Is it possible to make hollow lead balls?

Brian James

Brian James

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Please don’t laugh, I’m curious to know if anyone has successfully made hollow lead balls (.457) or have any ideas how it could be done.

Thanks

Brian
 
Could be done. Major PITA, lots of dicking around. Not like to accomplish much useful.

Oh yeah. A custom mold. How much are you willing to spend?

Get a mold, accurately sized to cast a half of the ball you want to end up with, think like a empty cantelope skin. Or a hard boiled egg half, with the yolk removed.

Cast it in the alloy of your choice.

Carefully hold in alignment while applying a solder of a lower melting point than the alloy between the two halves.

Install into temperature controlled oven and slowly, oh so slowly, raise the temp up until the solder 'just' flows out and fuses the two halves.

So yeah, it could be done.

Why?
 
image11.jpg

Might need a wad.
https://makezine.com/2015/06/25/amaze-balls-casting-hollow-spheres-mold/

Well, you could cast the holes, and it would be semi-solid. He uses a balloon to make an empty inside, which won't work.
 
A # of questions come to mind right away, the first is just "why"...the second is how thick do you want/need the outer skin to be????

While Trev has already listed one workable method with two mold halves...anything you try will require a lot of trial & error & patience I bet before success is realized. You will undoubtedly have to mess with different metal alloys with different melting points I think.

A method the differs from Trevs that I can come up with is to suspend a WW lead pellet/ball inside a round ball mold of the size you want. You could do this by "pining" the inside ball so it centers in the mold then pour a melt of zinc (hotter melt point than WW lead by approx 100 deg.) and let it cool. After it is cooled I would drill a small hole in the outer skin, now immerse the whole thing in a carefully temperature controlled lead melt ( just hot enough to keep the lead fluid), Theoretically the lead core inside the zinc mold should eventually melt (the outside skin shouldn't as it needs a hotter melt temp)and drip out the hole you drilled.....It might work but I make no promises LOL.
 
The only way to make such a thing would be with a mold that makes half a hollow sphere, and then attach 2 halves together to make a hollow sphere.
There is no point, because doing so would make a lighter lead ball lighter with an even poorer ballistic coefficient than solid lead ball - which is already low.
 
Look into lost wax casting perhaps? Lots of steps and there would be plaster inside with a hole to patch.

Or maybe there's a method for forming such a thing from a sheet of lead.... Regardless, it seems like a great deal of trouble for something I fail to see any useful applications for.
 
Hollow handles are molded for pewter tankards by partially filling the hot mold with molten pewter then shaking the mold. The metal solidifies on the walls of the mold leaving a cavity in the middle. The handle would be a bigger mass and give a little time to work with. A .45 ball would be difficult.
 
vagrantviking said:
Look into lost wax casting perhaps? Lots of steps and there would be plaster inside with a hole to patch.

Or maybe there's a method for forming such a thing from a sheet of lead.... Regardless, it seems like a great deal of trouble for something I fail to see any useful applications for.
Click to expand...

That works with ceramics or clay, which can be positioned in the mold while still cool. Probably not as useful if you're using molten lead.
 
Easy, buy a round ball mold and before the core solidifies tip it over and drain the inside out. Not sure why you would want to do that to a 147 grain .478 round ball though. 30 grains of ffg black behind it is lots of fun.
 
Playing with theories..
You could cast a single blank that when formed in a die would be spherical. Picture half spherical, and other half comprised of fingers.
It would be tricky to get the void truly concentric, and there would be seams.

Get a live pour into a gyroscope?

I'm curious as to why?
 
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...you planning to fill it with powder and attach a fuse? ...that'd drop a moose in its tracks, that's for sure...

G:

(...not laughing, just cogitating)
 
1. get a 10+ cavity ball mold with no fill ports
2. half fill with lead and let it cool (or use a smaller lead ball)
3. make a 2 axis spinning device
4. heat the mold up until the lead melts
5. spin said heated mold until it cools

now you have hollow balls!

i like nw mb's idea!!
 
Hmmm. Make a solid ball, chuck it in a lathe, then make a small hole in the end and get in there on an angle with a very fine chisel to hollow it out?

And once again, why?
 
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