3d Printed Shotgun Wads

[longbow]

I only have a few Lee moulds but they work well. Both my slug moulds (1 oz. and 7/8 oz.) needed a bit of deburring when I got them but both literally drop slugs now. I use sprue plate lube and powdered graphite to lubricate the mould tops, core pins and the Vee guides in my old style 1 oz. slug mould. I have found that the old style Vee guides tend to gall fairly easily and Lee moulds are soft aluminum. So far the sprue plate lube and graphite have worked well for me. A little dab will do ya!

I modified the core pins to add a post and screw hole for attached wads. It is a very easy modification to do if you have a lathe and does not seem to affect slug balance so they can be used as intended or with an attached wad. The weight is a little higher by about 1/8 oz. powder charge is adjusted accordingly. I had bought a couple of spare core pins for $1.50 ea. and see they now cost $14.00 ea.! I shouldn't need any more but had planned to buy a couple just in case. At $14.00 I'll just buy spare moulds. I get a core pin and mould for about twice the cost of core pin alone.

I plan to try a few different approaches to attached wads once my friend gets to 3D printing again. In the meantime I have to get back to making hot melt glue attached wads for those slugs. I made a form at about the same diameter of the nose at 0.685" then line it with a wrap and a bit of parchment paper then use my glue gun to squirt glue into it until a bit over full. The form is standing vertical so bubbles rise to the top and shrinkage is all in the top. After the glue hardens I cut the end off then use a jig to cut 3/8" thick disks off. These become the attached wads. So far it seems to be the easiest and most consistent method for me. Now to get out and shoot some! Was planning that for last week but didn't make it. Hopefully next week.

Longbow

[Yrmff!!]

very sorry for the slow reply. For that model i used elgoo grey resin and i used an elgoo mars 3d printer. I haven't actually tested this iteration yet unfortunately, due to the pandemic and the general lack of ammunition. Which 3d printer i would get now depends on the application. If you want to 3d print things that are smaller and could benefit from an absurd level of detail (literally down to about 1/10 the thickness of a human hair), i would get a resin printer like the elegoo mars 2 or whichever similar printer happens to be on sale. The majority of these resin printers pretty much use the same design and same screen. Just make sure you get one that has a monochrome screen. They can print about 3 times faster than the color screen version.

If wanted a printer to print larger objects in a variety of materials, i would consider getting an fdm printer. There are many different versions you can choose from but just make sure to get one with an all-metal hot end that will let you print higher temperature materials. I have a lulzbot mini but they are expensive and i would recommend a budget option to start out with to see if you like it. If i were getting one now i'd probably look at that prusa mini or the ender 3. The ender 3 has a bigger print volume than the mini but the mini has self-leveling and a hot end with a higher maximum temperature (which means you can print higher temperature materials). I personally have lulzbot mini with a similar print volume to the mini and basically never find myself needing anything bigger but which you should chose if you go with fdm is dependent on your application. The prusa mini should do you for 95% of what you need. If you need to print something larger you can probably break it up into multiple parts and i think the ability to print more materials is worth the small difference in print volume. I would go with prusa mini+ if you're going with an fdm printer.

That being said, if you are just getting into 3d printing, the resin printers are hard to beat. The level of detail you can achieve with your prints is insane and far exceeds what you'll ever get on an fdm printer. They are also probably easier to use and give you results that you'll be happy with. A good resin print literally looks like it is injection molded as post #76 will attest to. Also resin printers are cheap, the resins are also relatively cheap now (and getting cheaper), and the resins are being offered with various properties now (and expanding in the range of material properties). I would personally recommend looking into something like an elegoo mars 2 with the monochrome screen. They are about $300 usd on amazon now but you might be able to find something with the same specs (and pretty much the exact same printer) from a different brand for about $250. Just be aware that the $250-$300 resin printers only give you a print area of about the size of a large cellphone screen and the range of material properties of resin doesn't currently compare to fdm but i do think resin is the future of 3d printing for the most part due to the flawless print quality and dimensional accuracy you can achieve. You can get larger resin printers but they are about $900-$2,000.

If you or anyone else are interested in the 3d model files for this project i'd be happy to share them, including the fusion360 source files which you could modify to your heart's content. I don't have a problem sharing with experienced reloaders but wouldn't post this design for the general public because they might get themselves hurt due to lack of reloading experience which as we know can be dangerous if not done properly.

Also, feel free to reply to my post here with any questions. I should respond fast now. I didn't know that i could link this thread to my e-mail and receive notifications when someone posts on this thread until now.

pm