That would be the reason it's here.
That would be the reason it's here.
[The Montana Gianni] Front sight and squeeze
If you have a Dremel tool, you probably have an attachment that looks like a screw on the end of a shaft. Run that into the base of a Boolit and you have your "lap" ready to go. You've probably also got a small container of "polishing compound" in the Dremel kit. Anybody wanna guess what thats good for? Here's another tip, heat your mould up just a bit and that polishing compound melts so that you get really good coverage with your lap.
I learned all of this yesterday after reading this thread then going out to my shop to see what I had laying around so that I could Lee-ment a particularly stubborn aluminium NEI 45 mould. It worked like a charm.
Snake, great idea, I was going to Lee ment one of my molds and I will tryit. thanks
For what its worth I have worked at many different jobs, climbing towers (young & stupid) gun smith, jeweler, etc. Women would come into the jewelry store and complain about yellow gold rings turning their fingers black. The cause was Jergens Lotion. It is a very mild abrasive and coats the finger with a thin coating of gold. Powdered gold does not reflect light well and looks black. Could make a good final polish. Haven’t tried it, but knows? Ervin
Great thread and great forum! I just registered because this was exactly the info I was looking for!
However, a word of warning to others using this method!
In my eagerness to finally fix my Lee mold, I wasn't careful to make sure the screw didn't punch through the tip of the boolit. So, when I was running the boolit with my drill, the screw tip completely gouged the aluminum!
I was wanting to order a different size mold anyways, so it's not a total loss. But pretty irritating nonetheless.
In any case, I'll try this first thing when I get my new mold, and I'll be more careful next time!
Cookie, welcome to Cast Boolits. Lot of good stuff in here--it's the virtual Library of Casting.
For Lee-menting, you don't need to have your screw/bolt that far in the boolit for lapping. I've found that between a quarter inch and half-inch is usually more than sufficient.
It's easier to lap if the bolt is in the boolit dead-center, but again, if it's off-center by just a fraction, no big deal. What's important is to lap SLOWLY and not just let your drill fly at top RPM speed.
Believe it or not, there are folks who have done this. . .
After reading this entire thread I decided to give it a try on a Lee 200gr SWC mold that I had to beat the **** out of to get the bullets to drop. This was a new replacement mold form Lee. After a little thought I decided to use a 45acp empty that I slid the bullet into carefully and used the primer hole to centerpunch a starting point. It actually worked very well. I then took the arbor from my Dremmel that has a machine screw end and carefully screwed it into the hole I drilled. When I turned the drill I was amazed at how straight I got it. I used a water based valve grinding compound, used just enough pressure on the handles to keep things nice and snug. I changed direction of the drill every 5 or 6 rotations and turned it slowly. It cleaned up very nicely and now drops bullets out with only a little shake every now and then. Thanks for the info folks. I think I'm going to do all my Lee molds.
GO WVU MOUNTAINEERS!--Hey, our mascot carries a muzzleloader.
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Professional Critter Chaser
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I love wildlife, it tastes great!
Little Machine Shop had a fix for it on their site, IIRC it was shimming under the headstock as the problem is usually a height mismatch between the headstock center and the tailstock center. All those little 7X10 to 7X14 minilathes are made in the same factory with slightly different specs, options, level of finish and paint color for the various importers (Harbor Freight, Grizzly, Micromark, etc.).
63/37 Sn/Pb is a terrible boolit alloy but its other use pays the bills.
What a great thread, learn something new every day. I have 3 molds that require gentle persuasion to get the bullets to drop out.
Etienne Brule: I noticed in your post #53 you referred to the procedure as "Beagle". Just for clarity, beagle is a different procedure that uses high temp aluminum tape to slightly hold the mould open to increase the diameter of the boolit. The method in this thread is known by members as "Leementing".
JB Bore paste, Rem clean or Iosso bore paste are all very mild abrasives that work well for bur removal in the cavities.
I haven't read all 4 pages so I may be repeating what has already been said but this is a another trick for centering round objects on a drill press - say you want to drill a hole in a bolt or somesuch. I have not tried it with a cast bullet, but I will soon.
Take a 1/8" drill bit, clamp it in a drill press vice with the point sticking up. Lower the drill chuck and close it around the drill bit. The bit is now centered with respect to the drill chuck. Clamp down the vice, loosen the chuck and lift it clear. Chuck in your bolt, bullet whatever, start the drill and lower it onto the bit. You can stop as soon as you have the mark you want or continue drilling with the bit in the vice.
If your chuck can accept bullets of the dia you use, I imagine this would do well enough.
..still remember that no man loses any other life than this which he now lives, nor lives any other than this which he now loses. / Marcus Aurelius.
Reloading 357mag, 38Sp, 9mm, 380acp
meshugunner
Chuck in your bolt, bullet whatever, start the drill and lower it onto the bit.
A cast bullet is relatively soft, when you chuck the bullet , how do you keep from damaging the bullet ?
First reload: .22 Hornet. 1956.
More at: http://reloadingtips.com/
"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the
government take care of him better take a closer look at the American Indian."
- Henry Ford
[QUOTE=STP22;510755]..."you have the sprue cutoff to use to help center your punchmark"
Good grief, I never looked at getting the tap centered using what`s already at hand as a guide... Sheesh!
Of course I would overlook the easy button.
Dang it......that snake just bit me while I was in the forest I could not see because of the trees.
Oldfeller did a great post on this that is a sticky which I followed on three molds.
Lots of good info there and I think the most important part is rolling the CB between two plates with grit (used 400 diamond) then scrubbing with a toothbrush and dish soap to clean-up and enlarge if desired the O.D. areas and then polish in the same manner.....I used bartenders friend.
The last step is to make the lap as before and sprinkle with Moly powder and burnish the cavities.
Those couple of techniques are so simple and effective .......makes me wish I could take credit.
I've only had to do this once. I did it "backwards", though. I chucked a hard bullet in the drill press, base down. I put the drill in a clamp block in my milling vise (although a regular vise would work). I turned the drill press on at its slowest speed, brought it down until it was almost centered by eye, brought it down into contact, spiraled it in to true center, and drilled my center hole.
Then I turned in a stud, wiped the boolit in Flitz, chucked the stud in a hand drill, polished the cavity, washed the cavity with naptha, re-smoked it, and started casting.
That was in 1979. The mold is still working fine.
Going to have to try this on my 312-155. Once it gets up to temp I'm getting some pretty nasty stickers.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |