Cut a new mold today...

[Rangefinder]

Had a little time to play, and still have a few aluminum blocks to play with... So I decided to cut a conical mold for my 1851 Navy. Drops at .454, size to .451, and knurl between a couple files. Finish weight is hitting almost exactly 150gr give or take with pure.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l259/hillsjim/conical.jpg

[theperfessor]

Neat! Let us know how it shoots. With photos if possible. (We all like our gun and bullet porn.)

[theperfessor]

I like the idea of knurling the OD. What/how do you plan to lube/prep/load them? I'm familiar with the standard process of loading and lubing a round ball load in a black powder revolver.

[Rangefinder]

Have to experiment a little to see what they like. But what seems to jump out at me is just a light film of either lard or bees wax in the knurling. So long as I get a tight seal, they'll probably run good without a wad. It's a bottom pour because I was tinkering and didn't take the time to cut my blocks down--the reamer I used isn't long enough to reach the bottom of the block to cut a nose pour with a base cavity pin. So my solution was to use my .40 rod on the sizer. Centered, it pushes a nice recess into the base as it goes through the sizer. The loading part just got easy. I have 180gr. conicals, but I have to take the cylinder off and use a loading block to shoot them--too long and tedious to enjoy doing much of. I wanted something that I could load as easily as a RB, so this happened. There's just enough room for these to pass under the tamping rod for seating without taking anything down--loads like a ball.

[Bambeno]

Looks like they should work well. Would be interested in more pics. ie mould, as cast etc. Hope they shoot good for you!

[Rangefinder]

Beings it's 12:30 in the am, I'll get on that for ya when the sun comes up. ;) Stand by...

[Artful]

Well guess we need our beauty sleep

[Rangefinder]

Beauty sleep?? :D Man, have you been misinformed! Trust me--After a good night's sleep, I wake up twice as ugly. Only a good cup of coffee does anything toward beauty... ;) Naw... All my toys live out in the shop. When I have a warm fire going and the comfy slippers on for the night, I ain't going out there unless the house is on fire.

Back on topic though.... I'll warn you fellers ahead of time--I don't yet have the fancy setups that some here do, so things don't usually come out looking like they were made in a sterile lab. ;) This block was mainly a tinkering block to see how easy it would be to work with--hence the other cavities all around. The other besides the conical is a paper patch experiment for my .6mm Remi. It's dropping a little light (56-57gr.) for what I want, so I'm going to cut it a little deeper eventually. Obviously, the conical is top and center. Before it gets asked---YES, that is a brass washed steel door hinge turned into a sprew plate (half of one anyway). Hey--it was handy, and it works very well. Redneck engineering at its finest!
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l259/hillsjim/conicalmold003.jpg

This is how the conicals are dropping. The only issue is the little cavity in the nose. It's there because I used a rasp from my die grinder for the nose forming reamer. I like having a little dent in the nose, but this much makes dropping a little rough. So I'll probably knock it down a bit. All in all, pretty smooth though. I didn't let the mold come up to temp enough for this morning's little photo pour, so I didn't get a crisp fill-out on the lip going into the nose, but you get the idea.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l259/hillsjim/conicalmold004.jpg

This is the little recess I was talking about make by using the push-rod for my .40 when sizing. It's not a tremendous hollow by any means, but it gives a little lip to help the base spread and seal through the bore (that's the theory anywho).
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l259/hillsjim/conicalmold005.jpg

[Papa Jack]

I like that file knurling job too !! I think I will try that on some of these 300 grn .429 Lazer cast I have, I may be able to shoot then yet !
Good looking boolit !! "PJ"

[Bambeno]

Don't underate yourself, that looks pretty good! The finished prduct should work well for you too! I like your idea of cutting several cavities in one block. Put you a door hinge pin in and you would have a nice spru plate lever too ;)
Thank you for showing the pictures.

[deltaenterprizes]

Makes me look at door hinges in a whole new light!

[Rangefinder]

Makes me look at door hinges in a whole new light! Yup, it's a sickness. There are things lurking in plain sight all the time that I glance at and think "If I knock a hole there, grind this a little, put a handle here, I could turn that into. . . (insert something that isn't even in the same universe as whatever it was to begin with ;) ) If innovation is the mother of progress, it's the great-grandfather of headaches and a wife who often says "Hey, have you seen (insert whatever object was previously discussed)".

[Andy_P]

So you did the knurling after the bullet was made, between two files? Clever!

I did something similar, but used an old Lee mold, and had the lube grooves in the mold:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=5026

http://www.pridham.ca/Mold_Side_View.jpg

[Rangefinder]

Andy>> Yup, I was thinking of doing the exact same thing for the .243 I cut in that same mold block if paper patching didn't seem to work for it--kind of a tumble lube micro-groove by threading the bearing surface. How's yours work for ya?

[Andy_P]

How's yours work for ya?

It works well if the right tap is used, but this method can only create what is essentially a SWC design. The one pictured is for a Snider Enfield. It drops a 0.625" bullet (a 5/8" NC tap was used), and was then sized to 15mm (0.590"). That's a lot of sizing, but the tips of the driving bands are very sharp and size down easliy.

You are stuck with whatever tap you can find (NC work best IMO) and in most cases you can't find the right "balance". What I mean is the tap has to cut deep enough so that after it's sized, the driving bands are sufficiently wide, while at the same time it needs deep and wide enough lube grooves. I find it's best to lean towards wide driving bands and shallow lube grooves, as there is plenty of lube area (if not volume) with this design.