is not correct, it can. It does. One thing not mentioned is critical in that the tape must be evenly distrubuted to avoid any type of misalignment, mainly tipping of the blocks. sundog