More power to 'ya! Hope they work for your purpose.
I personally can cast a ton of HMG's in a very short time using my standard molds. I spray the cavities with PAN......YES greasy, oily, slimy old PAM (!!)....to act as a release agent. Then pump the cavities full of HMG with my industrial-grade glue gun and COOL the mold on the bottom and sides with an ice cube. Once the HMG sets up, I open the mold and the boolits almost fall out due to the PAM. I can cast hundreds of the plastic things just about as fast as casting with hot lead alloy.
Once I am done, I just wipe the cavities out lightly with a good absorbent tissue and put the mold up to use for casting Pb. No cleaning and scrubbing and scrubbing and cleaning to get the little PAM left out! A pour or two of 700+ F Pb will do the trick! Every time! Never had a wrinkled boolit yet in doing this procedure many MANY dozens of times with several standard and NLG molds. I have made wrinkled boolits in the past due to low temps on my molds and alloys! But never from greases or oils in the molds.
Good luck with your sand castings.
banger
Just saying, sand works as a good temporary to see if you like Gluboolits but if your going to be doing them a lot, invest in a mold. It will save you a ton of time having to keep re-forming sand and than inspecting to make sure none went in the glue. Just a cheap 2cav Lee will be all you really need.
That or see if another member lives near you and is willing to let you use one of their molds for making a bunch using the ice trick mentioned above.
One thing I've changed in my process is to skip using the sprue plate on the mold and instead, fill the mold cavity with glue to just over the top and cut the base flush with the mold using a razor blade.
This allows you to see the gloolit as it's drying - so you never open the mold prematurely, it makes for a nice flat flush base and prevents the little air bubble I was occasionally getting with the pump fill method.
I gotta try this with the 500 mag
Don't know if this has been suggested - but why not just inject the hot glue directly into the case? Why not dispense with the molding process entirely?
I'm thinking you could drill out the flash hole, lube the inside of the case, fill it with hot glue, prime, and fire away.
Maybe put a wad at the bottom of the case.
Maybe size the case first.
Once again, I haven't read all the posts so excuse me if I'm out to lunch.
Has anyone tried this?
Last edited by Charlie Horse; 12-10-2021 at 08:57 AM.
You MIGHT get it to work.......if you only want to push a slug of ill-formed plastic out of your barrel and make noise!
I cast using REAL molds in various designs and cal's I have to get the accuracy that comes from the REAL boolit design.
And you would have absolutely NO aerodynamic design or flat base on your "glob" of plastic.
Casting plastic REAL boolits is fun, fast, and rewarding................at least it was........back in the days of plentiful and cheap primers. I have not wasted a primer on any HMG boolits in over 2 years now. I use them in the REAL thing now.
Gluboolits cast in actual molds also have the benefit of being somewhat consistent in size and weight. Casting direct into the case would mean some would be the entire volume of the case some would not leading to inconsistency. Also, there would be the risk of the glue adhering to the case and being pulled apart in the firing. Would likely lead to lots of stray shots, and given that these bounce a ton when hitting a hard surface, you don’t want them straying when firing in an enclosed space.
Feel free to give it a shot and report back on results so we all know the success/failure but I’m thinking I’ll stick to “casting” then process for myself.
I might try it. It would be similar to the old practice of pushing a 38 case into a block of paraffin.
Like I said; I would lube the case.
Just remember, they laughed at the Wright Brothers.
With primers in such short supply who would mess with poofy loads?
Let us know your findings better you than me LOL
I started out years ago doing the old school way of pushing casings into a custom brew of "shooting wax" in a flat pan. It did fire. It did go bang. It did have wax flying down range. However, there was very little accuracy achievable, and not what I was hoping for.
Then I read about HMG casting on the net and tried it. Amazingly accurate (for a piece of plastic), since it is was the actual aerodynamic shape of a real boolit. Since then, I have played around with a steel slingshot ball in the nose and even adding a grain or so of powder the fun.
As far as accuracy, I at least strive to "hit the side of the barn" with my HMG slugs, and using real molds allows that very easily.
I use only 6 cavity molds in addition to an industrial glue gun which forces the HMG out under high pressure and after cutting the sprue with the mold's sprue plate, perfect cast HMG boolits rain out very fast. The only slow-down is cooling the mold with an ice cube rubbed on the bottom and sides. PAM is the mold lube and once done I just wipe the mold out with a paper towel soaked in lacquer thinner to remove any residual PAM. No scrubbing and cleaning required!
Good luck! Experimentation is always fun. Let us know how your mud dauber approach works and what your accuracy ends up being.
A glued paper case with one end open using a wooden dowel or steel rod as a mandrel sized to slip in a properly sized cartridge case could probably be made up to be slipped in the case and injecting the hot glue into this paper sabot.even loosely fitted to slide in easily this would allow a person without the casting moulds to make suitable primer powered glue slugs.
Better than fooling with sand casting I believe.
Excuse the run on sentences, but there it is.
Once again, it is advisable to let the glue bullets set up overnite to let the glue 'cure' and stiffen up about for best accuracy.
Last edited by Alferd Packer; 01-21-2022 at 09:33 AM.
Just checking back on this.
I guess primer prices have ruined shooting plastic slugs.
No one trying this or posting about it any more.
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 |