Hollowpointmold.com order placed

[unfy]

Erik @ hollowpointmold.com has gotten some favorable reviews from different folks, and wanting a HP mold for the powder coating experiments and possibly other things ... I figured I'd buy one from him.  In particular:

http://www.hollowpointmold.com/forsale/sale-pictures/?item=207

Payment is via money order / check, which while a slight inconvenience ... whatever.

Quality of the metal work from all of his pics looks real nice.  For the Lee new style block conversions, handles are fixed... so that means it comes with handles (or alternatively, you can't swap out handles if that matters to you).

$100 for the mold is possibly on the higher side by $5-$10 or maybe a bit more (being a converted Lee mold), but I'm not really gonna complain.  An extra $75 for what will hopefully be excellent craftsmanship should be cool.

Initial interaction with Erik has been nice / polite / good.

Looking forward to receiving the mold and writing up more of a review (akin to the Sharp Shooter USA mold review).

[abbafandr]

  Does this mean no more Unfys Plated Bullets(TM)?

[unfy]

Unfy Plated Bullets (TM) is still on the todo list .

Having a distraction with the PC is handy, though.

DD and I will be comparing notes on plated bullets undoubtedly

[bkoenig]

Too bad they don't make a 6 cavity HP mold.  I love my 6 cavity, it cranks out bullets like nobody's business.

[unfy]

Too bad they don't make a 6 cavity HP mold.  I love my 6 cavity, it cranks out bullets like nobody's business.

http://www.hollowpointmold.com/inset-bar-conversions/?picture=868#868

They have done them.... prolly should email Erik and ask.

[Phantom]

Unfy all i can say is after you put your fingers in that your typing is going to be really bad 

[unfy]

I'll have to get a chicklet keyboard.

That is a keyboard with chicklets glued to the keys so my hollow point fingers can hit the keys correctly...


I'll be cross pasting this in the 'improving bullet casting' thread as well... but got a response from Erik about a concern of multiple types of metals in the new mold and if it's a problem etc...

I say cast as fast as possible and only slow down to keep from getting smears on top!  Seriously, you can cast at a pretty good clip and just wait about a 5 count to break the sprue and just slow it down enough so you don't get smears or overheat.  Sounds like you have it figured out already.  The different metals shouldn't give any problems just make sure to lube the sprue pivot and sliding parts sparingly once
in a while.

Skip the setting the mold down, no need to keep it warmer than the actual casting provides after initial warm up.  Erik

Soooo... no issues about the multi-metal-combination stuff. Yay.

Also as a side note - demonstrating how friendly Erik is

[unfy]

Turns out Erik's a bit busy at the moment.

It'll take about 2 weeks to get the conversion done.

No big deal.... patience patience

[Phantom]

No big deal.... patience patience

Where did you order that E-bay ? 

[unfy]

Where did you order that E-bay ? 

LOL, no.

A single guy in a shop can take a while to get through things

A couple week wait isn't the end of the world, it lets me do a few other things, like building the muffle box for the small air compressor.

Also debating if to attempt any kind of aluminum or steel casting.

http://www.dansworkshop.com/2008/03/homebuilt-electric-melting-furnace-2/

$4 for the plans .... looks highly buildable and workable (eyeballing said plans).  Quite intriguing ... and I'd prefer it over the gas/charcoal stuff.

[unfy]

It arrived today!

Lee new style block indeed, looks like it does in the pics posted originally.

I'll get pictures and start a review up either tonight or tomorrow.

*excited*

[unfy]

I've not gotten to cast with the mold yet, had a real busy weekend.

A bunch of pics below.

Notes:

a) lee new style mold

b) hp pins are connected via a large bar, looks like it'd add alot to stability

c) pins / bar are held captive by some E clips

d) there's some burrs around the alignment pins / holes that are prolly from the factory that way, i wouldn't put this on Erik.  And they brushed off easily

e) original box and documentation is included

f) i had mentioned my plans for SCIENCE, and Erik was kind enough to throw in some extra pins, I dunno if that's standard or not (prolly not - you can't just swap them out).

g) Erik also makes some custom arrow heads if anyone cares

There's prolly other stuff I've missed, but I'm excited about the quality of the product and can't wait to try casting with it.

[bkoenig]

Nice looking mold.

[Phantom]

Looks like fun

How long before you can remove each casting ?

I guess i was wondering how many per hour
you could get cast them 2 at a time by hand ?

Have you looked at buying a used Stove/oven from the good will or a second hand store
and installing another 220 outlet for it in your shop ?

