Perodically someone wants to know where to buy wire for bullet swaging. Although I have several good sources for wire I am once again faced with the need for a core mold to cast cores for a .40 cal. It's fairly easy to make a core mold if you have a drill press and a few hand tools. I thought I would share the basics on how to make one. This particular one is a 6 cavity mold. A piece of aluminum bar stock, 3/4" thick by 2" wide, about 6" long--is used for the body. The cutoff/top plate is a piece of 3/4'x1/8" cold rolled steel. To make the mold adjustable, each bottom plug in each cavity is a sliding fit and are made of brass round stock. Each plug is threaded with a screw and lock nut to adjust the length of the cavity slightly to equalize all cavities. The bottom plugs and screws rest on a piece of 3/4"x1/8" cold roll that slides up and down on a pair of machine screws (one at each end of the mold body). The machine screws can be adjusted up and down to lengthen or shorten all of the cavities simutaneously--in this case 1 1/4' to 1 3/4' Corbin makes a 4 cavity mold similiar to this--I prefer the 6 cavity. For this project--.40 cal I made the cavities .375" diameter. For .45 caliber .430" to .440" works better. Its good to have a core mold as a backup if your source for wire gets too expensive or dries up. Scrap lead is only about .25 cents a lb compared to $1.00-$1.25 for wire.
