Anybody know about this mould maker?

[Nobade]

http://www.generalordnanceusa.com/index.html


I just noticed one of his moulds is on Ebay, never heard of them before but it seems they're selling lots of old Lyman designs. I wonder if this is where their old cherries ended up?

[Frank46]

Took a look via the link you posted. Looks interesting first time I've ever heard of them. Frank

[StrawHat]

Web site is still being set up but from what I saw, it looks interesting. No prices yet so that is vexing.

[adrians]

hmmmm!

[41 mag fan]

Sent a msg, asking for prices. Just out of curiosity.

[Bret4207]

I don't know if they have any of the Lyman cherries. If those pics are an accurate representation of the boolits then they aren't anything like some the the Lyman designs I recognize. I wonder if someone has a CNC machine and is using cuts from Lymans pics as a basis? The 311316 is nothing like my Lyman 311316 for instance.

[41 mag fan]

I emailed them and got a reply pretty quick, considering they are based in AZ and time zone difference. All I asked was what their prices were. Heres the reply they gave.

Hello and thankx for the question. We are in the process of overhauling our web-site. Generally, we offer molds in three price ranges.
$99.95
$124.95
$139.95

We are working hard to get our site up and running again. Hopefully we will be complete operation by the first of the year.
Thankx

Brad Babinski
Operations Manager



Did a little more inquiring and they make their own cherries. Said they got a few things out that are different than other mold makers. He's sending me more info on it. Be interesting to see it all.

[geargnasher]

Ask Mr. Babinski to join the forum and tell us more! Personally, I'm sold on lathe-bored moulds because they can be made to exact sizes.

Gear

[white eagle]

ask mr. Babinski to join the forum and tell us more! Personally, i'm sold on lathe-bored moulds because they can be made to exact sizes.

Gear
+1.....

[Buckshot]

...............I was just there checking stuff out. HAs photo's of moulds, and also some various caliber boolit designs (only looked at a couple). Said I was visitor number 3 and a half million and something ? Yup, still under construction.

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

[waksupi]

Considering we have the best mold makers in the world here on this forum, why go outside?
If the guy knows anything about cast boolits, he would be here.

Support the home troops.

The old Lyman molds were bought up by Mike's Reloading, clear back in the old original Shooters.com days.

[Jim]

I have to wonder about a business that does not publish a phone number. I'm with Waksupi; keep the money in the family.

[Love Life]

Considering we have the best mold makers in the world here on this forum, why go outside?
If the guy knows anything about cast boolits, he would be here.

Support the home troops.

The old Lyman molds were bought up by Mike's Reloading, clear back in the old original Shooters.com days.

Yup. I'll stick to the makers here. If he becomes a member then he has a chance of competing for my business. Moulds are expensive and I'm not rolling the dice on quality. I did it once (thanks Lyman) and will never do it again.

[41 mag fan]

I told him that last email I sent him.
Very congenial fella, says he's been here before and looked around. Seen there's quite a loyal following to NOE and Mihec.
One thing he did mention is he makes molds that are left handed friendly. I'm guessing he was talking about the sprue plate being opposite for lefties.


He did say, he don't wants to focus on quality not mass production.

[btroj]

Website is nice, I want to know about the moulds. Are they well made? Do they drop large enough, yet not grossly over sized? Are they priced right for the quality? How is customer service?
With NOE and Miha offering great products at a great price this place is going to have a hard time breaking into our market.
I wish them well but until I get first hand reports, I will not be buying. Maybe they could send a sample mould or two to a few members here for a trial run? I think Ben and Gear would be great choices, both will give a tough, yet fair, evaluation of the moulds.

[swheeler]

Ask Mr. Babinski to join the forum and tell us more! Personally, I'm sold on lathe-bored moulds because they can be made to exact sizes.

Gear

The site says all cherry cut cavities.

[seagiant]

Hi,
Well....he better have the quality with a good price or he's shoveling sand against the tide around here! I have just gotton my first Mihec and NOE molds and they were both excellent! The Mihec in a 6 cav.H&G #68 clone'this is what a LEE wanted to be. There is also the RCBS molds bought used but taken very good care of from members here that are the best bargain I know of.

