Home made molds

Ok, again, I'm cheap.

I made some ingot molds today by carving them out of wood.

Some of them turned out really good.

I now have four that weigh out at 1/4# a piece, and one that weighs out at 1/2# a piece.

Unlike muffin-pan ingot molds, these ingots actually fit in a lee furnace, or any furnace for that matter.

Once I get my memory card fixed, I will post pics !

Total cost : ZERO...made 'em outta scrap oak. They work real good.

Cast 40#s with them so far.

Works like a charm.

Wouldnt dream of casting inside anyways....

Hard dry woods don't smolder and smoke. Cheap wet pine does.

muffin pans = $

Oak scrap = O

These would be the cheapest way to fly with my math.

I guess I should have mentioned that those werent weight approximations by some weird calculation.... they were the weights of the cast ingots.

I'm already using them... during a lead melting break I came in to post of my days work.

I appreciate all the naysaying, it makes me want to make ten more of them tomorrow..it really does.

The ones on the left are the 1/4 #'ers, the ones on the right are the 1/2 #'ers, and that bucket at the end is the 15#'s of .311 buckshot I cast today.


Pretty productive !

ahhh, the tinsel fairy !

hate that chick ! She "pops up" once in a while in the 6 cavity mold while water quenching !

Rest assured, the wood is kept dry.

I'll keep a tab on how long they last.

The wood seared in pretty good.

other than the three 1/4 #'ers linking together ( the wood between them broke out while vigourously tapping the ingots out ) I haven't seen any real change yet.

I expect good lifespan, as high-temp seared hardwood is incredibly hard. This is what they used to use for casting small iron and later steel implements like arrowheads, cinch pins, pommels and the like.

I really like those molds, rusty !

I like that they are high weight, but still fit in the pot !

The combination of a relatively small opening, and that trigger pin in the middle makes it real tricky.

Job well done !

I have a lee 20# pot on the way, I hope Ditchy gets them molds done soon....its gonna be a hungry beast !

@ scott : I tapped them with a spade bit. The screw in the center both covers the spade hole, and acts as a shield for the hottest part of the initial pour to hit...sparing the wood from the absolute hottest metal. After tapping them, I smoothed the wood with a porous dremel wheel till it was baby smooth with no concave or convex portions. During the finishing, I put a slight bevel on each one, so two hard raps of the mold on wood knocks the ingots loose. The middle mold was originally three single pieces...but the space between them was thin, and got knocked/notched out with the removal of the ingots. Now its 3 1/4#'ers that have a little sprue to connect them, which is kinda handy for storage. You can just snap them off with a twist.

The one I made for ditchy is perfect...three of the 1/4# holes tapped a little thin, and linked together about halfway. At full and rounded its a half #, under level ( the way they look perfect ) its about 6 oz's.

I have high hopes for these !

Ditchy said he has a line on some more oak, so I'm gonna try some different designs , mainly linked larger spade bit hole sizes and see how they turn out.

Thanks for the support !

I've decided to just use the 1/2# mold for now...as its thinner than the others, and they will remelt faster.

Cast about 20#'s more through it today.... no issues.