HP mold build success!

[MBTcustom]

I keep hearing about how great a HP mold is, so I decided to try it. I made the cherry by eyeball, using half of an RCBS mold as a rough guide as I made the ogive profile. I used 303 SS for the HP pins and just eye-balled them too. The result was a 229 grain HP that feeds great. I flew a few hundred of these this last weekend and I didn't have a single jam. My buddy ran some through his Glock without any problems either. I just had to share:

No vent lines. I thought I would try it first and see how it did. I could always add the lines later. As it is, I am getting perfect fill-out.


They drop out @ .455 on the base, and about .447 just above the lube groove. After a quick pass through the Lyman 450 with a .4525 sizing die, this design matches my 1911 chamber very closely. I was quite pleased with the accuracy I was able to achieve at 30 yards. (minute of pop-can for sure)

These babies open up like an umbrella upon impact. Not quite a devastator, but I wanted to keep the mushroom tight so that I can carry them in the winter also.
With a 4 cav., I can sure pile 'em up in a hurry! You will please pardon the frostiness? I was casting in the dark by the light of a street lamp, so I was unaware that I was running a little bit too fast. Oh well, the target wont know the difference!

[jmsj]

Tim,
Very, Very Cool!!
I like the idea of a 230 grain .45 ACP HP better than the 200 or 185 grain HP
Good going, jmsj

[smoked turkey]

Tim very nice. The size and depth of the HP seems to be just right. It looks good and from your report they work good. Good job.

[buyobuyo]

Very nice!

[Link23]

i want one!!!!

[MBTcustom]

It's not quite finished yet, I still have to round the corners, polish it up, and stamp some info on the side of it, but none of that stuff is going to make it work any better.
I dont know if I will go with that style of HP holder in the future. Its heavy, hard to clean, and very time consuming to build. I put way to much time into this mold. I'm going to keep experimenting and see if I can get any better at this.

[Lefty SRH]

Haha very nice! We need exspansion tests next my friend....

[Lefty SRH]

Wheres the group buy list? LOL

[Elkins45]

That mold looks fantastic. Can we possibly see a picture of the cherry?

[375RUGER]

I LIKE IT! wish i had the money to have you build me one.

[Echo]

Outstanding, Tim!

[captaint]

Nice job Tim. Looks like you're getting the hang of this deal !!! Mike

[Mk42gunner]

I dont know if I will go with that style of HP holder in the future. Its heavy, hard to clean, and very time consuming to build

.

The only thing I have used to cast HP with is the removeable pin Lyman style, so any type of multiple cavity HP looks to be a very big improvement.

I am not sure how else you could do the pins, maybe on a flat plate attached to the bottom of the mold blocks? For an example see the little Italian minie ball molds, they are slow, and I think to get enogh steel to hold its shape, it would weigh more than your round rod and possiblty take more time to machine the camming cuts.

Robert

[MBTcustom]

Well, it beats the heck out of the dovetail holder I had on the hollow base rifle mold that I built, but it sure gives a lot of surface area for a stray speck of lead to stick to. I have to tap the mold once its together to get it to fully close. I think the basic idea is sound, but next time I'm going going to ream the hole for the HP bar about .005 oversize. Right now, everything fits so perfectly that I had to use it quite a bit just to get it to quit sticking in the closed position. I have a bad habit of assuming that tight tolerances are better. If I was to build an engine block, you would have to fill it with sewing machine oil, and it wouldn't turn over for the cylinders ringing to the pistons.
I went back into the mold and honed out the holes and chamfered the edges real well, then it started running a lot better. Also, I made the pivot bushings exactly .001 taller than the sprue plate thinking that was plenty of clearance. Yeah right! I went back and made a split washer to give the plate a little spring tension and it started working a lot better. It's truly amazing how much aluminum grows with heat. I am redesigning my hinges so that they will use a wave washer or a lock washer or something to give some "springy" to the plate. It may be just a better mouse trap, but I want to come up with my own unique system just as a matter of course.

[Pete P]

WOW, that looks nice.

[40Super]

I have a Magma Engineering mold with a coil spring for the sprue plate on the bottom of the mold.I really like that setup.

[buyobuyo]

Mihec uses two siding pins through one of the mold halves for his HP pins, and NOE uses something like a sliding/tilting plate that is bolted to the bottom of the mold. I don't have an NOE HP mold, so I'm just going off what I've seen in pictures.

As for the sprue plate hinge, both use a wave washer. The washer Mihec uses is quite a bit bigger.

[phaessler]

Tim,
Hats off to you, that is a beautiful job for sure. Hope to see more results and pictures!
Keep it up and a "group buy" could be in your future......

Pete

[Grandpas50AE]

Tim, really great work, as usual. Those boolits should perform really well. Keep us up to date on how the refinements work out; from the looks of it you may have found a second job!

[longbow]

Pretty slick and a very nice job of machining!

Range reports?

Photos of expanded boolits?

We're waiting!