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
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