Could double the 220 with a second outlet for a arch welder or other equipment

[unfy]

Looks like fun

How long before you can remove each casting ?

I guess i was wondering how many per hour
you could get cast them 2 at a time by hand ?

Have you looked at buying a used Stove/oven from the good will or a second hand store
and installing another 220 outlet for it in your shop ?

Could double the 220 with a second outlet for a arch welder or other equipment

Not entirely sure if I understand the question.

The mold was made by someone else.  Molds are made from solid blocks of aluminum (or brass or steel) and put through metal lathes & milling machines.

Casting lead bullets in my other two cavity mold with a bottom pour lead pot takes probably 12-15 seconds per 'break' (breaking the mold open to drop bullets out).  And that's a fairly conservative time estimate.  So, I get about 8-12 bullets (4-6 breaks) per minute.... possibly more.  I've not actually timed it.  But it's "fill" (1-2 seconds), rest (2-5 seconds), cut sprue (1 second), break mold (1-5 seconds depending on how sticky bullets are), reclose mold and sprue plate (1-3 seconds).

A 220v lead pot will heat the pot quicker and probably cost less electricity, but that's not a big concern.  I think my 110v pot takes 20min to heat up, maybe 30.  During that time I'm doing other setup chores.

A lead pot (and heater controls etc) is about the size of a coffee maker.

[unfy]

Cast around 5lbs of bullets so far... at least, that's my guess according to how empty the pot got after dumping all the sprue back in.  Taking a tiny break before going back at it.

I'm pretty sure it's all me... but a ridge developed where sprue plate was gouging the mold possibly.  Maybe the sprue plate was too tight, I dunno.  It looks like it might just barely affect base of bullet, I'll know more later.  I dunno if this is me or the mold or what.  Will take pics later as well.

So far, casting with the mold has been a breeze.  Hollow point pins make it far easier to remove bullets from the mold than without them.  Due to the bar/pin additions, mold alignment is a lot easier as well (also possibly due to the 'new style' block from lee.  I will say, with the bar/pin thing on the bottom, it's easy to tell if ya don't have the mold aligned right ... cause it will definitely V shape on ya (well, inverted V ).

The rods that allow the HP pins to slide away from the mold block a bit do stick a bit sometimes.  Nothing terribly evil that requires tools, but just an observation.

I've done a second wax lubing of everything and after some food will get back to it to cast another 5-10lbs of bullets.

[unfy]

Done with casting for the day. 

I had zero bullets come out finned due to mold misalignment (or even running too hot).

The mold *may* prefer faster casting with a colder mold (so the pins move easier maybe?).  I dunno.




The scaring I was talking about, particularly the arc near the sprue plate screw.

[DangerousDrummer]

Those look good. Should powder coat nicely too! I don't know if I told you, but the last 2 batches of PC that I did (420s and 285s), I went straight from the oven to a water quench with the whole tray. It did not affect the PC, but I don't know if it hardened the bullets any.

I am looking for a 312 mold that is not quite so round nosed for my Mosin. It will be my next PC project. Those bullets will run about 2700 fps, so if I can make that work with accuracy I will attempt AR 223.

[unfy]

Those look good. Should powder coat nicely too! I don't know if I told you, but the last 2 batches of PC that I did (420s and 285s), I went straight from the oven to a water quench with the whole tray. It did not affect the PC, but I don't know if it hardened the bullets any.

I am looking for a 312 mold that is not quite so round nosed for my Mosin. It will be my next PC project. Those bullets will run about 2700 fps, so if I can make that work with accuracy I will attempt AR 223.

Looking over them, I think my casting was a bit... weird.  They're fine, they just seem to have weird blemishes.  Not sure if this was due to running the pot a bit hotter than before (was windy out...)... or if I'm just not used to tin/ww alloy or what.

I'm pleased with them and the mold.  Inspecting a bunch doesn't look like there's a real issue with the scar pictured above.


As far as 312 -- does it need to be 312 ?  Saeco makes some .311 that aren't as round nosed.  Depending on how thick ya make the powder coat, does that .001 make a difference ? I honestly dunno.

http://noebulletmolds.com/ has a several 312's listed.  They don't appear to have any 'quantity' (all zeros heh)... but doesn't hurt to ask.  They're listed in the 308-311 category at the end, as well as one listed in the 314-316 category.  Oddly, they don't have 312 in hollow point... very very odd.

[bkoenig]

I've had problems with gouging like that before on a Lee mold.  I found it was due to a burr on the edge of the sprue plate.  I fixed it with about 30 seconds of light filing on the plate.  The gouge is still there on the mold but it doesn't seem to hurt anything.