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Willbird
09-13-2005, 08:50 PM
I talked with John at Lee today to make sure on the exact $$ I needed to send for the 314-120 group buy. While we were talking I asked him if he knew the mfg. process for the molds very well.

He replied "VERY well" and I then asked him how the cavities were cut, John told me that the paired blocks are placed in a large chuck, and rotated, and the cavities are made in 2 ways, relatively short bullets that the contour works out for the process are cut with a form tool, long slender bullets the cavity is single point bored.

John said the round ball molds are roughed 1 block at a time in a manner described by another poster, (cutter fed into the side of a block in a vertical milling machine) they are then finished with a carbide ball in a process known as "hobbing" I took that to mean pressing the blocks closed with the ball in the middle.

Bill

trk
09-14-2005, 10:05 PM
Hobbing is a manufacturing process often associate with making gears.
A google search will give you more information than you want to know.

Buckshot
09-15-2005, 01:25 AM
..........I have an article from Handloader I believe, that was done on the Lee mould making proccess. The process begins with a long extruded bar. The venting is rolled on and then the bar is parted into blocks with thier mating features done.

Then they're clamped into fixtures under 20 tons of pressure and loaded into a CNC turret lathe. The tools are indexed and then fed in a rapid sequence to form the cavity.

Handles are fitted while the cavity is inspected and then they go for a final inspection and boxing. The article's pictures included one of a lady 'setting' the handle pins after they'd been put into the blocks.

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