Semi Permanent Beagling

[caseyboy]

Hi All,

I have a Lee 7mm mould. Once it was Lee-mented, it casts and drops boolits beautifully. However, to get the size I need, I have to beagle it a couple thous. That darned tape today would not stay put. It would constantly shift around.[smilie=b:

While I was casting and fussing, I got to thinking what if I were to take a center punch, and lightly punch each corner of the mould face to displace a bit of metal so the mould would be "shimmed" open a bit. If open too much, a couple of light passes with 600 grit would lessen the shim. All the raised dimple could be remove with a few more passes to return the mould to original.

Any comments? Anyone try this?

caseyboy

[geargnasher]

Sounds like a plan! I'd dimple them oversize and sand to fit, that way there's more surface area on the raised spots and the effect will last longer. The only other thing to watch out for with the Lee two-bangers (I assume this is what you have) is that they don't align quite as tightly when open slightly as when fully shut. A couple thousandths shouldn't make them all that loose, but something to be aware of.

Gear

[caseyboy]

Thanks Gear. If you have done it successfully, that gives me confidence.

Thanks caseyboy

[mooman76]

Hi All,

I have a Lee 7mm mould. Once it was Lee-mented, it casts and drops boolits beautifully. However, to get the size I need, I have to beagle it a couple thous. That darned tape today would not stay put. It would constantly shift around.[smilie=b:

While I was casting and fussing, I got to thinking what if I were to take a center punch, and lightly punch each corner of the mould face to displace a bit of metal so the mould would be "shimmed" open a bit. If open too much, a couple of light passes with 600 grit would lessen the shim. All the raised dimple could be remove with a few more passes to return the mould to original.

Any comments? Anyone try this?

caseyboy

I actually thought of doing that very thing, but have never done it . A small dimple though so it can be adjusted(sanded down) or removed with minimal damage to the mould. Sometimes durring the long casting sessions I have noticed you get tiny specs of lead between the mould faces and it in a since beagles the mould. Of coarse it is not permanent but it does the job.

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

Sorry to interrupt, but semi related.
When beagling a mold, do the bullets still drop round? I have a 429 mold, I need about 432 for my Redhawk. Beagling gonna help or am I gonna have elliptical boolits?

[462]

A sizer die, the cylinder throats, and the barrel will all eliminate any out-of-roundness. Beagle away.

[MtGun44]

Well, it is pretty obvious that you will NOT get round boolits. The point is, so what? Very
few molds actually cast round boolits to start with and sizing and shooting will fix them right
up.

Bill

[geargnasher]

Thanks Gear. If you have done it successfully, that gives me confidence.

Thanks caseyboy

What I did was a bit different. I peened the "vee" parts on the top ends to give the boolits a bit of taper. I filed/sanded the moved metal slightly to give a perfect fit and about .003" more girth to the base. What you propose will work fine if you're careful.

Gear

[wallenba]

Most molds I have are wider across the parting line anyway, so Beagling them actually brings them closer to 'round'.

[happy7]

I have done this by lightly taking a hammer to the corners of the mold on one side.

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

Sweet, I'm about to become a beagler :)

[frkelly74]

I had a mold that was casting too big and discovered a burr on a corner. Took off the burr and got the right size. Kind of your problem in reverse. The burr required a close inspection to find it, it was very small but made a significant difference. So don't go wild when making your burr, a little makes a lot.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

from my experience of "tape" beagling.
where the tape is applied is as much science as art.

IMHO, Using the dimple method...
would, I fear, be extremely difficult to get consistance.
You are going to need at least 3 dimples,
and 4 would be better...but no more than 4.
then getting them all equal (±0.0005)
And doing this all with a hammer, center punch, and sand paper.
Good Luck,
Jon

[caseyboy]

Jon,

You raise a good point about the 3 versus 4 points. A three legged stool doesn't wobble. I see this as a trial and error method. Make your 3 (or 4) dimples and then cast a few. Measure for size and then polish off the top of the dimple accordingly. I may have to cast, measure and polish for a few cycles.;)

caseyboy

[geargnasher]

Use feeler gauges and four staked points. Sand until you get the same measurement at all four corners, or use Happy7's method. There's a place to stick just the tip of a feeler gauge in there to check it. Make sure there is no rolled edge to the blocks where you stick the feeler gauge, often with the Lee blocks one will have a lip on the top edge, remove this with a razor blade, being careful not to nick the corner of the base of the cavity.

