Removing the g/c shank from 311291

[Ben]

I recently purchased a used mold here on the forum. The individual that " gave it to me " said that it was damaged and he didn't feel good about selling it. He said I could have it if I'd pay the postage to get it shipped ( $5.20 ). I felt it was worth trying.

The mold is a Lachmiller 2 cav. 311170 RN ( basically a clone of the Lyman 311291) .
Someone had damaged the interior edges of the one and only usable cavity of the blocks. The cavity closest to the mold handle hinge pin was damaged beyond repair.

I tried to cast with it ( in the front cav. ) and got bad " finning ".

I decided it would be a good candidate for plain basing and the removal of the g/c shank which would clean up a good bit of the damaged area of the mold. I thought about sending it to Buckshot or Eric, but I decided to give it a try myself. My thoughts were..." I've only got $5.20 in this mold, I don't have a whole lot to lose."

I took a 5/16 " HSS drill bit was is super sharp. It mikes around .312 ". I put the mold blocks into a set of clamps and set everything on the bed of my drill press. I spent about 15 minutes checking to be 101% certain that the drill bit was going to enter the cavity as near perpendicular as I could make it. Then I drilled out the g/c shank.

Here are the results :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/Lyman%20311291%20Plain%20Base/069.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/Lyman%20311291%20Plain%20Base/057.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/Lyman%20311291%20Plain%20Base/066.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/Lyman%20311291%20Plain%20Base/008.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/Lyman%20311291%20Plain%20Base/003.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/Lyman%20311291%20Plain%20Base/004.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/Lyman%20311291%20Plain%20Base/002.jpg

[94Doug]

Super good. When can I send you some moulds for removal of the gc, Ben?

Doug

[CWME]

Bet those shoot as good as they look! Great job!

[Doc Highwall]

Ben, you have too many plain base moulds I think you should send your SAECO #315 plain base to me PM me the details.:kidding:

[Casting Timmy]

That's a real good job! I think most people would be surprised of what you can do with taking your time with a drill press.

Thanks for sharing that.

[Bret4207]

I was kind of hoping for a pic of the "damaged beyond repair" cavity. Amazing what some folks can do to a tool.

[peterthevet]

Ben - really nice work there.

Now what about the other, damaged cavity. Could you drill out the damaged area with a much bigger dril bit , then insert a solid metal "bottom" plug and silver braze that into a secure/fixed position and then use the same drill bit (.312) that you used on the first cavity to remove most of the inserted solid plug? Just a thought....there are some obvious difficulties...but also some imaginative solutions to the problems that may arise. An obvious question would be how do you align the .312 drill bit as there is now a solid plug....poss. solution make this damaged cavity into a HP first, align blocks with .312 drill, change drill to smaller size, drill through nose creating HP,plug base with solid metal, braze in place, insert smaller drill through nose and then drill from other sibe through solid base, use this as a guide to set up cavity with drill press, change to .312 drill and concentrically drill out base!!!!! Just some ideas to ponder. Cheers Peter

[Ben]

Bret4207 :

Here is your photo that you've requested of the cav. that ( in my opinion ) is damaged beyond repair. Makes you wonder how something this foolish can happen to a good mold ? I don't think this cavity is salvageable, so I'll simply be using the front cav. only now to cast me a good looking plain base bullet. Still, for $5.20 this has a good outcome for me.

By the way, if you look closely at the cav. on the far right in the photo, you'll see in this photo that the cav. still has the g/c shank. This photo was taken prior to me attempting the removal of the gas shank in the " salvageable " mold cav.

Ben

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/Lyman%20311291%20Plain%20Base/064.jpg

[Ben]

Doc Highwall :

I've been wanting a plain base version of the # 315 for a long time. I'm having a great time shooting this one right now.

[Doc Highwall]

Ben, I don't blame you. Eric at hollow point moulds welds defects like that,check out his web site.

http://www.hollowpointmold.com/

[Ben]

Doc :

Yes, I've seen Eric's " micro - weld " repairs. He is GOOD ! !

I've got so many molds right now, I doubt that I'll attempt a repair on the
2nd severely damaged cav. that you see above. I'll probably just use this double cav. mold as a " single cavity " plain base .30 round nose mold.

Thanks to all of you for your comments,

Ben

[cbrick]

Ben,

Many years ago I picked up used SAECO #382 that had a similair chip in the cavity. Not as severe as yours but every time I've used this mold it's amazed me that it does not cause any fin on the bullet. I've wondered many times how this could happen to a mold.

Erik at Hollow Point Mold Service (http://www.hollowpointmold.com/) has a TIG micro-welding service available. It's very possible that your cavity could be restored. His prices are normally pretty good. Could be worth an email (with photo) to see.

Rick

[cbrick]

Hhmmm . . . Day late and dollar short.

Again.

Rick

[Ben]

If you've looked at those photos above, it really makes we wonder how someone in their right mind could have done all that to a nice mold ? ? ?

[cbrick]

I don't know, that 382 is the only mold out of 70 that I have that is like that. The only SWAG I've come up with, and it is a SWAG is that possibly a weak spot in the original block the mold was cut from, then a stuck bullet knocked out and a piece of the mold block came out with it.

