Mold Material?

[AbitNutz]

I know this has likely been beaten to death but...the pros and cons I've read about in modern molds involve aluminum versus iron. The only molds I've seen made out of brass were old, virtually antique molds.

Is there any reason why no one makes a modern brass mold?

[deltaenterprizes]

Cost of material.

[dromia]

CBE as well as Jeff Tanner use brass for their moulds.

[AbitNutz]

So brass is better? The only reason no one uses it on production is because brass costs more? I would have thought the ease in working with brass would have more than made up for the difference in cost.

[Ctkelly]

You can head over to www.mountainmolds.com and check out his opinion on various types of material he uses. He prefers brass when casting a certain range of bullet weight and with wheel weights (no tin added).

[HeavyMetal]

Bought a group buy here in the 44 full wadcutter boolit and it was a four cavity brass mold. easiest mold I ever used.

Don't remember who cut it but the work was superb.

[1874Sharps]

I picked up an Eagan 190 grain 30 caliber GC mold a while back made of brass. It makes a tapered bullet that shoots exceptionally well, too. I suppose one disadvantage to brass is the potential of bullet alloy soldering itself to the mold. That is easily prevented, though.

[Wayne Smith]

My Mihec 44/444 mold is brass, the first I've had. Probably not the last.

[tommygirlMT]

Brass is a very good mold material far superior to aluminum IMHO. Most of my molds are either Brass or Iron and I do have a few Aluminum ones but they are sort of treated like step-children especially that Lee ones that are single or double cavity and have those less then intelligent design waffle ribs instead of alignment pins.

Iron is great for smallish cavities in big blocks but larger cavities are better with brass. Brass runs cooler then iron but still has the good strength and durability and it don't rust !!!

Of course if I had my way most of my mold blocks would be 400-series annealed Stainless Steel with Cobalt alloy alignment pins, sprue plate, and hardware and just cut the larger cavities in extra big blocks to control heat build-up. A mold cutters nightmare (Talk about supper time consuming feed speeds for both of those metals) but would last practically FOREVER.

[montana_charlie]

Of course if I had my way most of my mold blocks would be 400-series annealed Stainless Steel with Cobalt alloy alignment pins, spruce plate, and hardware and just cut the larger cavities in extra big blocks to control heat build-up.
Can you explain why spruce is better than (say) teak as a material for that plate?

CM

[AbitNutz]

Having a sailboat, I can tell that teak is high maintenance but they used to make airplanes out of spruce. So if you want to cast faster, clearly a spruce plate would be much faster than a teak one.

[tommygirlMT]

Can you explain why spruce is better than (say) teak as a material for that plate?

CM


Having a sailboat, I can tell that teak is high maintenance but they used to make airplanes out of spruce. So if you want to cast faster, clearly a spruce plate would be much faster than a teak one.

:killingpc :groner: [smilie=b: :hijack:

[AbitNutz]

Given the choice...would you rather have a mold made of brass versus any other reasonably obtainable material?

Since I started the thread...I don't believe I can hijack it.

[tommygirlMT]

Yes, and No, If it we are talking regular common block size if it was a boolit less then or equal to 250 grains or was a black powder mold of any caliber then I would want an iron mold because they run hotter. If it was more then 250gr. and a smokeless mold then I would want a brass mold they run cooler. I like big thumper calibers so a lot of what I cast and shoot is above the 250gr. mark so yes --- if I could find someone with the "brass touch" kind of like the "golden touch" I'd have a whole line up of all my aluminum molds and my bigger smokeless bullet iron molds to have him/her touch.

Yes, I understand my spelling error might have been humerous --- no hard feelings or offense taken just had to respond accordingly.

[machinisttx]

Stainless steel is a pretty poor thermal conductor. 400 series is not that difficult to machine if the proper speeds and feeds are used...but they are slow even with carbide tools. IMO, it would be more prone to warping too.