casting with soap stone mold

[Larry Pletcher]

Dennis at Mill Creek sent me a double cavity .490 soap stone mold, and I tried casting balls last night. I'm used to casting from a lyman with a sprue cutter, so this was a new game. It's pretty cool. I held the halves together with a small clamp to keep my hands out of the way. The ball and sprue came out easily. I tossed the first few back in the pot and watched as the balls improved as the mold heated.

I cut the sprues with a side cutter, and that left a pretty ragged sprue. I took a file to the sprue and to any flash that showed up. I haven't weighed any yet and probably won't. The weigh variation will be determined largely by how uniformly you cut the sprue. I wouldn't expect these balls to set records at Friendship; no one expects that. However, if you place yourself in the middle of nowhere in the early 1700s, I think you would pleased to have one of these molds.

Thinking more about this I guess that an 18th century rifleman would probably cut the sprues with a knife. Any thoughts here?

Regards,
Pletch

 

[Norinco]

Nice, I bet it holds heat really well. I have heard that people back then would clean up freshly cast balls with a knife.

I do remember seeing in an elementary school textbook a soapstone mold from the American Revolution with eight or so cavities for "mass production" of musket balls.

 

[necchi]

That's neat alright,
We had a long discussion at a camp one time about the topic of; What would happen if your mold was
*lost, canoe tipped over
*stolen, robbers
*taken, Local Chief want's your mold as a trespass fee

We had several ideas how to make a projectile or shot, and carving/shaping bone or soft stone was one.
I imagine the knife would be the tool at hand for sprue cutting. I know it's not the best for good ball, but pouring less into the mold might make it easier to shave a sprue,, :idunno:

 

[bkovire]

got to know were to get them :thumbsup: just what i have been looking for, got link or web? phone number.

 

[lockjaw]

...i made one similar to that for my .62 smoothbore...used a wood rasp type thingy in a drill press...i cut the spru w/ a side cutter also...balls work good enuf' for unpatched smoothbore...still use my lyman mold mostly...

 

[ericb]

Can tell you as a sidenote from 10 years in the Granite/Marble/Soapstone countertop business that not all soapstones are created equal. Most "carving grade" soapstone is very soft, and contains a lot of asbestos. "Countertop" grade soapstone is very, very hard, and contains almost no asbestos. We had some soapstone in the shop that we wore carbide drill bits out on and had to resort to Diamond bits normally used on Granite. I used to bring scraps home for carving Atlatl weights, and ruined some Nicholson files on some of it. From what I can tell, and of necessity I had to do a fair amount of research (OSHA, Customer Concerns, etc) "Countertop Grade" used in the trade can be/is often closely related to Serpentine, which is actually a different animal. If you do end up using "Carving" grade soapstone, use a repirator when you work it; asbestos can do a lot of damage to the Lungs - just ask the Eskimos that wound up with emyhsema from all those little Tourist KnickKnacks they made in cramped, unventilated quarters. I imagine casting Bullets in a finished mold would be perfectly safe, and most folks are pretty careful about ventilation anyway when casting.

If I was going to make a Mold I would go to one of the Granite Countertop Fabricators and bum some scraps. Trust me; they will have some good sized pieces in the Dumpster. The 1 1/4" (3cm) thickness is most common. Take a knife or file & you will readily discern which pieces are the hardest.

Anyway - my 2 cents.

Eric

 

[WALKERs210]

Last week being bored and not wanting to go anywhere I went into my work shop, dug out a few blocks of hard wood I had piled up. Matched up two pieces, drilled and mounted a hinge one end the drilled a 1/4" hole through the other end where I install a 1/4" dowel with just enough sticking out of one to align the two half's. Then using drill press drilled a start hole with a 3/32" bit to pre set depth. Then using a 31/64" inch bit drilled the blocks. I know that it was basically a waste of time but hey it worked for about 3 or 4 rounds. The shot is not round but more like a Maxi and comes out at 355g at a dia. of .485 - .489. After the 4th the mold stared scorching and size started getting larger but at least it gave me something to do and got the wheels turning.