"Carl Ijames" wrote in message news
On Friday, July 21, 2017 at 2:59:05 PM UTC-7, Bob La Londe wrote:

This is a pretty typical lead casting (sinkers, jigs, spinnerbaits, etc)
mold. The hinge shown works pretty darn well. It moves easily, and does
a
good job of helping to hold the mold halves in alignment at the hinge end.
The opening (handle side) end has two alignment pins with radius ends

Just to go further outside the box, if you have a hydraulic press you could
bend a short L on the end of your bar to give you the raised material for
your hinge. You'll get some distortion between the edge of the die and the
bend so you will have to make your mold maybe 1/2" or 3/4" longer than
before. Either keep the radius large to prevent cracking or set up a torch
(or crab pot propane burner) and firebrick oven with a slot just big enough
to stick in the end you are about to bend and experiment with how hot you
need. The $30 harborfreight IR thermometer (frequently on sale or coupon
for $20) goes to 968F for easy measurement. Most cheap ones don't go nearly
that high. Not sure what the emissivity of aluminum is up there so you need
to calibrate if you want actual accuracy but reproducibility should be good
and you will just keep trying an indicated 25F higher each time until you
get a good bend so who cares :-). Definitely want a real press brake or air
over hydraulic for speed, then quench in water immediately after bending.
I've done the heat and bend but never bothered with this but if you want
maximum strength you could age at 400F for an hour to get the region you
heated somewhere near T5 while the rest should still be pretty much T6.

--
Regards,
Carl Ijames

**************
Yer jacking with me right? (pun intended)