Too much work!

[44man]

I just spent half the day hacksawing 1/4" scrap stainless and milling both sides flat for sprue plates. I still have a lot of work to do on them like drilling holes, cutting to shape, milling the edges and cutting the sprue taper. I sometimes wonder if it is worth the trouble. I still have blocks to cut and mill and cherries to make.
Oh well, how else can I have so much fun?

[dragonrider]

One of those angle grinders with a cutoff blade would make it a lot easier. Just a thought.

[44man]

It might, I switched to the Sawsall for cutting. It takes some time but cuts straight on the line.

[Pop Gun]

Well quit making molds and you won't need more sprue plates. Spend your day molding. [smilie=1:

Bass

[44man]

I have it now where I can cast with a mould on each finger! I still have toes to work with. Can we ever have enough?

[kodiak1]

44MAN I agree you never have enough. What type of mould you building? Just think if you took on a Group Buy you would be busy, well a long time.
Ken

[454PB]

You need a plasma cutter.

[Buckshot]

.............I'll tell ya, using a hacksaw to cut through 7/8" W-1 round stock for dies and stuff, and smaller diameter round or flat stock was just a PITA big time. By the time you were done hacksawing, a body was plumb frazzeled :-). Horror Fright had their 4x6 horizontal bandsaw on sale for $159 and I'd checked around on the HSM and Practical Machinists forums about them. They pretty much got a thumbs up.

I bought one and boy am I glad I did! There are a few places around on the web where folks have made improvements and additions to them too. All I did to mine was add a shelf between the front and rear leg (which greatly stiffens it up) and added a chip pan. And what's amazing is I'm still running on the blade that was on it when I bought it!

Making the push through dies you need a7/8" piece 2.86" long. I use it to cut one 3' bar in half then stack it in the vice. When you hear the 2nd one 'Thump' into the chip pan (it turns itself off) you just loosen the vise, advance the stock to the stop, tighten the vice and turn it on.

If you set it up well it will make cuts just a couple thou off square. I still face off the ends in the lathe, but for fabing up other stuff it's super as is. And as I said it shuts itself off so you can go about your business and check or reload it when you have the chance.

..................Buckshot

.................

[Lloyd Smale]

Gussy on castingstuff.com sells spruce plates. That might be cheaper in the long run.

[44man]

I only have two moulds to make and maybe a third if the cherry comes out wrong so it is no big deal right now. I already have a cherry for one of them that is good, just duplicating a mould for a friend.
We had one of those power hacksaws at work, they sure work great and I have planned on one for years but am always short of money and room to keep one. I need another garage!

[Greg5278]

I know it might cost alttle more. How about using 1095 or 4140 prehard for the plates? I like staimless, but hate cutting it on a saw. It galls, grabs, and makes a mess. It it 300 series, it so I understand? Admiral steel can shear cut 5160, 1084, and 1095 to whatever you want for cheap.
Greg

[44man]

I might look into it Greg. My friend brought me a pile of this 1/4" stainless he found in a dumpster. They are 2.5" wide and a couple of feet long. So far it has made super plates. It is t-304l HT. Holds a razor sharp edge for cutting.

[redneckdan]

plasma cutter is the cats meow, not as nice of a kerf as saw cut though

[Red River Rick]

Waterjet is best, laser is better yet.

Your choice of material may not be the best. The 300 series stainless in natorious for galling and will probably distort and warp after useage.

Unless your going thru all this trouble for the labor of love, why bother. I have in stock, laser cut spru cutter plates (1024), stress releived, precision ground both sides, with 0.250" pivot hole and chamfered spru cutter hole. 0.170" thick and designed to fit a 1.375" x 1.375" single cavity mold, or I have replacement spru cutters to fit RCBS D/C and Lyman S/C and D/C molds, same material. If they'd be of any help to you, drop me a PM.


RRR

[44man]

Thats my problem, mould size. I never get two exactly the same because I have been cutting the blocks from scrap aircraft aluminum. Most will be 1-1/2", some are more, some less depending on the piece I cut it from. Then I am making some double cavity ones too.
I have not had any problems with the plates at all after thousands of boolits. I have zero scratches on the plates and mould tops. All are still flat too. They have been working like oiled glass for me. One reason is that I leave the end mill marks on both surfaces and coat with mold prep. The tiny grooves vent and hold the lube.

[Bret4207]

I got one of those Chiwanese power hacksaws at TCS a few years ago. Great improvement over the Sawzall. I'm still on the original blade too. Mine doesn't cut square, but there's not too much I do that comes out even close to square anyways, so thats ok.

[44man]

Tell me something, ever try to make a perfectly square block?

