Designing molds feasibility?

[thomasair]

If you have cnc...you can make anything you want. If you have manual...you can convert it to cnc pretty easy. My first mill was a big bench top manual that I converted to a cnc with servos and Dynamotion control. Same thing with a lathe. Once you have coordinated control you can make anything you can draw.

Here's some swaged slugs from a die I made inside of a day from start to finish.

Mike

 

[dgeesaman]

Once you have coordinated control you can make anything you can draw.

How are the tolerances? If the mill cuts a depth +\- .0005”, you could easily end up with a split die that produces pellets that are all .001” out of round or worse once you figure in dowel hole positions. CNC is a speed and complexity solution but does not affect accuracy.

 

[sb327]

Swage dies I have made have all been cut under sized and lapped/finished to final dimensions.

Dave

 

[thomasair]

Slug dies are done on the lathe. They are as round as round gets.

Mike

 

[IMADMAN]

If you have cnc...you can make anything you want. If you have manual...you can convert it to cnc pretty easy. My first mill was a big bench top manual that I converted to a cnc with servos and Dynamotion control. Same thing with a lathe. Once you have coordinated control you can make anything you can draw.

Here's some swaged slugs from a die I made inside of a day from start to finish.

Mike

View attachment 452252

Those look great! What caliber and do you have performance numbers and any shot groups to share?

 

[dgeesaman]

Slug dies are done on the lathe. They are as round as round gets.

Mike

Ok that’s definitely true.

To be clear this thread began with (split) pellet dies and molds.

 

[thomasair]

Yes, I understand. I've made my own pellet dies on the lathe, too.

Were they worth the time? No, plus they are painfully slow in production.

 

[bigHUN]

I don’t understand this statement, can you explain more? .... Are you saying you don’t fully trust their pellet designs/shapes?

As I said:
" My concern with these molds/dies is not a precision on fabricated molds/dies, but the amo performance on POI (what will show on target rings).
If they copy or clone the existing pellets shape (what is available already off the shelf) .... how can you expect to perform better?

 

[dgeesaman]

As I said:
" My concern with these molds/dies is not a precision on fabricated molds/dies, but the amo performance on POI (what will show on target rings).
If they copy or clone the existing pellets shape (what is available already off the shelf) .... how can you expect to perform better?

I don't think the designs are causing groups to be bigger than they need to be.

Uniformity is the #1 problem I believe I face. Uniformity in the raw material, uniformity in the dimensional tolerances, handling damage, and so on. I'm exploring this to produce the highest quality pellet for my competition shooting.

If you believe you've cracked the nut and have a better pellet design, ThorMolds will make you a pellet swaging die with a shape of your own choosing for an extra $50. That would surely prove the superiority.

David

 

[bigHUN]

... If you believe you've cracked the nut and have a better pellet design....

naaah, I am resizing the selected available to my own specs ... the cost and time offset works for me.