This has never happened to any of my molds, never have seen it on other molds except this one and now yours. It is perplexing to me and a shame to happen to a nice mold. Yours being a Lachmiller it may be worth repairing, there is a limited number of them out there and there won't be more.

Rick

[Ben]

Rick :

Let me please clarify something, my question of " how someone in their right mind could have done all that to a nice mold ? " That comment was meant for my photos of my mold not yours.

I just want to clarify my remarks If I may ?

Ben

[cbrick]

Rick :

Let me please clarify something, my question of " how someone in their right mind could have done all that to a nice mold ? " That comment was meant for my photos of my mold not yours.

I just want to clarify my remarks If I may ? Ben

Hhmmm . . . That is exactly how I took it. I just re-read my posts, didn't see anything to suggest otherwise. Confused, is there a problem that I don't see?

Rick

[Ben]

No not a problem at all, I just read my earlier post and thought.... " Gee, What if cbrick thinks you're making references to his mold ? "

I just wanted to make it clear that my question was in reference to the mold I'm holding in my hand not in reference to someone else's mold.

Thanks,

Ben

[Bret4207]

Yeesh! Is that a dent or a chunck actually broken away from the mould? Gotta wonder how that happened.

[peterthevet]

Obviously in my post above I thought that the damage to the second cavity was in the same location (base) as the first cavity only that the damage was significantly worse.Obviously with the damage located further towards the nose my left of field suggestion would not work. Hope my post makes more sense now!!!!

[Ben]

peterthevet

Yes, it does.

Thanks for your efforts.

Ben

[Buckshot]

...............Dang Ben! Ya did that with a drill bit? Things must have been just right as it looks factory to me. Speaking of damage like what that mould has, I've seen'em before.

http://www.fototime.com/10DEEA84EA364B9/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/AEF6DCA327A0F9E/standard.jpg

LEFT:Damage is very obvious on this one. RIGHT: Even milling away almost half the bottom drive band you can still see a tiny remnant on the bottom and 2nd to bottom cavity.

http://www.fototime.com/311071957D7E1E9/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/37A4EF0735186F9/standard.jpg

I sure don't know whow this happens. Check the perimeter of the cavity. On the right is a closer shot. It's NOT lead, but block material. Notice the closed off vent lines?

http://www.fototime.com/B83E3AB955DEAC4/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/2D86CCE23F9512B/standard.jpg

A Lyman 12ga shotgun slug mould. LEFT: The rounding and wear, especially on the corners is very evident. RIGHT: Some of the same condition as the 2 cav pistol mold above.

http://www.fototime.com/E2AF9FEC410B805/standard.jpg

More damage up around the INSIDE of the sprue hole.

.................Buckshot

[Bret4207]

I'm betting these moulds got put in a box without handles or being rubber banded together. Let any mould like that bang around against each half and you get damage like that. Some of the pics are extreme though. The other damage I've seen is from the clown that pries the boolits out with a screwdriver or awl.

[MikeS]

I have a Lee C308-170-F mould that I had been thinking of making into a plain base doing exactly the method Ben used. After seeing this thread, and combined with the fact that I just bought a 311041 that casts beautiful boolits, which would make this Lee mould not really needed anymore, I went ahead and took out my drills ( a good set of Made in USA HSS bits) and I took my Lee 2 cavity mould, and proceeded to make them plain based. The first cavity looks perfect, the second one (closer to the hinge) isn't quite as nice (I didn't have the drill perfectly lined up, and there's a bit of chatter at the very beginning), but I think after they're sized they should both be fine. I'm going to go out and cast some in a little while, so I'll know for sure if the mould is a keeper, or if I just ruined a $17.50 mould. Perhaps I'm wrong for feeling this way, but I never would have tried this with a Lyman, Saeco, RCBS, etc. mould, but the cheap 2 cavity Lee I didn't mind taking a chance with.

[MikeS]

Ok, I'm going to call this a success! Both cavities cast ok, with the second one having a slightly rougher edge than the first, but only slightly so. I only cast a few, just to see if my mould modifications were good or not. The base of the boolits mics at around .314 with the rest of the boolit micing at around 312 or so. This shouldn't be any problem for a sizer (I use the Lee push thru sizers). The as cast weight is now around 177gr up from the 172 or so it used to cast. Next is to size them, lube and shoot them, then I'll know if I really have a success on my hands or not!

[Ben]

MikeS

I shoot g/c cast bullets of out my many .30 cal. rifles at .309 and .310 " all the time with great accuracy but........, my best groups with plain based bullets have clearly been with .311 dia. bullets.

Ben

[HARRYMPOPE]

Here is a 308291(.314 body .301 nose) i just had PB'ed by Erik Ohlen due to GC shank damage also.I had him also add a .320 "stop ring" up front to match a 311259. The 311259 shoots decent in Mosin Nagants even though the body is only .310 and nose .300.The 311259 ring is too large at .325 and i have to size it down.We will see how it goes today.

HMP