[Lugnutz]

Wish I could add something here, but I don't even do good with wood. Please remember I am new so be gentle when you answer this question: What the heck is a cherry?? :confused: :confused: :confused:

[ron brooks]

It is the cutter that cuts the mold into the mold blocks.

Ron

[redneckdan]

Tell me something, ever try to make a perfectly square block?

been there, done that. My very first mill project at tech school. I got mine to within .0006 before I called it "good nuff".

[Newtire]

That's one of the first things they have you make at San Jose City College machining class. It's all about doing things in the correct order.

[grumpy one]

I used to have problems squaring up various things, usually metal, and became fairly proficient with a file over the years, but it's slow and sometimes it takes a few tries. My power hacksaw (a fairly big reciprocating one) is not all that consistent, as you'd expect considering how far it extends from the pivot-bearing that controls where it is pointing horizontally, and the requirement to have exactly equal set on every tooth on both sides of the blade, if it is going to cut truly vertically without running off. If it really matters there's always the mill, but that is pretty slow, and cutters are expensive. For nearly all of the routine jobs, I square the surfaces on a 14 inch disc sander. Once I'd set up the table square to the disc (a milling job, but I only had to do it once), I can square up most things in a few seconds. The only skill involved is stopping before you get the job hot enough to burn your fingers.

I made the disk sander out of an old 12 inch double-ended pedestal grinder, which was so old it was worthless. After the vintage electric motor died I fitted a modern one, of only 1.5 horsepower (it needed more power when it was a grinder, but I find 1.5 enough, since the whole process is limited by the job getting hot and burning my fingers). Most of the time I use 36 grit abrasive, but I keep some 80 grit disks for finer finishing.

[floodgate]

Newtire; Grumpy:

If you've got a decent 4-jaw chuck and your lathe runs reasonably true (especially the cross-feed), you can turn out a nice cube pretty quickly. Clamp any old which-a-way and face off; reverse and seat the just-cut face flat on the chuck body and cut the opposite face; clamp these faces tightly between two opposite jaws and just solid with the other two and turn the outer face; reverse and ditto; then grip all four trued faces and face the next two in turn. Should be good to 0.001" over an inch or two.

floodgate

[Four Fingers of Death]

been there, done that. My very first mill project at tech school. I got mine to within .0006 before I called it "good nuff".

How'd you go with the bowhunting on the Marlin forum Dan? I'm away from home and looked for it the other night, but couldn't find it. Mick.

[grumpy one]

Doug, I agree you can make fairly accurate cubes in a lathe, so long as they aren't too big. Depending on dimensions it is probably somewhat more time consuming than making them in the mill, though (unless I just happen to have the right sized four jaw chuck already on the lathe, or have something set up in the mill that I don't want to disturb). To make a cube out of something roughly cubical on the disk sander, I just push the start button and push each face in turn against the disk. If there isn't a whole lot to take off it's just a few seconds per face, and I end up with a smooth surface with no machining marks.

I even use the disk sander for things like de-scaling, de-burring, checking flatness, dressing welds, and especially, for profiling the convex edges of things cut out of plate (any thickness up to a couple of inches or so). Since I built the disk I don't use the bench grinder for anything but tool-sharpening, and almost never use the filing machine. Making shapes out of plate (which I seem to need to do pretty often) I mark it out, cut it out with the filing machine set up as a jigsaw (I don't own a bandsaw, because I'm too cheap to buy blades), then make the convex curves smooth in just a few seconds on the disk sander. The concave curves still call for hand-filing unless the job is big enough to bother to set up the filing machine.

[floodgate]

grumpy:

"Depending on dimensions it is probably somewhat more time consuming than making them in the mill, though."

Agreed, but my Smithy is usually set up in "lathe" mode, and isn't all that convenient as a mill. I have a 12" disc sander on a separate variable-speed powerstand (with a half-dozen backup plates loaded with variuous grits) left over from several years' dalliance with a Shopsmith (the woodworker's equivalent of the Smithy), and it IS the most used power tool in my shop. I've converted a LOT of metal into powder with it over the years!

Doug

[KTN]

Here's few pictures of my work,that has kept me from casting and shooting this summer.Unfortunately,my work has nothing to do with boolit casting or mold making,but it does have some good moments along the way.Like today,when I "cleaned" my workplace from all those sheet lead pieces that have collected during the year (guess who is doing all the lead work around here:mrgreen: ).Now that winter is coming,construction work will slow down and I will have more time for boolit casting and mold making,I hope:roll: .
Oh well,only 25-30 years till my retirement[smilie=1: ,maybe then I can really start casting and shooting.


Kaj