Does anyone have a 31133 mold?

I finally found an Ideal 31133 mold but it is missing the hollow point pin. It is in excellent shape so I am thrill with my acquisition. Less than $50 so how could I resist? It will keep my 3118 company on those long winter nights.
I have never used a hollow point mold so I need a few pointers before I make the pin.
The big question is, how tight of a fit should it be? Is it supposed to be retained as a pressure fit when I close the mold? Should it be a slip fit?
I have no problem making a pin but I need to know how it is suppose to fit. I looked on YouTube and I could not find anyone casting with an old ideal hollow point mold.
Thanks,
SPJ

There should be a screw on the bottom that holds it in place and it needs to be a slip fit so when the heat causes everything to expand you can get it out!

You have found a good one. A HP pin is no trouble to fabricate with common hand tools.

You'll need:
electric drill/drill press
assortment of bits
flat file
small set vise grips
phillips screwdriver
felt tip marker
dremel tool with cut off wheel
calipers are nice to have
4-40 tap/handle

The original pins were made in common drill rod sizes. They're kind of a loose slip fit. Too big and you get binding. Too small and you get flashing. Take a drill index and use drills to find the correct size. As I recall, the two 31133s I have are .140". Go to Ace hardware and pick up a couple of threaded aluminum spacers. As I recall they're 1/4" OD. Take 'em home and drill them for whatever diameter you need (they're already D & T so there's no centering problem. At Ace pick up some 4-40 SS screws about 1" long. At Hobby Lobby pick up some wooden knobs about 1 1/2" in diameter. Drill center hole to fit aluminum spacer.

Cut a piece of drill rod about 2" long. Chuck in electric drill and use a flat file to shape point of pin. End should be slightly tapered and smooth. Polish with emery cloth.

Place new pin in mould. Rule of thumb is pin extends 1/2 the length of bullet. Place pin in spacer. Spacer should touch mould. Mark bottom of space with felt tip. Cut off pin with dremel tool and cut off wheel.

Drill and tap spacer for 4-40 screw to fit under screw on bottom of mould and secure spacer to pin. Tighten screw and use dremel to fit under screw head. This retains pin during casting.

Insert end of spacer in wooden knob. Drill through knob to spacer. Drill and tap for 4-40 and use screw to secure handle to spacer/pin assy. After the first effort, you can make one in about 30 minutes.

If you have difficulties, PM me. We'll hook up by e-mail and get one made./beagle

I found a 31133 mold with the pin in a sheriff's auction about 30 years ago. I small local shop had closed after being sued by creditors and the court ordered the assets sold. The auction was an extremely casual event. I got several quality molds and other materials from the sale, including a trigger plate for a '98 Mauser that was set up for DST (double set triggers). I acquired a new kick-off for it from Brownell's but never found a Mauser worth installing it into. This sale was a bitter-sweet event for me. The owner and I were (and still are) good friends. About 10 years ago he moved back into this area and we got re-acquainted. One day he was talking about that sale and the Mauser DST plate he would love to find. Soon after that I gifted the DST group and kick-off back to him and refused his offer to pay for it. This is just the way I deal with friends. He promptly applied the DST to a '98 he had been working on for a while. As for the 31133, I gave some of these boolits (ACWW) to a friend who loaded them into .30 Carbine brass for his own use. He reported back that their performance in the field was "explosive". With a softer alloy this boolit at about 100 grains is a candidate for 32 Long or Magnum or cat sneeze loads in any .30 caliber rifle. Congratulations for your finding a jewel. Also - if you want to install original Lyman pins and screws on the bottom of the mold, Lyman still has these available. My mold already had them, but I have used these on other molds I have converted to HP. Call Lyman and smile with your original parts.

I have a 31133 that I made a much fatter and deeper HP pin for. It’s great out of my .32-20s on water-filled household containers.

I found a slight draft or bottom-to-top taper is needed, and the business end of the pin needs to be polished down to crocus cloth finish. It also helps to heat-blue the pin with a propane torch.

Make your cross-pin hole and cross-pin a little larger than needed, then file a flat on top of it so it locks in straight on the screw-and-stop setup on the bottom of the mould. A second cross-pin in the shank will help keep the wood handle you will need to make from coming off, but scoring on the shank and a good glue can work for quite a while.

I don’t use a hot plate much when casting. For hollow points, I pour the lead into the mould without the pin present until the HP pin channel is filled with lead, and some comes out the end. Then I dip the HP pin in the molten lead until it no longer sticks, and insert it into the mould and start casting. I always twist the HP pin out of the mould before cutting the sprue, otherwise the boolit will rotate around in the mould and will have to be melted off the pin.

I see a reference to a screw on the bottom of the mold but mine does not have one. Maybe it is an older model or I am misunderstanding. I made a pin loosely following Beagles directions except is is turned out of a piece of scrap brass. I turned my taper a little too far and ended up with a little flash but I can live with it until I get more time to re-do it. I still need to find a wooden knob or turn one if I get time for that. I used to have some spalted maple that would look nice but I have no idea where that went! I was able to cast a few with a torch and ladle because time would not allow heating up a pot full. Five of them weighed 500.5 grains so I think the pin is about right. I made the pin .158” diameter to fit the hole. I used Beagles drill trick and it worked like a charm.
Attachment 214939Attachment 214940Attachment 214941Attachment 214942Attachment 214943Attachment 214944

I was wondering by your description if it was one of the older integral molds.

You did it right, friction fit, but you'll probably find it casts and releases a little easier if you add a bit more draft to the pin where it's inside the cavity, not a lot is needed, but it really does make a difference!

It's hard to see but I turned about a 1 1/2 degree draft and it releases pretty easy. A couple of times it didn't require any more than cracking the mold and a bump with the mallet and the pin fell out. I hope with some use it seasons and gets even better. My biggest Fuber was not stopping the draft before it exited the mold body. That little bit of flashing its bugging me, but I will know better when I turn it next time.

Or send it to Eric @ hollowpointmolds.com 50 bucks for the correct pin or larger if you like

That looks really good, as do the results. If you make a flat end top punch, you ought to be able to make that trivial amount of flash disappear when you size and lube the boolits.

If you’re really creative, you can make a flat top punch with a little projection on the end that goes into the hollow point and keeps it wide open as the boolit is sized. But the flat punch alone shouldn’t collapse the cavity much, if at all; there’s still plenty of rim around your hollow point.

[QUOTE=
If you’re really creative, you can make a flat top punch with a little projection on the end that goes into the hollow point and keeps it wide open as the boolit is sized.[/QUOTE]
If I were really creative I would have thought of that :bigsmyl2:
That is a good idea and one I will pursue if touching up my pin doesn't work.
Thanks for the idea.

Got my new pin made and cast some new boolits.
They turned out much better. About one and one half grains lighter so I need to trim the pin length must a touch.
Attachment 215365

The first 31133 was cataloged in about 1911, so your not having a screw to hold a pin would be about the right date. Yours look like devastators that Lyman never fielded.

I made a spare pin/knob assemble for mine. I found that the original pin made a cavity that was too large as I was shooting it in a M1 Carbine. The .125" I replaced the original pin with worked much better in the carbine with it's higher velocity./beagle

Quote:

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Originally Posted by georgewxxx

The first 31133 was cataloged in about 1911, so your not having a screw to hold a pin would be about the right date. Yours look like devastators that Lyman never fielded.

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I think the oldest catalog I've seen that had mold numbers was around 1897, and the 31133 was listed in that catalog, along with various other 'express' bullets.