Accurate molds

[MikeS]

Ok, this is getting ridiculous. Somebody needs to let Tom know that a week has 7 days in it, NOT 1. On his website it says the current delivery is three weeks. Well, I ordered a mould on the 7th (I just logged into my PayPal account to check what day I paid him), and here I am looking at my new mould 3 days later! (which I received on the 10th!) I'm wondering if I need to send it back to him so he can send it to me later so he's closer to his stated wait time? The only thing I can think is that maybe he made this mould for somebody else who canceled, so he already had it sitting around waiting for somebody to buy it? But I don't know if that's it either, as it looks like it's a slightly different design than the last 4 cavity brass mould, a progression of the design? On my other mould there are 2 grooves cut on the outside of the mould, that look like maybe there's designed for something to mount into them, or something, when I think they're really there in an effort to make the mould lighter. The new mould also has the grooves, but instead of being all the way thru they stop before the bottom of the mould, and look much more like they're there only for weight reduction. Also the sprue plate is the newer design with the trough between cavities. Here are some pix (sorry they're not better, took them real quick with my phone, the new mould is on the bottom, the older one on the top):

[Tar Heel]

It's a Utah thing. The cold affects their ability to determine days. Since there is nothing else to do whilst snowed in for 9 months, they also answer email on Sunday, at 4:30 AM on Tuesday, etc..

Definitely a cold thing going on there. Be quiet about it will ya? Don't tip them off to this....my other mold is on the way too and I hope it arrives Monday, not in "3 weeks".

[GaryN]

Let's see we got two more days til' Christmas, right? I guess I better get shopping.

[Tar Heel]

OK...here they are. My very first cast RIFLE bullets. Sure are looooong and not short & fat like handgun bullets. Had to keep the mold on the downspout and use the 20 pounds of metal to fill out the base. I'm real happy with this mold. It casts 376 in WW just as advertised!

[41 mag fan]

Man I ordered mine on the 8th.......still waiting.

Guess he liked the idea of warmer climate than Utah or Indiana

[Tar Heel]

Got in the 41 cal mold today. I fired it up tonight and noticed a few things. It has the grooved sprue cutter that some are raving about and others are waiting for the jury for. I have to say folks, I am not a fan of the grooved sprue cutter plate on dual cavity molds. I am using a Lyman Mag-20 furnace and if you dribble the melt, it will goop up one of the holes before you are ready for it. If you hold the mold against the nozzle, the lead will now squeeze out around the hole you are feeding and stop up the other hole. I like the dual holes! Minor thing but important for the rig you are using to feed the molds.

I think I have boogered up the mold already. After about 30 bullets, I noticed that the mold, rather than being bright and shiny, was rough like an emery board. I cooled off the mold and sure enough, it feels like sandpaper in the mold. Can someone shed some light on this? This is the only mold I have (out of 24 molds) that has this surface condition after casting a couple dozed bullets. It is an aluminum mold. I have other aluminum molds; some are 25 years old and are as shiny as the day I bought them. I just can't figure this out.

[turbo1889]

As far as the time thing goes on delivery from Tom I have my suspicions that he has been taking Scotty's advice from the original Star-Trek about giving time estimates for completion of work although I did have one mold from him that actually did take as long as he said it would all the rest have been a matter of days.

[white eagle]

he is getting back to the old days when he first started
you would order a mold on Monday have it no later than Friday
often times sooner
Hi Tom

[TomAM]

Tar Heel, sometimes during break-in of an aluminum mold little droplets of alloy will stick to the cavities. This doesn't last long, and during the period that it's happening, they are easily removed using a QTip while the mold is at casting temperature. Any alloy that sticks to any mold should be wiped off while the mold is hot. Never try to scrape off lead from a cold mold.

I'm going to add a feature to the website where you can choose which sprew plate type you prefer. I'm no fan of the trough myself, but I was getting heavy demand for it, so I added it.