Gear

[caseyboy]

Feeler guage, outstanding suggestion Gear!:-P

[DLCTEX]

I was contemplating just such last week when casting some Lee 458-340 boolits from a beagled mould. The tape keeps moving on me and I was considering dimpling the mould. I "Leemented it to open it up and still had to beagle it to get it to .461 and size to .460 for a Handi-rifle and Guide Gun.

[Old Coot]

I would try using one of the spring loaded punches. You know, the kind you press down until the catch releases and the punching action then occurs. Then I would mike the mold and "sand" with 600 grit paper until it was where I wanted it.
Brodie

[longbow]

I tried the dimpling method and found issues such as JonB_in_Glencoe mentions. Not saying it can't be done but you do have to do it very carefully and precisely.

I decided to try using aluminum foil and silicone blue which worked well for me, allows shimming with the number or foil strips to suit and it stays until you take it off. All it takes is a light smear of silicone blue then a strip of foil, smear of silicone blue, strip of foil until shimming is correct then press mould blocks together for a bit.

No guessing no sanding, no permanent mould alteration just a little variation on Beagling.

FWIW

Longbow

[geargnasher]

Permatex Ultra Copper silicone will handle much more heat than the blue stuff, FYI, but if it works it works!

Gear

[longbow]

Gear:

Not only didn't I need the heavy foil shim per Beagling but I couldn't find any aluminum tape here anyway so made do with what I had which was foil and silicone blue. I wondered if it would hold up but no harm in trying so I did and it did.

I used it to open up a Lyman 314299 that cast at 0.312" so lapped it some but got it slightly oval (about 0.0015") ~ as usual wider at the seam. Instead of correcting since I still needed more diameter across the seams, I decided to Beagle which brought the cavities back to round and gave me 0.316" boolits.

Anyway, I digress.

The subject is dimpling versus slippy Beagling tape and my solution was the silicone/foil rather than altering the mould (Hah! like lapping isn't permanent eh?).

An even better solution is (when possible anyway) buy NOE, Mihec, Accurate or other equivalent moulds made to cast to spec. But if you've got what you've got sometimes you just have to work with it.

If I do have to Beagle again I will try your suggestion of the Ultra Copper version. Nothing wrong with better "stuff".

Longbow

[caseyboy]

Well I got up the nerve yesterday and dimpled the mould. Took three tries to get it where I wanted it. First try a slight dimple and boolits too small. Second try I deepened the dimple and was about a half thou under. The third deepening, just right. Like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Works great.:bigsmyl2:

[longbow]

Good going! I hope that works out for you.

There is one particularly good aspect to dimpling or beagling and that is much improved venting.

It seems to me that Beagle said he has gone to about 0.003" without significant flashing.

Longbow

[fredj338]

I tried beagling fo r the first time lastweek on my RCBS 44-245SWC mold. It was casting right @ 0.431" but I wanted a slightly larger bullet to go 0.4315" on my Star. It works perfectly using the alum foil tape found in hardware stores (thanks Michael). I am casting on my Magam & it even stick through the banging of the mold at every pour.

[KCSO]

Did this a while back to a Lee mould and it worked perfect. My 329mould lapped and punched now drops 333 ad shoots fine in the steyr.

[georgewxxx]

The dimple method was common solution when the old smooth surfaced moulds made venting a problem. Winchester & Ideal moulds tended to be a bit undersized too, so the boolits would load easier in brass cases with hand tools. The dimple method solved two problems at once. Looks mean a lot when your buying old used moulds, but don't pass them up because of what looks like a unsightly blemish.

[caseyboy]

And here I thought I invented something new that would be called "caseyboying".:drinks: