who all are the mold vendors here?

[birddseedd]

who all are the mold vendors here?

[silverado]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?4-The-Commercial-Sector Dude you need to work on your search-fu

[birddseedd]

i never find what i want on the net. something about what words i use just brings no real results. atm here iv been looking through all the menus and started lookin into the forums

thanks tho. wife said i can blow 100 bucks on a decent mold. lee sucks. echo sucks more.

[Love Life]

$100 has NOE multi cavity written all over it. Just ensure you have a set of Lee 6 cavity handles or leave money aside for that.

[birddseedd]

$100 has NOE multi cavity written all over it. Just ensure you have a set of Lee 6 cavity handles or leave money aside for that.

That is who i was talking with yesterday. although he doesnt have tumble lube.

what other good options are there. i could go a little over 100 if it saves me having to size 5k bullets one at a time (and buying the press to do so)

[birddseedd]

something about tumbling groove bullets doesnt seem right to me.

[Beagle333]

Have you talked to Joshua? (338RemUltraMag) Or seen his buys that are going on in the Group Buy section? You might like one of those, and he's turning out his buys fairly quickly.


Which NOE mold do you want in tumble lube? He does sell several TL molds.

[birddseedd]

coop buying?

[Beagle333]

Group buys. See this section.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?53-Group-Buy-s-Design-Active-Waiting-and-Archives

[Love Life]

I would just tumble lube the standard boolits. I have tumble lube quite a few boolits, but never used the TL designs.

[birddseedd]

iv done it, but seems weird to me

[birddseedd]

$100 has NOE multi cavity written all over it. Just ensure you have a set of Lee 6 cavity handles or leave money aside for that.
noe and accurate molds seems to be the 2 i found, most of the vendors have no description

[Love Life]

Either one of those you choose will make you happy. With NOE you have to buy what is in stock. With Accurate you get exactly what you want...like a 9mm mould with a gas check shank if you want one.

If you choose Accurate, you can email them and the owner will talk over your mould order with you.

[birddseedd]

accurate says his could be .002 off tho

[Love Life]

Are you trying to get by without sizing at all?

[birddseedd]

Are you trying to get by without sizing at all?
yes i am

[birddseedd]

dont get me wrong, i do enjoy casting and loading. sizing seems kinda tedious to me

[Love Life]

Well, if you use the exact alloy that the mould is spec'd around then you can do that. Hoever, if you have hodgepodge alloys then you may have trouble.

I'd buy a Lee push through sizer and not have to worry about having the perfect alloy to match my mould specs.

[birddseedd]

any brands outside of the vendors here that are good?

[dragon813gt]

You are making this harder than it needs to be. You don't need a TL design to tumble lube. You can TL any design and it will work just fine. If Accurate or NOE say their mold will drop at .360 then it will drop at that. W/ Accurate be sure to tell him the alloy you use. Tim also gave you a list of the mold makers in another thread that you were posting in.

[birddseedd]

You are making this harder than it needs to be. You don't need a TL design to tumble lube. You can TL any design and it will work just fine. If Accurate or NOE say their mold will drop at .360 then it will drop at that. W/ Accurate be sure to tell him the alloy you use. Tim also gave you a list of the mold makers in another thread that you were posting in.

why do they have tumble lube designs then?

[birddseedd]

the mp molds look real nice. will they drop perfect rounds as the alloy difference will allow?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

i never find what i want on the net. something about what words i use just brings no real results. atm here iv been looking through all the menus and started lookin into the forums

thanks tho. wife said i can blow 100 bucks on a decent mold. lee sucks. echo sucks more.
Do you have a specific boolit design for a specific Gun in mind ?
If NOT, then I'd spend some time in the group buy section, to see if you can gleen some info of what details/features you want in a boolit design. There is alot of talk of those type of things...and for a newbie (it wasn't too long ago, I was one), there are many things you'll never think of without having the practical experience.

you mentioned Accurate molds and his guarantee of .002"
well trust me, if you give him your specifics of your alloy you will be using, he'll make a mold that is SPOT ON. Search the Mold sub-forum for "Accurate" in the title and you will hear story after story, similar to mine >>>I ordered a 41WC and requested it to be .412 using COWW and that is exactly what I got...and yes, very round.

[birddseedd]

Looking for a tumble lube for 9mm. a few different guns, mainly fns and shield.

the mp molds look real nice.

[birddseedd]

are mp molds not made in america?

[Beagle333]

MP is made in Slovenia.

By a mold wizard named Miha Prevec, a master sculptor of brass. :mrgreen:

[dragon813gt]

why do they have tumble lube designs then?

Because Richard Lee. Read his books because he tells you why. Spend some time reading everything you can here. And then post specific questions. I will repeat again. You don't need a tumble lube design bullet. Richard Lee designed it as a system to work in conjunction w/ Alox and push through sizers. You don't need the TL design to use either one. And you will have more options w/ a conventional lube groove design. A good number of people start out w/ TL and then move on to lubesizers. Why pay for a mold you most likely won't be using in th4 future?

[birddseedd]

it would seem to me that tumble lube grooves would get more lube in them than a single or even double lube grove could? a deeper groove wouldnt really get more lube, but multiple small grooves would. so i would think anyway

[Bullwolf]

it would seem to me that tumble lube grooves would get more lube in them than a single or even double lube grove could? a deeper groove wouldnt really get more lube, but multiple small grooves would. so i would think anyway

When I first started casting I fell into that trap. I thought if a little tumble lube is good, more should be better.

It is not necessarily always so.

Some go so far as to dip lube a boolit into Alox. While it does work, it uses a lot more lube and I suspect yields more smoke and mess than a light haze of Alox.

I learned as I loaded more and more tumble lube boolits, that less is often more when TLing. a very light coat of tumble lube works better, and smokes less for me with handgun ammo.

Amazingly enough a huge sopping coat of Alox will also work, many use it that way rifles. I find it a mess to deal with though.

I try for a light haze of tumble lube on my boolits. I prefer to size them all first so I get a bit more quality control/ That way random large cast boolits don't sneak in and jam up a gun. If you don't want to purchase a 15 buck Lee sizer, I suggest purchasing a case checking gauge, and gauging all your ammo so you know it will fit in your at the range.

If you want a more thrifty but slower route, you can pull the barrel of your gun and do the plunk test on all your boolits.

Plunk test image below.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=114719&d=1391328588

The thing to remember about tumble lube, is it is a film lube. Unlike standard lubes which use a soft lubes which eject and purge and leave a lube star and get used in more quantity than tumble lubes.

Tumble lube will work just fine in 9mm under most conditions IF your boolits are the correct size for your barrel. For my 9mm's the magic number is .358 but everyone's gun is it's own individual - slug yours.

I find the 45-45-10 mix easier to use than Lee Liquid Alox, but I have used both with much success.

More images.

Lee TL boolit sized at .358 for 9mm lubed with LLA (I used too much Alox)
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=52362&d=1304661284

Lyman 356402 9mm (conventional lube groove design)
I have tumble lubed it, and also ran it through a lube sizer. Works both ways
Image below is Lyman Orange magic through a lube sizer.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=52370&d=1304738207

Lee 358-105-SWC in 9mm conventional lube grooves. Tumble lubed w/45-45-10 with just about the right amount of tumble lube applied.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=91449&d=1360126151


Added these 2 photos as an example of overdoing it. Here is a batch of 100 Tumble Lube groove 38 wad cutters where I have over lubed a few. The ones you can visibly see lube on, are the ones that got too much 45-45-10 applied.
(still works though)
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=114721&d=1397181549

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=114720&d=1397181574


The point I am trying to make here is it doesn't take a lot of tumble lube to get the job done. You can even overlube and still find success, although it may be marginally more messy.

The TL method works just fine with only a light application on either style of boolit.




- Bullwolf

[Love Life]

I say again, standard lube groove moulds work just fine using LLA cut mineral spirits. Or can buy the concoction that White Label Lubes sells which will dry a bit better than LLA. I would buy some HI-TEK.

[birddseedd]

thanks for the info. i am clearly over lubing.

so, if the lube is meant to only be a film, what is the purpose of the grooves?

iv pulled out some factory rounds, and found the lube groove full of lube. that seems a little odd?

