SpudFiles

You will need;

Tools:

A drill press with a vise which can be bolted down.
Drill bits, includeing a "bore" sized drill bit.

If you wish to make a "round" nose slug, you will need either a bull nose milling bit, a bull nose router bit, or a spade bit and bench mounted grinder.

The re-shaped spade bit was blafen's idea, and can be found here;

http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/how-to- ... 16319.html


A file for de-burring the aluminum blocks.
Sandpaper 600grit wet/dry
WD-40
A sheet of glass.

Materials:

Blocks of aluminum big enough for the mold. These are 2.5"x1.5"x.75" .
Three bolts, and two nuts. (I used 1/4" bolts.)

Safety glasses.

Excellent! I absolutely love it!

I sure wish I have access to a drill press.

Very nice, does it have a third part for the hollow tail or is that drilled later

No, no lathe turned parts for this one. The idea is a mold that can be made by those having fewer tools. (Same as the stirrup pump.)

The aluminum plate will be used to line the mold up with the drill press, so that the tail can be accurately drilled out.

This should allow easy modification to slug mass and center of gravity.

And with a preset depth stop, reasonably consistent ammunition should be a real possibility.

Not fast, but do-able.

Love it! I'll use this method if I can find some lead to cast in my up and coming 50 cal.

Gippeto you could make a mould for the hollow bit in the back with a pice of alumieum bar stock in a drill press and a file or sand paper.

btw very nice how to.

Awsome How To Gippeto. I didn't expect to see this up here so soon.

Sometjhing that could be done relatively easily to make it cast hollow tails would be to take another piece of flat stock and set it with alignment pins or screws, and drill and tap a hole for a bolt to thread down through it and once the bolt is installed into the blate take a file or sandpaper and remove the exposed threads... This way you could cast them hollow and still not require a lathe...

I'm actually making something similar out of wood for casting bondo foster slugs, but I'm also mixing lead shot into the bondo for more weight, my slugs are going to be made in 1.5", 1.69", and 2" sizes, hence using bondo ibnstead of lead to keep the cost down... the lead shot I'm mixing in is collected from shot traps at some of the local turkey shoots...

jeepkahn wrote:to make it cast hollow tails

Another option is to cast a heavy nose in a section of pipe that is the same external diameter as the interior diameter of your barrel...

So how well does it actually work?

Pretty fair if I do say so. (I think I just did! )

I did pre-heat the mold somewhat, but the slug would have come out smoother had the mold been hotter yet.

Still, not a bad mold for less than an hours work with limited tools.

Can we get a diagonal backside picture?

Sticky_Tape wrote:Can we get a diagonal backside picture?

That sounds SO wrong...

Looks like a nice little mould to me. I'd do one myself, if I had a pillar drill to hand. It'd be nice to be able to do some lead slugs for my launchers - it'd give them some real punch.

This what you're looking for?

It's the only backside I'll be posting here.

Ragnarok wrote:

Sticky_Tape wrote:Can we get a diagonal backside picture?

That sounds SO wrong...

The butt of something is always a very interesting part, no matter if you're talking about cars, women or bullets.

Nice howto gippetto!

good HowTo, i just got an idea how to get this even more smoother. when you are ready in drilling, rtake a wooden dovel little smaller than the slug itself and glue with epoxy fine sandpaper in it (400-800 grid) so its a snug fit and put it in drill and use low speed and lot of CRC or WD-40 to keep it wet. and the slug looks like you poured the lead little bit too cold or just too slow