Does Magma sell mold parts?

[6bg6ga]

Thinking about purchasing either a MAster CAster of a Ballisti-cast machine. The question is do either sell sprue plates and the mold keys? I have some standard two cavity molds that I would like to use with the casting machine. Looking at the Magma mold line up it doesn't look like they carry a 230gr rd nose 45acp with a flat base. I have already purchased molds for 185 and 200 gr semi wad cutter. Can you adapt 4 cavity molds to work?

[Roundnoser]

Give Magma a call. I know they convert 2 cavity molds for use in the MasterCaster machines. The blocks would have to be milled on the sides to accept the keys, and drilled to accept the sprue pin / sprue assembly. All the the parts mentioned are available individually from Magma.

I dont believe you can adapt the 4 cav. to work.

[6bg6ga]

All I need are the mold keys and sprue plates. I can machine the molds as needed to provide a .312 slot and drill the holes. Actually the Magma molds that I own have a .320 slot. So the machining is no problem. I have sent them two emails that haven't been answered yet.

I believe I can machine some special mold keys to accommodate my 4 cavity molds. Its worth a try to see if the 4 cavity molds will work or not.

[Moonman]

6bg6ga,

How do you plan to have the Master Caster or Ballisti-Cast machine FILL 4 CAVITIES. The machines are 2 cavity fill.

Ballisti-Cast makes molds to fit the Magma too, so Mike Sand at Ballisti-Cast could possibly hook you up with keys and sprue plates.

[D Crockett]

6bg6ba you can not make a 4 cavity mould work unless maby and I say maby. if you cut a chanel in the spew plate so the lead will travel from one cavity when full to the other empty cavity. and I would put a dam in the middle so the lead will only flow one way. the big question is will it work. I have no idea but would be intersting to find out. if money wasn't so tight right now I would try that. let us know if it works D Crockett

[williamwaco]

Go to the guys who know...

http://www.magmaengineering.com/bullet-molds/

[runfiverun]

you could fill the mold "on the move".
you would need an off set on the mold key because the handle bottoms out.
and you definatly would need to re-work the sprue cutter for the machine to be semi-automatic like it is.
otherwise you could open the sprue by hand let the halves separate and dump the boolits out.

btw magma's 230 rn mold has a round base about like lymans 452664 has.
if you can machine a mold you can easily remove enough of that little base roll [i done it with an x-acto knife and patience] to not notice it.

[6bg6ga]

6bg6ga,

How do you plan to have the Master Caster or Ballisti-Cast machine FILL 4 CAVITIES. The machines are 2 cavity fill.

Ballisti-Cast makes molds to fit the Magma too, so Mike Sand at Ballisti-Cast could possibly hook you up with keys and sprue plates.

Well I don't have the machine yet but what I was thinking was if the machine has a removable plate that the lead goes thru to fill the mold then how hard would it be to machine a different plate? One that would allow for a 4 cavity to receive the lead as the 2 cavity does.

[6bg6ga]

you could fill the mold "on the move".
you would need an off set on the mold key because the handle bottoms out.
and you definately would need to re-work the sprue cutter for the machine to be semi-automatic like it is.
otherwise you could open the sprue by hand let the halves separate and dump the boolits out.

btw magma's 230 rn mold has a round base about like lymans 452664 has.
if you can machine a mold you can easily remove enough of that little base roll [i done it with an x-acto knife and patience] to not notice it.

I had in mind to make my own sprue cutter plate so I could try a 4 cavity mold and make my own keys for the 4 cavity mold.

I seem to be having trouble getting Magma to answer my emails as of yet. having read a number of posts on a number of different boards I have discovered that apparently Magma has said that casting round balls and or mini balls can't be done either. Hollow points cannot be done either from what I have read. So what I am thinking is that possibly they have something good going with standard molds and simply do not want to complicate things.

[GabbyM]

Pretty sure they sell round ball molds.

[runfiverun]

and erick will change their molds over to do hollow points.
i keep hemming and hawing on having him do a couple that i have 2 cav's for the master caster and 4 cav's for hand casting with.
http://www.hollowpointmold.com/
look here.

[ballisti-cast]

2 cavity molds are relatively easy to convert to go on either our machine or Magmas. I don't think you'd have much luck with a 4 cavity mold though as the lead is supposed to drop right into the mold cavity and not have to flow over the sprue plate. With a 4 cavity mold the lead would have to flow through a trough in the sprue plate and thus be cooled substantially by the time it reached the outside cavities and you'd struggle with mold fill out. I've never actually tried it though.

