# lead moulding the easy way



## stelug (Feb 6, 2010)

I know probably would have spent only e few buck more ordering a sinker on ebay but when it comes to catty's I like best the do your-self. So I toock an aluminium flat band 1cm thik, cutted two piece 3cm x 10cm H & L, stopped them in a vice like a sandiwich and splined with two nail just to be shure they whon't slipp. Then I drilled the four holes 6 mm 1cm deep. And after opening the sandwich I drilled againg the ball-mould with 1 cm drill 1/2 deep per side. Refined the four holes with a round burr and a dremel. The splines are two picece of steel nail just hammered in the right size hole.
It whorks sufficiently well (as you can see in pics) else if, if doing again, I would make the leaking holes with a smaller diameter.
PsI : I mould piece of lead that the plumber gave me for free but an easy whay to get lead can be ascking removed balancer in a tire shop. 
Ps: I am not shure but firmly believe thath if instead of alloy I was using a hard-wood block the mould will work the same (may be it will smell burning a little







)


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## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

I just metioned this on another post, but have you ever seen a sprueless round ball mold? It was one idea that the old timers had that has been lost. I will explain how it works when we get some comments. I have seen two of them and had to scratch my head to figger out how they worked.


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## A+ Slingshots (Jan 22, 2010)

Tex-Shooter said:


> I just metioned this on another post, but have you ever seen a sprueless round ball mold? It was one idea that the old timers had that has been lost. I will explain how it works when we get some comments. I have seen two of them and had to scratch my head to figger out how they worked.


Ok Tex... you have me interested. How do you make a sprueless round ball mold???


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## stelug (Feb 6, 2010)

Tex-Shooter said:


> I just metioned this on another post, but have you ever seen a sprueless round ball mold? It was one idea that the old timers had that has been lost. I will explain how it works when we get some comments. I have seen two of them and had to scratch my head to figger out how they worked.


thin leakin-in port and rotating shape mae be? Interesting consideration Tex, but for hunting shooting ho rearly care? You can cut of any exceed with a pair of common shissors







. Anyway the more you mirror polish the surfaces the less you have to worry about spurr.


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## ZDP-189 (Mar 14, 2010)

That's good work. I bet it was hard to make sure they were spherical. I am sure you will remember to preheat the mould.

Did you know that two-part silicone moulding medium works for lead and pewter? I also like CerroTrue 9.8 g/cm³ which I can melt with a hot air gun.

Sprueless moulds have a cutter that you tap closed before the lead fully hardens. Drop casts have a tendency to deform on de-moulding. For accuracy you may want to use a swage-block to true them up.


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## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

OK, I promised to tell you how the ball mold without a sprue worked, but first the description. It is made similar to a pair of scissors with the tips like this very crude sketch, but longer handles. The way it worked was to pre-heat the tips. You then plunged the tips into the molten lead and closed them, pulled them out and opened them over water or in the water (I am not sure as I never used them). I have seen this style only once and the man that had them confirmed how they worked, after he made me figger it out on my own. I did not want to pay what he asks for them, so I don’t own them. He told me that some of the frontier black powder shooters made this style and used them. They were crude and looked hand made. Think how many balls you could make in a short period of time with this style of tool. Of course they would not be perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I wish I had bought that set. I have never gotten another chance. -- Tex


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## NightKnight (Dec 16, 2009)

That is really clever Tex! It makes perfect sense!


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## Termi (Dec 26, 2009)

Hello,

here is a link http://www.co2air.de/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=66665&sid=15cb1280ae9e166aebc486065e46322b to a german forum, where it is described how to make such a tool and how to work with it.

Termi


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## Bugar (Dec 24, 2009)

That is neat, now if I can find the cups for the balls=got it made
Thanks for the link/pic











Termi said:


> Hello,
> 
> here is a link http://www.co2air.de/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=66665&sid=15cb1280ae9e166aebc486065e46322b to a german forum, where it is described how to make such a tool and how to work with it.
> 
> Termi


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## ZDP-189 (Mar 14, 2010)

That's great. 8mm BB pots are good for dispensing shot like this.


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## mr.joel (Dec 21, 2009)

Tex-Shooter said:


> OK, I promised to tell you how the ball mold without a sprue worked, but first the description. It is made similar to a pair of scissors with the tips like this very crude sketch, but longer handles. The way it worked was to pre-heat the tips. You then plunged the tips into the molten lead and closed them, pulled them out and opened them over water or in the water (I am not sure as I never used them). I have seen this style only once and the man that had them confirmed how they worked, after he made me figger it out on my own. I did not want to pay what he asks for them, so I don't own them. He told me that some of the frontier black powder shooters made this style and used them. They were crude and looked hand made. Think how many balls you could make in a short period of time with this style of tool. Of course they would not be perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I wish I had bought that set. I have never gotten another chance. -- Tex


You can buy these at: http://www.dixiegunworks.com/default.php?cPath=22_101_283. Round ball molds for these are no longer available, but you could buy a blank and cherry it out yourself. Frankly, I would recommend using a mold with a sprue cutter, the least expensive ones are from Lee and can also be bought from them as well as a number of other suppliers. The best ones IMO are made by Rapine, also available from Dixie, or the ones made by NEI Handtools, http://www.neihandtools.com/online_order.html , these are really spendy- but worth the money as they are top shelf and will last forever if cared for. I would also recommend a Rowell #2 or a #3 (if you are working with many cavities such as the Do-It slingshot pellet mold) ladle, they are absolutely the best ladle around. These can be had at: http://www.theantimonyman.com/ladles.htm . Don't forget to buy some flux(read the directions) and make/scrounge/buy a scraper and stirring tool or oxides will form and build up in your ladle, or lead pot for that matter.


