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Ball Size 1-1/4 bore?

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Patrick Hemken

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Came back from an event this weekend with a few new toys. One of which is a nice littel barrel with a 1 1/4 inch bore. Got my tool and die guys scrambling for a set up to make me a mold, need your help as to what size to make the ball.

Thanks for the help to follow!

Pat
 
The ball should be free to roll down the bore. About .020" to.030" under bore diamter should work fine. Now if you were to rifle the bore then you would be using a patch and need the ball a bit larger.
 
Thanks, I was kind of figuring 0.030 undersize. Now before I order an endmill/pay for a regrind, is there a mold out there that I can buy right off the shelf and save some time?

Pat
 
If you have a lathe you can make your own cutter and mold blocks. I made a few molds in 1.5" and 1.625" a few years ago. Use aluminum for the blocks and make the cutter out of something that can be hardened. The cutter is turned to the diameter of the ball you want and then sliced off at about 1/8" thick. A piece of 1/2" round stock is cut with a 1/8" groove in the end so the disk will go in the end almost to full diameter. Center it up and put a little weld on each side. It will look like a loly pop. Grind a relief on each side sort of like sharpening a drill. You will need a good depth gage. Aluminum blocks about 2X2X1 will work. Center one in the 4 jaw and face it off then cut another face about .1" deep and 1.750" diameter so the face looks like a shallow pan. Run a center drill in about 1/2" and then use the cutter you made in the tail stock to go in half the ball diameter from the secound face you cut. Set up the other half in the lathe and face. now cut the OD to fit the ID of the first half going .1" so the 2 halves will fit together with no movement.Don't take the secound one out of the lathe chuck yet You can shampher the edges so they go together easy. Now cut the cavity for the other half of the ball going 1/2 the diameter from the face. Now put both pieces together and mount in the 4 jaw so that the seam is lined up with the ways. Take light face cuts till you reach the cavity, this will be the side the spru cutter goes on. This type of mold has no allinement pins. Make up something for handles and a spru cutter and it is finnished
 
You can save some time and purchase an excellent ball mold in steel from Schneider Enterprises located in Burlington, WI. He has a stock size of 1.240 or will make any size you would want.
 
I built a cannon with a 1 1/8 bore (listed here as "burgundian cannon"). I shoot a 1/16 lead ball, which is a #4 fishing sinker. I simply use a thin bedsheet thickness patch..

It was cheap alternative to having a mold made. :v
 
John Taylor said:
About .020" to.030" under bore diamter should work fine.

That would be fine, you only need a lot of windage if you shoot an imperfect iron ball that might turn in the bore and seize up. An imperfect lead ball can deform to get past the sticking point :thumbsup:
 

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