[6bg6ga]

Ever think about doing a group buy on your caster?

[6bg6ga]

What i was thinking was manufacturing a different plate for the lead pot and that plate would have 4 tubes in which the lead would flow thru and thus load each bullet compartment at the same time.

[ballisti-cast]

The challenge of making the machine so it could except 4 cavity molds would be the sprue plate. I've thought about it a little bit and I don't think there's a way to modify either the Mark IV or Master Caster to accept a 4 cavity mold without re-designing most of the machine. We will be doing a group by for the Mark IV, but not until I have 10 of them built and sitting on the shelf. That will let me ship them as soon as the Group Buy is full and also let me figure out how much I can cut the price when I build them in a batch of 10.

[6bg6ga]

Thanks for the information and I am surely interested in your machine. I cannot see detailed information from the pictures I have seen but from the detail I see I am impressed with the design.

[RoGrrr]

All I need are the mold keys and sprue plates. I can machine the molds as needed to provide a .312 slot and drill the holes. Actually the Magma molds that I own have a .320 slot. So the machining is no problem. I have sent them two emails that haven't been answered yet.

I believe I can machine some special mold keys to accommodate my 4 cavity molds. Its worth a try to see if the 4 cavity molds will work or not.

=

If you have a mould you can duplicate the keys and sprue plate. Seems to me that the bevel is one of the 100* countersinks but the angle shouldn't be critical at all. I altered one of my Lyman sprue plates with a Weldon countersink and it came out very well. I would think that any common grade of tool steel would work for the plate.

Also, you should be able to easily reproduce the mould keys and cut slots. That's a simple task. Even if your keys and slots weren't exactly the same, as long as that particular key was 'married' to that particular slot, it shouldn't matter how badly you machined/drilled/tapped each one.

But if you want to buy parts, simply CALL them and talk with Gene. He's been very helpful to me.

And, yes, I wish I had 255 grain Keith moulds for my Bullet Master

[6bg6ga]

=

If you have a mould you can duplicate the keys and sprue plate. Seems to me that the bevel is one of the 100* countersinks but the angle shouldn't be critical at all. I altered one of my Lyman sprue plates with a Weldon countersink and it came out very well. I would think that any common grade of tool steel would work for the plate.

Also, you should be able to easily reproduce the mould keys and cut slots. That's a simple task. Even if your keys and slots weren't exactly the same, as long as that particular key was 'married' to that particular slot, it shouldn't matter how badly you machined/drilled/tapped each one.

But if you want to buy parts, simply CALL them and talk with Gene. He's been very helpful to me.

And, yes, I wish I had 255 grain Keith moulds for my Bullet Master

Thanks for the reply. It would have to be a bad day before I couldn't hold a +or -
.002 tolerance.

I believe the real trick would be to machine a plate ( I'm assuming there is a replaceable plate in which the lead is fed from the 40lb pot) to allow the pour of lead to the mold. I'm thinking along the line of a plate with 4 copper feed tubes that would align with the 4 pour countersink portions in the sprue plate. The countersink angle is not critical or crucial in my opinion. The angles function is simply to funnel lead into the mold. Probably more angle would be better. Some 1/4 crs for the sprue plate would work fine and a re-engineering of the sprue plate would be needed because of the length difference of the mold. Once the mold was tried and proven a hardened sprue plate would probably be in order.

Business must be good for them that they do not answer emails anymore. So much for customer contact, satisfaction and support.

[ballisti-cast]

I don't think a hardened sprue plate would be necessary as they have a long life without being hardened. The critical things are that the sprue plate is perfectly flat so it seals the mold and that the holes in it where the countersink ends and where the sprue is cut have a a sharp edge (.005" thick or less). If you don't put that small of an edge on it the sprues won't fall nicely from the sprue plate. The angle on the countersink isn't too critical. I've made sprue plates with an 82 and 90 degree included angle and saw no difference and Magma's are 120 degrees I believe. If you have the machine lined up right over the mold the lead should be very close to pouring in the cavity with out having to use much of the countersink on the sprue plate. I also think you could just drill and tap a 4 cavity mold to accept the standard 2 cavity keys. The sprue plate is going to be the toughest part by far.

[6bg6ga]

I could have sworn that I answered this last night but maybe I didn't. In keeping the sprue plate flat could it be cut on a water machine? I have seen these things cut SS material but never 1/4'' but in theory it could be done I believe.

I was thinking about a very slight hardening but you are probably correct in that it simply doesn't need it.

I think the primary concern would be modifying the lead delivery plate so it had 4 tubes that lined up with the 4 mold cavity sprue plates.