[NoZombies]

The site has been updated in the last few weeks. I've been to the site a number of times over the last few years, most recently a few weeks ago, and today was the first time it was navigable.

The guy is nice enough when you email him, but he doesn't currently offer any designs I'm in need of.

[MikeS]

I just checked out his website, and while it looks interesting, for some reason, and I'm not sure what it is, I just get a bad feeling from it. Like maybe it's some form of scam, or something. Of course the $140.00 price for a 4 cavity aluminum mould might have had something to do with it. Also, I don't know how well his sprue plate design with the stop pin being on the same side as the hinge pin will work out? I think he only has a limited number of designs he's making, as I've noticed, most of the designs you can't click on, but some, the ones with red dots around the picture you can click on, and goes to a description page for that boolit, along with a button to add it to your shopping cart. He has a design I kind of want to get, the 457130 but I'm not going to spend $140.00 for an aluminum mould of unknown quality to get it! Now if he was a member here, and folks said how good his moulds were, then I might consider it, but that $140.00 is a tough nut to crack! He also states that his sprue plates are hardened & ground, is that really needed for a mould to cast lead? I don't know, too many things don't add up. Like his statement that Mihec & NOE have a loyal following here. So what? Is he afraid of competition? If his moulds are as good as he thinks they are, if he came here, and lowered his price to be competetive with NOE & Mihec, then folks might be loyal to Mihec, NOE, & GOUSA moulds!

[quasi]

don't forget Accurate as an established seller here.

[MikeS]

There's always room for more custom (or semi-custom) mould makers here. I'm really curious what he meant by the comment that there was a loyal following of NOE & Mihec moulds? Does he think he can't compete with them? If he saw their prices, then he probably can't. Now if he charged what he does, but made a brass mould, I'd be more than willing to try one, but there's no way I'm going to spend $140.00 for an aluminum mould!

[dromia]

Seem to recall we had a similar discussion about this company a year ago and the website hasn't moved on much since then.

Interesting that in all that time we don't seem to have had any reports of their products here.

I'm like a lot of you interested in their advertsised designs but would like to know more from someone who has tried their moulds.

With all the GBs I'm comitted to with our most excellent inhouse mould makers I'm loathe to spring more dosh on an unknown.

Therefore would be glad of a report form any purchasers of their work.

[TXGunNut]

Considering we have the best mold makers in the world here on this forum, why go outside?
If the guy knows anything about cast boolits, he would be here.-waksupi


Can't argue with that. OTOH if he has some fresh ideas that work I hope things work out for him. Not interested in paying those prices to help w/ R&D though.

[Bad Water Bill]

I just checked his site.

I have a Savage 99 take down in 22 hi power so looked at his 228035 because 228 moulds are very hard to find even on evil bay where they think 228s are golden.

The page lists the mould as a 4 cavity for $99.95 with $5.00 of that price going to the Shriners Burn centers. If he proves to be legit I will have to give him some serious studying.

[MikeS]

Well, I've sent an email to Brad Babinski (the owner) suggesting he come over here, and also suggested that he give/loan a mould or 2 to one of the older members here, and I got a good response from him. First off, he said the $140.00 price was an error, and he's having his webmaster change it. I just rechecked his website, and the price for a 4 cavity aluminum mould is now listed as $99.95, that's a lot better than before! In the email I suggested that he make moulds out of brass as well as aluminum, and he said he's going to give that some thought. Says he's been in business for about 10 years, and likes to produce a quality mould, rather than making a lower quality mould, and that's why his production is low. Anyway, I mentioned that I kind of liked the 457130 mould, and he offered to send one to me to evaluate! While I wasn't exactly the forum member I was thinking of sending a mould to, I'm not going to say no to a free mould! (even if it's just a loaner) In my reply I suggested that after I evaluate the mould, that if I don't buy it myself (which is a good possibility if it's a quality product like he says) that before I send it back to him, if he approves, that I send it off to another forum member to also evaluate. Even if I do keep the mould, there are a couple of forum members that live fairly close to me, and perhaps we could get together so they could checkout the mould as well. I once again suggested that he come here, and introduce himself, and I told him that we're a nice bunch of people, and that if his stuff was as good as he says, and he comes here, that even if he didn't get into doing large quantity group buys like Mihec & NOE, that there's still a place for him here.

