What are group buys and how do they work?

[letsmeltlead2693]

What are group buys and how do they work?

[Dschuttig]

A mold design is introduced and you sign up indicating you would like to buy one. The cost and instructions are usually in the description of the mold. It allows designs to be produced that would probably not otherwise happen, and at a lower cost than having a custom maker make 1 mold.(tooling) Payment depends on who makes the mold. Most of the time you can use paypal.

It's a great thing, you can finally get molds for hard to find cartridges (look at the 455 webley mold or the 8x56r I'm running) that the normal makers would not touch(ie-lyman). Also the specs are what we need, not undersize like a lot of the recent lyman stuff.....

[Stick_man]

Dshuttig hit most of the details spot on. However, the group buys aren't limited to just moulds. It can be virtually anything. Think of it kind of like the big warehouse stores. You are basically pooling the purchasing power of numerous customers to be able to get a better price than normally offered. For example, if you wanted to go buy 10 boxes of your favorite ammo, you would likely pay retail pricing. However, if you and 30 of your friends each wanted to buy 5 cases of the same ammo, you could often negotiate a lower price by doing it as a single large purchase rather than 30 smaller purchases.

[letsmeltlead2693]

So for example, I could get a mold that can make perfect lead cubes?

[Stick_man]

Yep. Find enough other people (15) to commit to it and I would bet NOE would do one for you. Now, cost may be a totally different story. What size cubes are you thinking of?

[imashooter2]

A cube mold would be very difficult to produce.

[letsmeltlead2693]

Cubes of 2oz. Neat to see cute little lead cubes sitting around.

[Westwindmike]

Where do you come up with this stuff??????

[Longwood]

Cubes of 2oz. Neat to see cute little lead cubes sitting around.

No problem at all.
Would you like it made from brass or something better.
I figure I can make you a mold that makes perfect cubes for around $430 to $450.
No handlers included.
Using gold for the material would raise the price some.

[SciFiJim]

A cube huh? Lets see, to get the edges and corners square, two mold blocks with appropriate sized channels cut entirely across the face, a separate base plate attached to one of the mold blocks, and a sprue plate. Yep, wouldn't be that difficult. Just get 15 other people together that also want one and we can "git-r-done".

Would you like that in aluminum or brass? How many cavities would you like?

[Blammer]

Can I get a HP cube?

[Stick_man]

I figure if the commercial ammo makers can do it, somebody here should be able to do it at least as well and probably much better. Seems like I recently saw some commercial shotshells with cube shaped shot that is supposed to be super effective on geese. I believe those "cubes" were about 1/8"x1/8"x1/8", maybe slightly smaller.

Like I said before, cost is a totally different story.

[SciFiJim]

Can I get a HP cube?
Interchangeable HP pins screwed into a threaded base plate should be doable. Do you need extra pins to make your own HP profiles with? :wink:

Does anyone know of a manufacturer of square barrels?

[montana_charlie]

Cubes of 2oz. Neat to see cute little lead cubes sitting around.
How would you feel about pyramids?

[lead4me]

You guys are killing me!!!! I just spit coffee on my keyboard. Oh by the way when the group buy take off for the square barreled rifle let me know I'm in. Like to see how they rifle it though maybe just twist the barrel.

[Moonman]

Electric Discharge Machining. (EDM)

It can burn about any shape you want with a shaped electrode.

[dromia]

I have a brass single cavity cup/hollow base hexagonal boolit mould for a Whitworth rifle, a thing of beauty indeed.

[PbHurler]

can we get the "Cube" in a gas check version? if so, I'm in:bigsmyl2:

[Dannix]

I figure if the commercial ammo makers can do it, somebody here should be able to do it at least as well and probably much better. Seems like I recently saw some commercial shotshells with cube shaped shot that is supposed to be super effective on geese. I believe those "cubes" were about 1/8"x1/8"x1/8", maybe slightly smaller.

Like I said before, cost is a totally different story.
Now that is intriguing. I wonder how they make it. They aren't dripping it...

[imashooter2]

Now that is intriguing. I wonder how they make it. They aren't dripping it...

Probably swaged.