Making Bullet Molds in a Jobbing Shop (American Machinist, Jan 1907)
American Machinist, vol 30, Part One - Jan 10, 1907
Some things never change. It's always the same, someone looks at a significant supplier's prices, and wants you to meet them. In this case, think of the layout time on the cherry alone. Now consider that the one mold you made it for will most likely be the only one the cherry will be used with... Sunk cost...
Notice this does not relate to a company in the mold making business, where they probably would be able to then catalog that mould and spread the cost of the cherry across a number of molds. In the case of lathe cut, this applies even less.
https://books.google.com/books?id=r1...20mold&f=false
Making Bullet Molds in a Jobbing Shop
When one is running a small repair shop “far from the madding crowd," there arise many small problems for quick Solution These vary from making a stingy farmer understand that you can not and will not drive ten miles to fix “just a screw out of place or something“ on his thrashing outfit for a dollar, or in fact for any set price before seeing the job, to getting a bullet out of little Willie's $1.75 22-caliber rifle, so that said Willie can catch up to the rest of the boys who are anxiously looking for squirrels, while talking about bears, wolves, etc
A job we not infrequently were up against was the making of bullet molds. Farmers would lose the mold that went with their trusty (?) old muzzle-loaders, and would come around to me, sounding, as it were, to find what the cost of a new one would be. I had my price, which was $3 for a single mold, i.e., a mold which would make but one bullet at a time. They would bring me catalogs, and show me that a better mold, only of a different caliber, could be had for one dollar. I always assured them that they were more than welcome to get their molds else where, as my profit on one was not so great that I begged to make many. The first thing to be done after Si. had decided he really wanted a mold more than the $3 was to get the gun, and if possible a bullet from the former mold, though this last was more to get the shape of the bullet like the old one, so that Si. would not think he was being buncoed because the point did not have the same slant.
Then I made a cherry the shape and size of the bullet on the end of a round bar of tool steel, this being then fluted, relieved and tempered. At first I made molds out of wrought iron, bringing them to shape on the anvil, but this was “too much for the money,” so I made a pattern and had a couple of dozen cast of gray iron at the nearest foundry, The bodies of these were large enough to accommodate any ordinary-sized bullet; but, sure enough, about a week after I got them in, along comes a grizzled old chap from the hills wanting a mold for a slug big enough to designate its size by inches, like naval guns. It was a ball he wanted.
Attachment 144478
Fig. 1 shows approximately the shape of the cherry I made for its manufacture. I, of course, had to forge the mold parts, as the cast ones were out of the question. However, I got well paid for my trouble as the old fellow had no cash, and gave me a couple of beaver skins which I sold at a price I would be ashamed to relate—it would make the reader think of bead trading in the Indian country. After drilling and putting in the pin that holds the two parts of the mold together, and getting the faces straight so the lead wouldn't stick out like wings on the sides of the bullet, I drilled a hole with its center in the joint between the two halves (about 1/4 inch for a 44-caliber bullet) and, revolving the cherry in the lathe, squeezed the handles of the mold until the faces were together, of course seeing that no chips were between.
It would have been a long job to flute the cherry for the large slug with a file, so I put Several rough centers on the ball and, starting the tool in at the nose, pulled the cherry around by hand, in much the same fashion as turning a solid wrist pin in a cross head. I must confess the flutes were few and far between, but so were the dollars, and anyway it did the job. The- next item was the cut-off plate pivoted on the single connecting pin, and made of saw steel, shown at Fig. 4. The last operation was to put on a pair of wooden handles. Generally about the time I got to this the three dollars were so far gone (counting fifty to seventy-five cents per hour) that the artistic appearance of the job suffered considerably. Fig. 2 shows the usual cherry, Fig. 3 the cast molds.
While I am writing of that shop I might say that the best paying job which came in was the drilling and tapping of bicycle cranks. Dozens were brought, first to the blacksmith, who after welding sent them to me. I drilled and tapped the hole for the pedal pins (1/2 inch by 20 threads) in about three minutes and got twenty-five cents each.
W. L. McL. Canada.
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