Beagle, help! New mold needs beagling

[Maven]

All, I bid on and won a Saeco mold (RG-4) & handles (like new condition, original box & literature too) on e-Bay last week. That's part of the good news. The other part is that it casts well. The bad news is that it casts too small on both the body & nose (.3085" & .2995", respectively) for any of my .30cals., including the 7.5 Swiss. I'm seriously thinking of beagling it, but am wondering about the aluminum tape. To wit, does it come in different thicknesses? Should I start with the .003" as per Beagle's article on Castpics? Lastly, do Home Depot, Lowes, or True Value carry it or must I look elsewhere? Thanks in advance for your help!

[StarMetal]

Paul

I saw it Lowes

Joe

[beagle]

The stuff I'm using is about .002-003" thick. Look for air conditioning duct tape at Lowes, Home depot or any plumbing/electrical supply. One of my plumber shooting partners gives it to me.

To get up to .300 on the nose, I'd use strips on either side of the blocks.

If you'll PM me with your snail mail adderss, I'll send enough to do about 30 moulds. I have a good supply./beagle

[Willbird]

I found mine at Do it best hardware, and it measures .0025", they had two brands to pick from, I have used two 1/8" x 1/2" strips to make 1000 boolits from a Ly-Keith 429421

You will have to try for yourself tho, because what I wrote was my experience, putting it into print made it suspect, sorry.........:-)...after several thousand boolits you can decide if it works :-)


Bill

[Maven]

All, I found my Al tape at Lowes this afternoon and applied it to both halves of the mold after dinner. Ladle casting was an adventure since almost every CB had either fins or a pronounced parting line. The good news is that the body & nose diameters increased appreciably (body was ~.312", nose ~.304"). As these were bigger (and uglier!) than I could stand, I decided to remove the tape from one of the blocks. This gave better results (.3095" body & .3015" nose) with less glue seepage, but the glue is definitely a problem. I'm going to size them to .309" and compare them to the "unbeagled" products in my '06 to see whether the mold's a keeper. Thanks again for your help!

[Willbird]

If by "both halves" you mean having two layers or .005" holding the blocks apart yes that is a BUNCH. I didnt get any finning with one layer of tape .0025" and the glue didnt leak out from behind the tape either.


Bill

[beagle]

Maven...after some casting, the glue spreads out some and the thickness decreases.

Now, I'm bottom pouring and this allows the metal to be abit cooler before it hits the mould. You should get very little in the way of fins when alls working right./beagle

[sixpointfive]

Can the aluminum tape be easily removed one you are done? I want to cast 311291 which drop at .310. I need .314 for mosin

[beagle]

Maven....Pm me with your snail mail address and I'll get some in the mail to you./beagle