Has Anyone Made Their Own Lead Casting Molds?

I am curious if anyone here has made their own lead casting molds and how they accomplished it.

I think the easiest way would be to drill one for conicals, but I could also imagine milling a mold, or casting one from various metals for both round balls and conicals.

It might also be interesting to know if anyone here has made their own swaging dies.

If you have, how well did it turn out for you?

Good luck Cpl. A while back I asked about getting a ball mold cherry so I could enlarge some molds I have and got nowhere. It's not something I really needed to do. A lot of people sell molds at reasonable prices. I just wanted to give it a try. I found a place that said they make custom cherrys but when I tried to get a quote I couldn't get anywhere on their site. Either they no longer offer the service or they're out of business. There are instructions online and in books on making a cherry but I don't have the knowledge, skill, or equipment to do so. Also, a lot of hardware companies offer cutters but not the size I wanted and I didn't see any offers to make a custom size. I don't want to start selling molds. I just wanted to do some experimenting for my own gratification. So, like I said, good luck. :idunno:

I have made several bullet molds both lathe bored and from cherry's I made.
It is a real job to make a good cherry, the mold is simple by comparison especially when lathe bored.
It takes me a good eight to ten hours to make a cherry or chamber reamer from scratch but then I am not set up for a production run either and have to do all the flute relief by hand stoning.
Cherry cut molds usually are not as accurate as lathe bored as one must simultaneously close the two mold halves around a spinning cherry in a special holding fixture.
It can be done one half at a time as well but I don't think it is as easy to get it accurate.
I always lathe bore connicals and have never made a ball mold with either method.
A ball cherry would be difficult and I think were I to make one I would locate and lathe bore a hemispheres in each half. Mike D.

Let me reword the last sentence in the previous post as I ran my thoughts together.
I meant to say that making a ball cherry would be difficult as the fluting would needs be serpentine to alleviate chatter and were I to make a ball mold I would probably do it by locating center and lathe boring a hemisphere in each half instead of making a cherry for the purpose. Mike D.

I have made several. For round ball molds I use a ball end mill making each half seperately ( I was a tool and die maker before retiring so making a .440 or .495 etc. ball end mill was no problem.) For mini's I bored the two halves together and cut groves into them with an undercut grooving tool on an engine lathe with a separate "plug" for the hollow base. While I still have the lathe and mill I consider them to much work to make any for sale . It was nice to make for my own use since it gave me complete control over what sizes I could make. :idunno: :hmm: :idunno:

I'm confused. It seems like you guys may have lapsed into some language unknown to me. :shocked2:

A bud of mine who's real handy made a mold out of either soap stone or pipe stone- don't remember the details. He found a steel ball bearing approximately the right size and proceeded to pit it over a period of days with salt water. Then he just sandwiched the pitted bearing between two small slabs of stone and proceeded to twist and turn by hand. Last step was boring the pour spout using the leather awl on his Swiss army knife.

Turned out really well and produces .48X balls, just a little smaller than the .490 he was after. A change of patching was an easy Rx.

Of course, you need to know something else about this guy. He had broken his femur in a motorcycle wreck and was laid up for six months without much to do. He hated TV with a purple passion, and couldn't find any books he particularly wanted to read.

He told me he guessed he had about 40 hours in the project, and that wasn't nearly long enough. :rotf:

What are you confused about? Simple machinest jargon. :rotf:
The job can be done on lathe or end mill or for that matter by hand if one has the patience and know how.
The ODG's (old dead guys) made most of there cutting tools with a file and if they were real fortunate had an old truddle lathe. Mike D.

Just as an aside, I have made primitive ball moulds in the field. One was made from wood and the other out of clay. These were not precision tools by any stretch of the imagination, but they did make functional balls that hit a target downrange.
I also have a silver spoon with tiny holes in it that will make birdshot in the field.
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming .
:grin:

I have made round ball molds just like Ohio Ramrod said. I used a single lip round end mill from a tool and cutter grinder and cut each half one at a time on a milling machine. The location of the cavities can be easily located with a .0005 indicator. The parting lines on my round balls are almost non existent. I also make my conical bullet molds the same way, except they are machined with both haves together on the mill with some sort of rotary table. (I am a tool and die maker also). If you have no machining experience, I would say you most probably cannot make one at home. I don't know how the old timers did it in the field. They must have known something that I don't.

HH 60

Thanks for all the answers. :thumbsup:

Not that I really want to do it myself, because it is usually cheaper just to buy one, with maybe the exception of Colorado Clyde's description, but I just wanted to know if anyone had.

Sometimes I think it is just neat to make something even though it might be cheaper to buy it, but more so I just wanted to know the different ways that it can be done.

:hatsoff:

made a mold out of either soap stone or pipe stone

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I have seen moulds made from soft stone. e.g. soapstone or limestone, etc. They seem to not have been uncommon. Saw in museums and pics on books. Believe I have even come across one or two in antique shops. No idea how they were made. Wonder if some of that harden in oven modeling clay would work. :hmm: Of course, it would have to withstand 600+ degree temps when pouring the lead.

I am building one with my mill for a lead round ball. It requires more than just a drill.

If you have a lathe you can turn down a piece of steel to the desired diameter and cut off "thin wafers" then cut a slot into a rod of smaller diameter to hold the wafers and use lapping compound to lap out your drill point to the diameter and depth you want. It will take a long time and several wafers but it can be done for those that can not get the correct diameter end mill. As said before, for those that aren't equipped it is a long time project but it can be done! :idunno: :idunno:

Wonder if some of that harden in oven modeling clay would work. Of course, it would have to withstand 600+ degree temps when pouring the lead.

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Did some research and answered my own question.
Answer: No. Sculpey and other oven backed clays cannot withstand temps over 350 degrees after baking. They are polymers. Oh, well. Another genius idea shot down. :td:

Just for fun I made one out of a piece of red pipestone that I had knocking around. I was making it for a .60 smoothbore and I wanted a lightweight one that I could carry in my pack on a woodswalk in case I was asked if I had a bullet mold. I simply cut the pipestone in half with a hacksaw and hollowed out both halves with a Dremel tool. It was way undersized, but it fit in the bore and I did shoot a ball from it. The mold was held together with a string wrapped around it. Obviously it was only good for making one ball at a time then it had to cool enough to be able to pick it up.

I do have a rather nice soapstone gang mold that throws about 2 dozen teardrop shaped lead ball. Those make an interesting load.