4 cavity molds

I have gotten the hang of casting my .45 caliber 200gr bb LSWC in my Lyman 2 cavity molds. Though I am pleased with the production and quality of the molds, some folks are telling me to get a 4 cavity mold to really make some bullets while others are telling me they are not worth the trouble. I saw some for sale with the handles for sale at the Raleigh gunshow for about $80 but I held off (as I was eying another Colt) but that got me to thinking. I do not remember the brand. I figured I would ask you all since so far I have been steered right here.

................Hunter, I'm sure you've figured the mere mathmatics involved. Ie: twice the number of slugs for the same amount of movements? That equals production and it's a glorious thing to see the pile of boolits adding up so fast. My first use of a Lee 6 cav sacred me to death as the boolits were taking over :-)

The downside is that the blocks are heavier and a bit more cumbersome. There is also the very real fact that a multi-cavity mould will drop boolits slightly different from cavity to cavity.

So far as the latter goes, don't think this is a gross difference at all. One drop of 4 may have a weight varience of a half grain or so, and maybe a diameter difference of a couple tenths of a thousandth. Yet it is also true that a ONE cavity mould will produce more boolits exactly the same, but it takes 4 times as long. If it was for a rifle and involved in benchrest competion a SC might make some sence.

Definately NOT limited to moulds, and if you have ever blue printed an engine you'll know what I mean.

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

Oh yes sir I understand how machined parts (even ones machined right after one another such as rifle barrels) can vary. For my use this small varation will not be a problem. All will be sized and lubed with the min. weight difference not being a factor in .45 ACP through a 1911 for IDPA and range use. Are they much harder to use? I understand they will be heavier and maybe harder to keep hot but is this really a factor? Thanks Buckshot.

I used four cavity moulds exclusively for my .45's during my five years with IPSC. That amounted to 75,000 bullets that I shot plus probably half that many that my two sons shot. In addition, we cast bullets for others. There is only one problem using good, four cavity moulds. That is keeping the lead pot full. The larger casting pots (20 lbs or so) are definitely indicated. I also used a second 20 lb melting pot to keep a hot stream of lead continuously moving.

One weekend, the boys and I cast, sized and lubed, labeled and boxed 13,000 target grade .45's (200 gr SWC's). That was our record output for two days.

When you are using iron moulds, four cavities is as heavy as I want to use. The Lee Six Cavity aluminum moulds are just fine. I recently bought a .38 WC (H&G) eight cavity iron mould and, for me, it is just too heavy to use.

FWIW
Dale53

My experience with Lyman 4-cav moulds goes back to the 1970s, when I was completely ignorant of all things about bullet-casting (except that I NEEDED a lot of boolits). I ordered several 4-cavs direct from Lyman, these being the .38 wadcutter 35863, the horrible and tough-to-feed 452389, and an UNDERSIZE (shudder) U356402 for the 9mm. All were beautifully made and consistent. Any failings were strictly my ignorance at work, especially that undersize 9mm mould.

I now find myself with quite a few 4-cavity Lyman or Ideal moulds, and they too are simply great. Even in designs which some folks might think difficult to cast, they produce excellent boolits. 311413, 311291, 311467 are all .30-caliber 4-cavity moulds on my bench, plus several others in my favorite handgun calibers.

Last night I sized/lubed about 800 311291s. Out of that number, a close inspection of each bullet under magnification rejected only nine bullets for minor causes such as a very slightly-rounded edge on a band. A sample weighing of twenty inspected bullets shows less than 1 grain extreme spread, and measuring their noses showed a comfy .3015"on all boolits, and max band diameter of .3124" with very little variation among the twenty. I sized them in a (nominal).312" die , which actually turns out .3133" if the boolits are fat enough, so actually I was just lubing them. These are mostly destined for my Ruger 77 in 7.62x39, and its .3105" groove diameter.

When things are perking nicely, I can cast upwards of 800 boolits per hour from my 4-cav Lymans (sometimes WAY "upwards"), without working hard at all. The quality doeasn't suffer a bit, as witnessed by my measurements in the above paragraph.

I like these 4-cavity moulds a whole lot, and for boolit designs which see a lot of use I think they're well worth-while. Most (maybe ALL) of mine came from Ebay, and were a good bit less than the cost of factory-new moulds. $80 for a good one with handles is not excessive, and I for one would jump at the chance to get one at that price. About the only reason I've never gotten into the 6-cavity Lees is that the Lyman Fours produce as many boolits as I can realistically use!

