How to make perfectly round balls?

[Naphtali]

Where can a casting or swaging or other?? device be obtained to make RBs without male or female sprues -- that is, nearly perfectly round? Ball diameter I cannot identify beyond writing .69-.72-caliber.

I am less interested in the mechanics of the device as I am just achieving as close to perfectly round balls as I can make. My experience with rolling balls to minimize sprue irregularity is that irregularity remains.

This is not a hypothetical query. I do not need the device day-after-tomorrow. But I will need it within the year.

[longbow]

Try here:

http://www.corbins.com/bsk-1.htm

They say you can swage balls up to an inch in diameter. This is likely the best you are going to get other than buying swaged balls of the size you want but they will likely have dimples from handling.

Why the quest for such perfection? Just curious.

Longbow

[Pepe Ray]

I'm also curious as to why you think there is such a need for perfection.
Are you always in need of perfection or have you found some legitimate reason?

Moving into swagging is stepping away from the economical side of boolet making.
This, you will observe as you shop for new equipment. I wish you good luck in your search for the perfect round ball. Keep in touch.
Pepe Ray

[Jim]

I have a 7 qt. enameled stew pot in my shop just for this purpose. To start, Lee's RB molds have virtually no sprue. There's a mark on the RB, alright, but it ain't much of one. After casting enough to cover about 3/4(?) the bottom of the pot, they go in the pot and I sit on my bench and swirl them around in the pot for about 5 minutes. Gently does it, with one side of the pot elevated. The RBs are rolling and banging against each other and you would think this would deform them. Not so! It uniforms them very nicely.
When I'm done, I usually take a half dozen or so to my wife and ask her to find the sprue marks. If she can show me a couple, they go back in. Most of the time, she can't find any.
I won't make any claims about being able to hit a nat at 100 yds. shotting off hand through a 30 MPH cross wind, but I DO know this HAS improved my accuracy SOME.

[44man]

I have to ask the purpose also, WHY?
The sprue has never been a problem and I shoot my muzzle loaders to 200 yards. I just stick it up and seldom does it really stay straight up.
All of my rifles shoot clover leafs at 50 and groups only open normally at distance the same as any other rifle.
Seated and fit to the bore properly takes them out of round anyway.
The sprue is 100% a non issue!

[RugerFan]

Lee's RB molds have virtually no sprue. There's a mark on the RB, alright, but it ain't much of one.[/B]

I agree. No real sprue to speak of on the Lee mould RBs.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

I don't make or shoot roundballs, but the following arrangement has worked for me making pretty near perfect round wooden balls of various sizes. a wooden frame about 4 or more inches deep and the width of a belt sander belt...usually 4 or 6 inches wide. It can't lie on the belt or it'll get sanded too, so elevate it a little to sit just above the belt. Use a fine or very fine belt....put you lead round balls in the frame and run the machine for a short while. A cardboard cover will, if necessary keep any of the spheres from possibly bouncing out. Any sprues or other out of exterior circle bumps or projections will quickly disappear, but keep a close eye on time and diameters. LLS

[Naphtali]

Loading Fergusons is the answer.

Rolling balls into the chamber means random distribution of sprue -- that is, inaccuracy. Eliminate irregularity, eliminate that source of inaccuracy.

Thanks for the Corbin link.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

I had an old gunsmith friend, one of the originals of the N-SSA, who is now deceased.

To reduce the sprues on RB he had two pieces of 1/2" plate surface ground on both sides and a 6" slice of very thick walled steel pipe, carefully machined to be true I'm sure. He put the RB in the pipe slice as it sat on one of the plates on his workbench, put the other plate on top of the slice and swirled the top plate around in a changing pattern till the RB were perfect, diameter determined by the slice height. Sprues disappeared. BvT

[750k2]

There was a guy on another forum some time ago who used a vibratory case cleaner.
Be sure you keep your balls in a single layer though.
It works.

[KCSO]

Here is one answer, a rolling mill. Mine is 6" in diameter and consists of a lower tray with a rim to contain the balls and an upper section that rotates the balls. The upper section is a 6" plate with a shank to fit in the drill press. You put the balls in the pan, turn on the dril press and lower the plate and the lightly oiled balls spin and rotate and the sprues dissapear and the balls are round. I made mine from scrap and it has worked for years.

[KCSO]

Oh I forgot one thing, the rolled balls don't shoot any better!

[44man]

Oh I forgot one thing, the rolled balls don't shoot any better!
Right on!
I went through a lot of that stuff long ago but it never improved a single thing.

[StarMetal]

Doesn't Lee RB moulds cut the sprue at a tangent leaving less of a sprue then a normal mould?

KSCO, as usual, is correct about the shooting part.

Joe

[DLCTEX]

The only drawback to the Lee mould in this case would be obtaining a size that would fit the Ferguson the selection may not provide the correct size. What dia. ball is needed? Beyond that, I would wager that after the trip down the bore the Lee ball will shoot as well as anything you can produce by the suggested methods. I have wondered if the Ferguson doesn't leave air space in the chamber? If not how is it prevented?

[44man]

The only drawback to the Lee mould in this case would be obtaining a size that would fit the Ferguson the selection may not provide the correct size. What dia. ball is needed? Beyond that, I would wager that after the trip down the bore the Lee ball will shoot as well as anything you can produce by the suggested methods. I have wondered if the Ferguson doesn't leave air space in the chamber? If not how is it prevented?
Be nice to see a picture of the gun and how it works.