"Automatic" HB mould for Master Caster

[Adirondack Jack]

A couple years ago I drew up a lightweight HB bullet for CAS, a 125gr .45. I had Bernie at Old West Bullet Moulds make a nice brass HB mould and I commenced to make bullets, ONE AT A TIME with that heavy, ponderous "lyman" style three piece mould.

Then a funny thing happened, folks wanted to buy the bullets.... Well there was no way I was gonna be able to make em one at a time, maybe an hour at a clip, until my wrist felt like it would break.....

So I cast about for somebody, anybody to make em commercially. No interest. Then obamaphobia set in nationwide, and there was really no interest. Everybody said a hollow based bullet would have to be swaged to do it on a commercial scale. You simply couldn't do it with a machine, as the machine couldn't deal with the HB mould.

But I kept getting interest in the bullet, so I decided yes, you CAN cast em by machine, but the "impossible" would take a little longer (and cost more)

I had Bernie make another mould, this one a two-cavity, and then collaborated with Erik at hollowpointmold.com to design a method to make it work with a Master Caster.. I was "in for, a penny, in for a pound" at this point. I bought a Master Caster (never even saw one run before) and commissioned the mould.

Well yes indeed you CAN machine cast HB (or HP) bullets, and do so just as fast as any solid.



Here's the "automatic" mold




installed in the Master Caster


it makes these


shown here next to a common 160 .45 bullet.

Operation of the Master Caster is exactly the same as for any other bullet. If anything a little faster as the deep HB means the bullet cools fast.

One more bullet for the CAS folks who wanna run .45s competitively against .38s loaded light.

I may get a mould made for a heavy HB .45 bullet as well. I really like the .455 Webley 268, which would be a good candidate tor the same treatment.... (but not for CAS), LOL.

[deltaenterprizes]

What was the price of that mold?

[Adirondack Jack]

All together, right around $345. I didn't think that was too much considering custom 2 cav moulds for the Master Caster end up around $300 without the HB plugs or the inset bar. I went at the long way around. I bought a block from Magma, Bernie cut, broke, and replaced the block with brass, and cut the HB plugs. Erik did the conversion to "automatic". The above would likely be a little less if a cherry already existed and if one shop could do it all.

FWIW I am still interested in finding somebody who can cut a 2 cav HB mould for the Master caster out of iron.

[AbitNutz]

Wow....that is the stuff casting dreams are made from.

I have always wanted a MasterCaster....

[No_1]

Very interesting. I would love to have HP moulds for my master caster.

R.

[AbitNutz]

Oh sure! Someone else with a Master Caster! Am I the only one that doesn't have one!?

[JIMinPHX]

Oh sure! Someone else with a Master Caster! Am I the only one that doesn't have one!?

Don't feel bad. I don't even have a bottom pour pot.

[Adirondack Jack]

To give ya a little update, the mold and the machine have had a few tweaks as the preliminary stages work toward full production. I reworked the actuating link that opens the mold, inscribed some vent lines on the faces of the brass mold blocks, and gave the master caster "ramps" that open the mold as well as the lower limit stop a little angle grinder "love" to allow the mold to get closer to horizontal at the lower limit of travel while not opening too far (which played the devil with the "automatic" mold's travel limits.

The thin-walled HB bullet likes 3-1 WW to lead, likes 750 degrees, and needs to be cycled fairly quickly (3 second fill, wait for the start of color change then eject the bullets and immediately refill the mold ( maybe 8 or 9 seconds per cycle) to get best product, a process learned by frustratingly brutal trial and error and a couple of phone calls to Master Caster owners (I'd never run one, much less with a HB brass mold).

hollowpointmold.com is the source for this kind of mold conversion. I will be passing along stuff leared in making it actually work...... He'd never done one for the master caster before, and some said it was impossible, but once upon a time they said travelling faster than riding on horseback would "take your breath away" suffocating you..... We're there now......

[Echo]

Super thread, AJ. Thanks for expanding our fund of knowledge.

[Adirondack Jack]

Super thread, AJ. Thanks for expanding our fund of knowledge.

Thanks.

My son said we should do a video for those interested in how this works. So we did. Pardon my messy garage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdy4oSBE8iA

[Echo]

Boy, AJ, that makes one wish for a Magna-Caster! Really good effort!

[Southron Sanders]

Back in the mid-1980's when I purchased my first Master Caster, I sent them my Lyman 575213 OS Minie Ball mould and they modified the mould to fit on the machine.

Ten years ago when I ordered my second Master Caster, the folks at the plant didn't know anything about how to modify a Lyman Minie Ball mould (or any Minie Ball mould) to fit on their machines.

So, I simply modified my Lyman, RCBS and Hodgdon Minie Ball moulds to fit on my new Master Caster. All it took was adding a Master Caster sprue plate, "Floating" base pin and reworking the bolt/spring assembley that holds the sprue plate on the mould.

So, I have probably cast (over the past 25 plus years) well over 100,000 hollow base bullets with my Master Casters.

DIRTY LITTLE SECRET: Wonce you learn how to use your Master Caster you can probably make BETTER cast bullets than anyone casting by hand or using an automatic casting machine.

Here are the reasons why:

1. When the molten lead in poured into the mould, the mould is in EXACTLY the same position every time.

2. The flow rate of the lead into the mould can be precisely controlled on the Master Caster-something that cannot be done when casting by hand.

3. The bullets are realeased from the Master Caster mould in EXACTLY the same way every time.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: Don't plan on using an ALUMINUM MOULD on a Master Caster. That machine EATS ALUMINUM MOULDS ALIVE. Use only iron or brass moulds.

[Adirondack Jack]

Good to know this has been done before. Too bad I didn't know it, or we coulda compared notes and made the process a lot easier. I agree the Master Caster has the potential to make superb bullets with very few "clunkers" once you get it down pat. Timing, keeping the mold temp where ya want it, etc seems key.

How are you controlling the base pins on your molds? Did you see the "automatic" set up we brewed up using a modified Cramer system?