Brass / steel bag mold?

[coloradoclyde]

Thanks!....I think the burning paper might have been an indicator for the mold temp. not the molten lead....

 

[necchi]

Fahrenheit 451

 

[coloradoclyde]

:rotf: :thumbsup:

 

[Artificer]

Like this:

The Pennsylvania Gazette
January 5, 1748
From the GENERAL MAGAZINE. A New Method of making BULLET MOULDS.

"THE Badness of the Bullet Moulds brought into America for common Sale, and the Difficulty of meeting with one of them, bad as they are, that will fit one's Gun , will render the following Invention, for making (easily) true and exact Bullet Moulds, agreeable to all Lovers of good Shooting.

Good Heavens I wish the author had been more exact on what was wrong with the common molds then available!! Was he referring to the shape of the ball not being as perfectly round as possible? Or did he mean the size of the ball cast by the mold compared to the bore size? Did he mean a combination of both?

Maybe I am speculating too much on such limited information, but it seems to me that the author must have known of and expected his readers to also know of the common problems with the molds AND there were at least some molds that did not have these problems? Or am I missing something?

Gus

 

[Artificer]

In Colonial Frontier Guns, T.M. Hamilton mentions that "cheap molds" in the early 18th century on the frontier bordered by the Mississippi river usually cast balls that were not round because the two plates did not align correctly either when cut by a bad cherry or were not aligned by a pin/s of some sort. However, what I found extremely interesting is Hamilton states that all the balls they have found in archeological sites that are good round balls, were manufactured in Europe and most likely in high quality gang molds.

Gus

 

[Jim C]

Yep, seems as though the old timers failed to elaborate on far too many subjects that pertains to the sport we love to indulge ourselves in today. Of course now, they all knew what they were talking about, and it's almost like they never took it into consideration that anyone would even know or care about it a century or two later. I tend to believe that life, along with everything in it back then, was so much more simpler and far less complicated as opposed to today's standards that maybe they felt like in their minds there was actually no need at all to analyze anything absolutely to death . :idunno:

 

[Twisted_1in66]

One of the things I do to keep my bag mold at a good temperature for casting balls is rest the mold in the melted lead when I'm not casting. I rest it on the un-melted lead when I first turn the heater on or put the cast iron lead-melting cauldron on the fire and then let it heat up as the lead melts. The lead flows off of it when it melts, so no worries about it sticking to the sides of my steel mold. When everything is ready, I typically smoke the inside with a candle and commence casting.

Attempting that with a lead-form mold would quickly end up in a puddle of lead. :shocked2: :shocked2: :redface: :redface:

Probably not something I will attempt.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:
Dan