[shaggybull]

Something new here is powder coat instead of tumble lube. check out the thread

[birddseedd]

i tried it. unles you have a sprayer its more work than its worth. takes several coats

[Bullwolf]

so, if the lube is meant to only be a film, what is the purpose of the grooves?



A brilliant marketing idea perhaps by Richard Lee? Innovator or Instigator who knows, either way it's a novel and economical design. Love them or hate them, many current day casters got their start using TL designs.

Worked well for Ranch Dog (also a small TL groove boolit) they are easy to cast, but if you size down TL boolits by a large amount you tend to wipe out the tiny lube grooves.

Now we even have smooth boolits with no lube grooves thanks to alternative coatings. I would venture a guess that they also would work well with TL applications. I have heard of folks who TL'd smooth boolits from home made moulds, but I have no experience doing that myself.

I know we had Knurled boolits long before Tumble Lube designs.

http://www.brownells.com/userdocs/skus/p_749010520_1.jpg

Knurled boolits also hold TL quite well.

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee403/reload3006/44CalRNFN.jpg

There are even those who say that a frosted boolit takes tumble lubing better.

Boolit shape and lube groove shape may even impact accuracy. Folks will argue about a wide base band, or a thick square or round lube groove boolit being more or less accurate.

It is what it is, I suppose.


- Bullwolf

[birddseedd]

Interesting, so then i should buy a lube groove design, so i have the option to do both types of lube?

[birddseedd]

actually. if im going to tumble lube, or powder coat, wouldn't a solid bullet with no groove fly the best? weight at the back, aierodynamic up front.

[Bullwolf]

Interesting, so then i should buy a lube groove design, so i have the option to do both types of lube?

If you read up in the alternative coatings section, they say tumble lube groove designs power coat quite well.

Link here:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?184-Coatings-and-Alternatives

I don't get into the powder coating thing much, but I have PC'd and I also tried some epoxy coated tumble lube 9mm boolits.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=539&pictureid=4119

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=539&pictureid=4170

They worked as well as my 45-45-10 lubed boolits did, but were a lot more hassle to coat and load. It wasn't worth it to me factoring in all the time it took for the same performance. However, many here really like using the coatings.

The choice of which type of boolit design to get is a very personal one. It is hard to give you a right or wrong answer. If you do this for a while you probably will have a few of both designs.

More important for success than the style of boolit, is getting a mould casts to the correct size (large enough) for success. A small boolit will lead and be inaccurate. Size for your gun after measuring a slug.


- Bullwolf

[birddseedd]

powder coating with a sprayer is ok. tryign to tumble coat them is just a painn. you have to do several thin coats. way too much work

[silverado]

powder coating with a sprayer is ok. tryign to tumble coat them is just a painn. you have to do several thin coats. way too much work
It only takes one coat if you do it right with a powder that works.

[birddseedd]

perhaps you can give me some advice because I tried it a few different ways with no success. I would appreciate it

[dromia]

Post in the Coatings and Alternatives forum for advice on powder coating.

[silverado]

You might want to keep your eyes open for a better suited powder for 9mm. I know it is tough to find, but it seems hs7 is giving you a pretty tough time. You could email speer and ask them about it. If their loading data is wrong I am sure they will tell you to save your gun and their butts. There are many more better suited powders out there for 9mm.

[birddseedd]

it was shared with me via pm that there is a thread on this powder in which people did use speers data. it does fill a 9mm case. but if doing that will work, it is beyond my experience. 6 grains work. so ill be sticking with that. im out of the hs7 and doubte ill ever see it again.

[silverado]

I was just about to send you a link to a thread I found on another forum. It seems people were using it to make major power factor. I think you will be much happier with a more common powder like w231, bullseye, titegroup, cfe pistol, etc... Way less confusion, way more load data... the guy selling you powder should have gotten you one a bit more suited.... he was a salesman after all, so I guess he met his goal...
edit... last night I used unique for the first time in 9mm.... that really fills the case also... I had to double check a couple manuals to make sure I wasn't screwing up... [smilie=l:

[birddseedd]

well. the powder does work. so im happy. it was very confusing and scary as a first powder. butt i just started low and worked up in .2 gn jumps till i got to a gn i was comfortable with