Help Id'ing a mould

[ncbearman]

Hell gents,

I have this mould stamped 358242cv. Now the Lyman mould table shows a 358242 but no "cv" and it is a 91 gr. with 2 drive bands and 1 lube groove. This one drops ww lead at about 125gr. and has 3 drive bands and 2 lube grooves. Now the mould table also lists a 121gr. but does not show a pic of it. I think this mould is either 1] stamped wrong or 2] is the 121gr. not pictured on the mould table. It seems that adding a drive band and lube groove would add more than 29gr. though. And what does the "cv" indicate?

I yield to your vast/collective wisdom and knowledge.


95521 95520 95516

[prsman23]

Cv was probably the cherry used to cut the mold

[ncbearman]

Cv was probably the cherry used to cut the mold

"cherry" ?

[MT Gianni]

There were/are two 358242 bullets, one @ 98 gr and one @ 121 gr. Casting 5 gr heavy is not unusual. A cherry is a hard steel tool that turn while the block is slowly clamped around it to cut the mold. IIRC, the only other mold lyman offered with one number and two weights was the 358430 in 150 & 195 gr's.

[ncbearman]

There were/are two 358242 bullets, one @ 98 gr and one @ 121 gr. Casting 5 gr heavy is not unusual. A cherry is a hard steel tool that turn while the block is slowly clamped around it to cut the mold. IIRC, the only other mold lyman offered with one number and two weights was the 358430 in 150 & 195 gr's.

So your saying you think this is the 121gr version of the 358242. Why would they need to stamp which cherry or tool they used to make the mould? What is the significance of that? Sorry I just am not familiar with this stuff. I did find several other moulds that have one number and several weights. Have you seen this table before?

http://www.three-peaks.net/bullet_molds.htm

[bhn22]

If there were issues with how molds turned out, Lyman could isolate and inspect all blocks that were cut with that particular cherry. I've heard that they could have multiple cherrys on hand that were for the same design. Notice that I didn't say "identical". This is because there were a lot of running changes made with designs, which is another reason it was important to have a way to identify which cherry cut a particular mold. If you look at the drawing of the bullet that you posted, you'll see at the bottom "92g", and "121g". These are the nominal bullet weights available for that design. I believe that shorter bullets of the same design were cut with the same production cherry, but that the depth of the cherry was simply adjusted to omit one driving band and one grease groove.

[Dusty Bannister]

Take a look at Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, 3rd edition, pages 54 and 55 to get an idea how molds are made and why they have some method of adding production numbers to keep mold halves together during production. It will also show you sort of what a "cherrie" looks like.

[Dschuttig]

"C" is the cherry, "V" is the vendor who made the cherry. So CV is cherry #3 from one of several toolmakers who make them, the names of the makers are known to them only.

[bhn22]

"C" is the cherry, "V" is the vendor who made the cherry. So CV is cherry #3 from one of several toolmakers who make them, the names of the makers are known to them only.

And some of them don't seem to be able to read blueprints or technical diagrams.

[Dschuttig]

true, true

[Grendl]

And some of them don't seem to be able to read blueprints or technical diagrams.

That doesn't release the end user (Lyman) from checking their vendor's work when it hit's the door, before putting the tool in production.

[bhn22]

Specs are often simply updated to encompass the change. Lyman isn't the only one to do it, and this isn't the only industry it happens in.