Hey guys,
Thought I would post this up, so if anyone ever gets as desperate as me for a custom mold, they know how to make one. Granted, I will say right up front this mold doesn't throw perfectly round balls, but that is due to my lack of machining skills. So anyway, I'm poor at the moment, but wanted a way to fire some round balls in my slug gun project, so I made this thing up. It's pretty simple, all you need is a block of aluminum, some drill bits, and patience.
The process is simple: take your measurements, drill a pilot hole to the correct depth. Then use a bigger bit to take most of the "meat" out of the block. Lastly, finish with your "round" bit to make the final shape.
To make a "round" bit, all I did was take a spade bit, cut the nose off, and then file it to make it round. Unfortunately I didn't have any gauges to measure a perfect circle out, so I had to eyeball it. I was out by .005 on each side, so I think I did pretty good for a first effort.
Anyway, start with this:
Then take your measurements, and bore out some holes:
Use a c-clamp to hold everything together, and start pouring:
End result:
Here is the "round" bit, and a normal spade bit for comparison:
Anyway, there it is. I know I was a bit brief this time, but I'm sure most everyone can figure this one out. Cheers.
Thought I would post this up, so if anyone ever gets as desperate as me for a custom mold, they know how to make one. Granted, I will say right up front this mold doesn't throw perfectly round balls, but that is due to my lack of machining skills. So anyway, I'm poor at the moment, but wanted a way to fire some round balls in my slug gun project, so I made this thing up. It's pretty simple, all you need is a block of aluminum, some drill bits, and patience.
The process is simple: take your measurements, drill a pilot hole to the correct depth. Then use a bigger bit to take most of the "meat" out of the block. Lastly, finish with your "round" bit to make the final shape.
To make a "round" bit, all I did was take a spade bit, cut the nose off, and then file it to make it round. Unfortunately I didn't have any gauges to measure a perfect circle out, so I had to eyeball it. I was out by .005 on each side, so I think I did pretty good for a first effort.
Anyway, start with this:
Then take your measurements, and bore out some holes:
Use a c-clamp to hold everything together, and start pouring:
End result:
Here is the "round" bit, and a normal spade bit for comparison:
Anyway, there it is. I know I was a bit brief this time, but I'm sure most everyone can figure this one out. Cheers.
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