[white eagle]

I don't know I kinda like it
I do like the old style sprue hardware though
just for the curb appeal though

[Tar Heel]

Tar Heel, sometimes during break-in of an aluminum mold little droplets of alloy will stick to the cavities. This doesn't last long, and during the period that it's happening, they are easily removed using a QTip while the mold is at casting temperature. Any alloy that sticks to any mold should be wiped off while the mold is hot. Never try to scrape off lead from a cold mold.

I'm going to add a feature to the website where you can choose which sprew plate type you prefer. I'm no fan of the trough myself, but I was getting heavy demand for it, so I added it.

Whew. No need for the Dremmel tool huh? I couldn't let this alone so I attacked the mold with a dry QTip after it cooled. I noticed the sparkles coming off so assumed it had to be alloy. I have them all shiny again and am ready for a run later. I have never had this happen before, that I recall, so got real worried that I had boogered the mold up somehow. Thanks for the post and advice.

Regarding sprue plates....when using the Lyman Mag-20 furnace, I prefer the non-grooved sprue plate. This is the first mold I have used with the groove and the Mag-20, and the combination doesn't work for me. The user choice idea on the web site is a great idea. To be honest however, I would not have known the difference until I tried it.

Thanks for the FANTASTIC mold.

[MikeS]

Tom: I'll put in another vote for no trough. I much prefer that each cavity have it's own hole totally separate from the others. The latest mould I got from you (the 452195H) works great! You must have given the blocks a lead repellent treatment, when I open the mould the boolits just fall right out! Am I correct that the grooves on the outside of the blocks are to reduce weight? Or do they serve some other purpose?

[white eagle]

Mike that would be my guess
unless Tom is making a new style of mold handle

[TomAM]

Mike, see post #15 of this thread:http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=131350

[Tar Heel]

Man I ordered mine on the 8th.......still waiting.

Guess he liked the idea of warmer climate than Utah or Indiana

Did ya get them yet?????

[NoZombies]

I understand that needing a meplat of some size (I forget what it is) is a requirement for lathe boring moulds, or so say Accurate, and Mountain molds. So I was wondering how Lee who claims their moulds are lathe bored, not cherry cut, makes their pointed and round nose boolit moulds? Assuming for the moment that Lee uses some kind of very expensive lathe that's out of reach of the smaller custom mould makers, I was thinking of something else. Would it be possible for someone like Accurate to make their moulds the way they've been doing them, then add an operation that would use a drill with a pre-formed shape to go in and finish cutting the nose, either on a round nose design, or a pointed design? I don't know if Tom is using a turret lathe when he makes the moulds or not, but if he is, I would think that adding a drill cut with the shape of the nose (a semi-cherry?) into one of the stations on the turret wouldn't be that difficult. And I'm sure that to a person that wants a particular design, if being able to get it, but with say a $25.00 premium added to the cost of the mould, was possible, I doubt the extra fee would stop them from getting it.

Lee is now cherry cutting their molds. However, a lathe bored mold can be made with round or pointed nose profiles by using a form tool. Lee could justify this based on their limited number of designs. Someone like accurate would have to charge considerably more to make these types, as the form tools would be unique to each design, or at least, not usable on very many.

Accurate will make a single mold of the design you want. Custom molds cut with "universal" tooling are expensive enough to produce, if each custom mold required custom tooling, it would be cost prohibitive.

[41 mag fan]

Did ya get them yet?????

Well Tom likes the Indiana Corn fed!!
Ordered mine on the 8th, got it in today.....so feast your eyes.
Sorry for the bad pics, my phone totally sucks on the camera.
I'd use BIG MOMMAS I phone, but this is one of those..oh I've had that for awhile, just haven't got around to playing with it till now.








This mold looks 1000 times better than my ph camera takes pics of.

[Tar Heel]

Tell me you didn't cast all those today! What do you shoot those in??

[Tar Heel]

I don't see a 477420R mold on his web site. What are these for??

[BulletFactory]

Toms molds are awesome, so is the service. They are, IMO, the benchmark for molds.