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## mr.joel (Dec 21, 2009)

Using a sprueless mold might seem like less trouble but will take much toll on the mold dipping it in the lead over and over. There are the oxidation issues as well with the iron blocks needed for this. Your sprues will be much larger requiring remelting and lead partially evaporates every time it is re-melted, and this just isn't efficient. Just learn to use a mold with a sprue cutter, use a rawhide mallet to smack the sprue cutter, this will reduce problems with deformation of the ball. With Lee molds the part on the sprue cutter you hit with the mallet is rather small. there is an accessory you can buy to alleviate this which elongates the "anvil" of the cutter: http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_101_283&products_id=8077 , I would use this with Lee molds.


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## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

Sprueless means with out any sprue. The dixie molds have sprues. You don't have any sprue to remelt with a sprueless mold and the tips are very small. Read my post again and the German link under it. A sprueless is very fast. Tex


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## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

Here ia a Google translation of the German post. It is not very good, but i think you can get the picture. -- Tex
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, especially those of the centrifugal Group!

Had there once a working, replicable volsella imagine, it's free and the only condition welding ability. Optimal is autogen possibly even mig-mag. 
Main part is a poultry shears, the decades-four blocks Besteckkasten the family has, without ever a chicken to share. 
A poultry shears because it is amazingly accurate in your leadership and drifting sideways excluded. 
The scissors cutting are reduced to half with the flex, then at the stumps 
arbitrary profile of iron welded to a small pencil thickness. 
At about 7 cm measured from the fulcrum 2 half-shells are made from CO2 cartridge soils are also welded. 
Now should be an alignment of the hemispheres in closed position natürlicch using welding or flame. 
A präzieses closing of the hemispheres is achieved by a piece of Schlefpapier is loosely clamped in the now almost-finished Zenge then run through the still a few times of the sandpaper is possible. 
Then you turn around this and beschleift the other side. Inevitably, you reach so ene perfkt closing spherical shape, supported by the good side, the leadership of the old poultry scissors-negative form of a sphere a very good result. 
On the optimal preparation of a melt has recently been thoroughly discussed and should not even be addressed. 
It is going easy! The forceps is dipped into the melt is closed, held over a bucket of cold water and opened. After the first three abortions has some han adjusted with a rhythm that resembles that of a good soup eater in the spoon. So it is fluid and then close-dip lead over water, and then open again. It will end no more, the balls are well vorgeforrmt and get their finishing touches in a drum, which I had presented here before. Alternatively, the washing machine is, then of course in the glass jar and then when nuts are not at home. 
The result you see in the photo and the production time Bertuğ min with all the ancillary work for that amount at about 10th 
Notwithstanding this description, I V2a used shells, aluminum is still better, but only because I had to Fertigungsmöglchkeiten. all other materials (except copper and brass) are also suitable. 
Thus, a series is nothing in the way (which is only 100ter promotional material and almost DIN A 4) 
Greeting 
iwan


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## mr.joel (Dec 21, 2009)

I guess I had lost your point, I can see how this would work using the dip method. Unfortunately this product is seemingly unavailable. Unless one has machine tools, know how and the time to produce it, it's a pipe dream. Are sprues truly that detrimental to velocity and accuracy? If so, unless you are a machinist with time on your hands, I guess your best bet is to buy swaged round balls and use a bullet trap with a backstop that will catch them without deforming them.

Dropping the hot lead balls into water will harden them(pure lead only), however if left over time they will soften more than they originally were if they were just dropped into a cardboard box. This is an alternative method to using antimony in your alloy which is difficult to obtain and alloy. Another tool to consider is a thermometer, especially handy for alloying bullet metals, i.e., wheel weights.


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## mr.joel (Dec 21, 2009)

Tex-Shooter said:


> Sprueless means with out any sprue. The dixie molds have sprues. You don't have any sprue to remelt with a sprueless mold and the tips are very small. Read my post again and the German link under it. A sprueless is very fast. Tex


Read my post again. You could buy the blank mold from Dixie and cherry it out youself. Cherrying it out yourself means that you can cherry it sprueless. If the tips are a bother I suppose you could remove the excess material as well. If you have the time and tooling.


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## fish (Dec 24, 2009)

isnt the cavity mold spru-less?


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## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

You are right, but I don't think that it has long enough tips to work very good. -- Tex


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## mr.joel (Dec 21, 2009)

You could increase the arms by cutting them off and splicing in extra length by welding on rods to extend them. You would need the skill of welding iron, no easy trick I am told. You might try brazing, but I'm not sure this would hold up in the melt. Again more bother...likely getting ridiculous. You might be better off approaching a blacksmith that specializes in fur trade era items, I have no doubt one of those guys could make this for you. The trick is finding one that doesn't have a two year waiting list, but this situation may very well have changed since I left the country, repressed economy and all.


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