Resin Repro Name Plates.
          
Picture shows MDF pattern relief which has been routed out to depth of resin name plate, yes, the routing job is a little untidy, but the gaps will be filled in after name plate is glued in place.                 
    

        
                 Name plates glued in place

   
        
Gaps around the edge have been filled in but not yet sanded, after careful sanding the pattern and name plates are spray painted with grey auto primer, then rubbed back with steel wool for a nice smooth finish.  

            Reproduction Door Opening Handles.
             
The door handle project was a commissioned job from a customer restoring a vintage studebaker truck, extra handles were ordered to distribute to other Studebaker truck owners.         

          Reproduction window winder handles.
           
Like wise for the window winders, a small Qty production run was required, they were all cast in aluminium.The original handles were used as patterns. you might be wondering how the square hole was made in the handles?
A steel core was carefully made with a slight taper, the core was placed in the pattern during the ramming stage, and placed back in the sand mould before closing, the result, a very neat square hole.

Casting Bullets.
Here's a article for the shooters out there.

I first starting casting lead bullets a quite some time ago, probably in the mid 1970's.For years I was a keen Pistol and black powder shooter and other blokes at the gun club gave me advice on how to get started, which is one of the good things about belonging to a club. I would buy scrap lead from a local scrap metal dealer and I would mix it with solder
until I got a hardness that didn't cause lead to stick to the inside of the pistol barrel. I got the solder for nothing, as it was the floor sweepings from a rainwater tank manufacturing company that was part of a company I was working for at the time. I also experimented using lead wheel balancing weights and scrap lead.
br> When casting bullets, getting the lead temperature right was a bit of a hit or mix method to start with. If the cast bullet was wrinkled (The first few bullets where always wrinkled or miss-shaped until the bullet mould warmed up) I would turn the gas up a little until the casting was perfect. Later I bought an electric thermostatically controlled melting pot that you can buy at most gun shops. The bullets where cast a little larger than needed and where later resized and lubricated, I would use a RCBS lubrisizer, which is a hand-operated machine much like a reloading press that sizes and lubricates the bullet at the same time. Every thing needed (except for the lead/tin mixture) is available from gun shops.

You only use the lead/tin alloy mix when casting for a firearm using smokeless powder. Pure lead is used in black powder guns. Sorry, I don't have any photos to show you, and I don't know why bees wax works as an anti oxidant, if you can't get Bee’s wax, candle wax also works quite well. When my supply of free solder came to an end, I started buying the lead/tin blend from a solder maker, I just told him what I wanted and a few days later it was ready, still a lot cheaper than buying factory bullets and with less messing about.

To get started casting white metal bearings I first got some information from some hobby magazines I have that specialise in the restoration of antique oil engines. I also spent quite some time searching the Internet. Finally I bought a couple of books from Plough Books. To source the white metal I did a search of the white pages, I eventually found some, but it
is expensive.

I have cast many thousands of projectiles, (bullets). When casting bullets which are to be used for pistols using smokeless powder an alloy mixture of 10 parts lead to 1 part tin was used because pure Lead is too soft and it sticks to the barrel and is hard to clean. As more of the lead builds up in the barrel the less accurate the pistol becomes. A rifle or pistol
using black powder is ok with projectiles cast in pure lead,

Bullet casting is very easy but can become rather tedious. The equipment is pretty simple; all I used was an old saucepan to melt the lead which was placed over an LPG gas ring for heat, with a little practice the correct temp was easy to get right. To clean (deoxidise) the lead I would put a small knob of beeswax on the surface of the molten metal followed by a quick stir, and then skim the surface for impurities.

I would use a dipper to take the lead to the mould. The first few bullets cast would be wrinkled but as soon as the mould was hot you got a perfect bullet every time. It was a bit slower casting a projectile called a "Minnie Ball" which is not a ball but elongated like any projectile, you could only get single cavity mould as it has a hollow base.

I also cast white metal bearings for old engines, that is very much the same as long as all temperatures are correct. I use a 'casting thermometer’ that goes to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, it has 6-inch stem so it goes into a fairly deep melting pot. They cost $60 or $70AU at gun shops that sell bullet-casting equipment. I still have not tried my hand at casting using your E-Book that I bought ages ago, I thought I would have plenty of time now that I am retired, I just seem to be as busy as ever.

Dave Hinves.
Australia.

Calling All Australian Hobby Metal Casters.

We have received a request from Stephen Davis from the Blue Mountains Region in NSW Australia. Stephen is keen to meet with other Aussie ezine subscribers & metal casters who live in the Sydney region, the idea is to arrange a casual meeting/get together to exchange ideas and metal casting experiences, as Stephen mentioned in his email to me "he does not know of any other metal casting people in or around his region". This would also go for many other hobby casters scattered around Australia, the vast distance between people is a bit of a handicap, but if there were a few within an hour or so of each other,  would make it easier to organise a weekend get togther. "So whadyareckon Aussie metal casters", wanna chew the fat with other like minded OZ metal casting blokes for a bit of a chin wag, melt and pour some metal, then settle back and crack a coupla tinnies? Flick an email to me and we'll put'yer in contact with your Aussie foundry mate Stephen.

Reproduction Of Resin Name Plates.