Hey Ed,

I would like to know how the old timers made round ball cherrys for bullet
molds. Did they form the cutting surfaces with files? It seems that one
should be able to do this with W-1 tool steel.

Bob Swinney
"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
...
"David A. Webb" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 05 Mar 2004 02:47:49 GMT, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

If anyone is interested, I'll describe a process for making aluminum
bullet
molds that will make a machinist cry, but which turned out some of the
best
bullets I ever made. All you need is a big-mutha hammer and a file.

Ed Huntress

I am, I am !!! (interested in having you describe the process)

Do you need very soft aluminum so it doesn't break when you beat on it
with the hammer?

I suppose it would be better, but all I had was some cutoffs of 6061,
which
I kept annealing in the oven to keep them workable.

Anyway, I took two, 2" x 2" x 1" blocks of aluminum and a ball bearing of
the correct size. I dimpled the two blocks of aluminum to hold the bearing
in place to get started. Then I put a piece of 1/2" steel plate on top of
one block and set the whole mess on another piece of steel plate, and
began
whacking it with the hammer (a short-handled maul, actually).

This takes a fair number of whacks, and I kept rotating the top block
around
as I went. When the two blocks started to touch I took them apart and
filed
them flat, several times, until the parting plane came out fairly flat. I
clamped the two pieces together and drilled holes for guide pins, another
for a sprue, and I was done.

It cast very nice balls. I also tried turning a conical bullet pattern
from
steel and hardened it, but it all needed some more experimentation. The
aluminum wasn't filling properly around the pattern. I'm sure it would
work
if you fooled around with it.

Ed Huntress