When pouring yuor alloys into the molds, what do yo use for a dipper.?. We're talking about four or more cavities per mold. Lyman dipperor one of the rowel dippers like the ones you can get from bill ferguson. Some of the smaller ones hold one pound and the larger one way more than that. Seems to me a larger dipper full of hot metal would tend to retain heat longer buy virtue of its additional bulk and the extra alloy in it. Frank

Like someone already mentioned, it helps to have a 20 pound pot when using larger molds. I have a 68 H&G in 8 cavity and a 50H&G in 10 cavity. These guys are heavy but they do crank out the bullets. I just got into casting several years ago and am on the older side now and not as strong as I used to be. What I found using an 11 pound pot is that I can cast a lot real fast then take a break while the new lead melts and put the bullets away. If I had it to do over I think I would not go over 6 cavities but definately not as low as 2 except for my rifle bullets.

John

Hunter - To answer a couple of your questions - Four cavity moulds aren't harder to use but being heavier they take some getting used to. If I haven't used one in a long time I usually get some discomfort in my wrist but it is usually gone before the casting session is over. As far as holding the heat goes it's not a problem. Once you get them hot they stay that way. When I cast I keep a thick folded damp rag next to the pot so I can cool the sprues. Otherwise I stand there wait for them to air cool. That wastes a lot of time. I just turn the mould over and touch the sprues to the pad.

It's a good idea to preheat any mould before you use it. Sunday I plugged in my Lyman pot and set a 4 cavity mould on built in shelf. I puttered around the barn for about 20 minutes and then started casting. I had 4 perfect boolits on the 2nd cast.

Thank yall for the help. Right now I am using a Lyman top pour 10 pound pot and Lyman dipper which works great with the 2 cavity molds. Production is good and the Lyman molds seem to me as quality. I think I will look into a Lyman 4 cavity mold and a bigger production pot as funds allow. I did buy me a new Colt yesterday so you all know how that goes.
Thanks very much for the help.

I just bought a H & G 50 off Evil Bay. Its a 10 cavity with handles. Price was right. It only weighs 6 and 1/4 pounds. In contrast, my Seaco (Saco?) 4 banger 050 weighs 2 1/4 lbs with handles. A Lee 6 banger with MY home made handles is just under 2 lbs.

I doubt I will use the 10 cavity much, but it is cool. I think the best way would be to sit it on the bench and pour into it with a large ladle. I do have a mold guide on my RCBS bottom pour.

David

I have single cavity moulds for my 50/90 Shiloh Sharps. Any pistol caliber that I would even consider is going to have 4 cavity moulds and carbide dies for my 550 Dillon. A 6 cavity Hensley & Gibbs 68 made life a lot easier for .45 ACP Colts and Smith revolvers and autos. If you can get a bottom pour pot to work like it should, you can "fly" with it. You can produce a lot with a lyman or rcbs dipper too!:castmine:

Guys, I use 8 and 10 cavity H & G moulds almost exclusively. The trick is to use a bottom pour pot with an aluminum heat sink mounted under the spout with enough room for the mould to fit under it. This may take a little fiddling to get set right.

Also to have a rail for the handles to rest on after the sprue is cut and to hold the moulds open to dump the bullets. Then you lift the handles, close the mould and slide it forward under the spout and pour the mould full and repeat. I use an overhand side to side swing of my mallet to cut the sprue and have a pin setup for the sprue plate to bump against. Then when I close the mould if the sprue is still in the plate I rotate the mould counter clockwise enough for the plate to close and dump the sprue.

The thing to get away from is lifting the mould at all other than from the preheating hot plate to the slide/heat sink under the pot.

This is probably as clear as mud, huh. Well I may try to post pictures of my casting set up later, if I can get them to post.

Wes

Once I thought I had found heaven, I had a 4 cavity Saeco throwing a 255 grain slug. So I got four cavity molds for my 357, 44, 45 acp.
Then my buddy got a couple of 45 Colts and one four cavity could keep us both fed. So I got a copy of the original Saeco, so in effect I have an eight cavity mold with two handles. You can really turn out a bunch bullets.
If you operate two 4 cavity molds other then duplicates, say one 44 and one 357 you can do some production and they are easy to separate.
Jim