If he sends me the mould, and if it's as good as he says, then perhaps my initial impression of him was way off base. If he does come and say Hi, I would like that, you can never have too many quality mould makers! When I get the mould, I'll let y'all know how it casts.

[MikeS]

More info: I just went thru the website, and it looks like they're in the process of updating it, as more moulds have red dots around their design which means they're clickable going to a new page where you can order the mould. All the newly added ones are prices at $99.95 but many that were $139.95 are now at the $99.95 price range as well. For anyone that hasn't gone over to the website, here are the pictures of the actual moulds from his homepage:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_177914edc88008447e.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=2883) http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/177914edc8819eaa9b.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=2884) http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/177914edc883070bcd.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=2885) http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/177914edc88bd53325.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=2886) http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/177914edc88d479695.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=2887) http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/177914edc88f2890eb.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=2888) http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/177914edc891d1856b.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=2889)

[41 mag fan]

Well, you got further than I did. I inquired about buying a mold in the 480 Ruger and received no response back. So I gave up. That was last week when I emailed him.

[leadman]

I'm in Az and have never heard or read of this company. Does anyone know what city he is in or near?

Checked the site again and found out from a banner at the top he is in Phoenix, like I am.

I have never seen any mention of this company on ArizonaShooting.com or any advertisements, or at gun shows.

Almost afraid to locate him being close by. Might damage the budget!

[Love Life]

MikeS-Those prices are much better. I am very interested to hear your review on the mould they send you. If it is good quality for the money then I can see maybe sending some of my business their way

[MikeS]

leadman: He said he's been making moulds now for 10 years. I get the impression that he's been making them for himself, and folks that know of him, and the website & selling on eBay are new things for him, that he's not entirely happy with. When I wrote that if he did group buys he could expect to have from 15 - 25 orders for a mould, he replied that doing that kind of quantity scared him, as he wants to keep his quality high, not his quantity, so I replied that most folks here wouldn't have a problem waiting for their moulds, IF they were as high a quality as he says they are. We'll see IF he sends me a mould, I will let y'all know what I think of it. I really hope I'm being skeptical for nothing.

[Bad Water Bill]

I do not think having to wait for a quality mould would scare many of us away.

Look at how long we waited for group buys from Lee. Some times the whole order had to be shipped back and the wait began again. :groner:

If we started a group buy he could probably give us some idea of the wait time in order to maintain the quality we want.

Just out of curiosity what does he do for a full time job?

[SciFiJim]

The website references
Number 4 bullet metal for use in pistol bullets. I mix #2 alloy for some special applications. I have never heard of #4 before. What is the composition?

[MikeS]

Jim: I asked him the exact same question, and he said that Lyman #4 alloy is 20:1 20 parts lead to one part tin. I think somebody else here on the forum also mentioned that as well. So that's another piece of the puzzle answered. Now we know that there are at least 4 Lyman alloys. I would love to find out what #1 & #3 are. Logic would say that there's a good chance that one of them is pure lead, and the other is probably either 15:1 or 30:1.

[MikeS]

Update: I just got notification that the mould is on it's way to me. Soon I'll find out just what these moulds are like!

[grubbylabs]

Can't wait to see what you get. maybe he has some good stuff. I know that for my self I am a dedicated Accurate fan but he only does FP bullets, so if I could get a good pointed one for my 308 or 300 win I would be very tempted to try it.

[Bad Water Bill]

For those of us that are CONSERVATIVE (sounds better than cheap or poor) I find his selection of 22 cal 4 bangers interesting.

Gotta love 150 PB projectiles per #:bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2:

[geargnasher]

The site says all cherry cut cavities.

Sorry, Scot, I wasn't very clear. What I meant was that I prefer manufacturers who bore their mould cavities with lathes, and thus can make them exact diameters, which is OPPOSED to any company, such as the topic company, who uses traditional cherries and boring vises and are limited to the exact size of the cherry, unless they have some way to orbit the bit while it's cutting. From a custom mould standpoint, it seems to cost only a little more to get a mould made to cast specific sizes with specific alloy than a "custom" mould from a manufacturer that simply pulls out the same old cherry and fires off another copy for you.

Gear