Flatlander   Noe, Accurate and others sell exeptional moulds for half what you are suggesting. You might look at their websites

Flatlander-  To be quite honest, I for a very long time used only iron blocks, primarily because there was no other choice, aside from a rare Schoyen or other old custom brass mould. I still don't own an aluminum mould, although have tried them, all Lee's. The lee moulds left a lot to be desired, design wise, so stuck with iron,  Lyman, SAECO Darr, SAECO, Winchester, Hensley, Hensley and Gibbs, Modern Bond, Belding and Mull, and custom,Hoch,   Ron Long, Barnett, Jones etc. I now have brass from NOE, and have found them to be very well made and cast beautiful bullets. I also ordered an iron Accurate mould for an 8.15 x 46R, and it is also very well made and casts a nice bullet. Both of these gentleman were very pleasant to deal with, and I felt the moulds were well worth the cost, which was still considerably less than you mentioned. I am not trying to convince you of anything,  just passing on my experience. Good luck and best regards. Krag

uscra112 wrote on Jan 19^th, 2019 at 2:17am:


    Making blocks from scratch is a lot more trouble than re-cutting old blocks.   Some makers will sell "raw" blocks -- I have gotten some from LEE to work with, tho the decision to sell them had to come from Mr LEE, hisself.   It comes down to what your time is worth.   If you are in business, you generally can't afford to make anything that you can buy ready-made.

CHRIS
RGChristensen

Kind of mute point at the moment. Haven't found anyone that recuts them as of yet. I have some Ideal blocks that sell for less than $15.00 on evilbay and not worth the effort to sell. Thought they may.be able to be recycled?
Flatlander

Opening a base is a far cry from cutting or recutting a mould, and at ten dollars, the work was either a labor of love, done in another century, or the gentleman was a glutton for punishment. I really feel you would be best served with a new mould. Both NOE and Accurate make copies of some very good mould designs from some custom makers, and some unavailable moulds from the past. I know that NOE has sales frequently that could save you some on the cost. Again, good luck in your quest. K.R.A.G.

I also had Tom Ballard make an adjustable paper-patch mould to my diameter specification.  It fit large Lyman handles,  It wasn't a fancy mould, but it was well finished where it had to be, the halves fit together perfectly, and even 35-40 years ago it seemed a bargain at $40.  Mr. Ballard also made other things to order for me, and as far as I'm concerned, he never got the recognition he deserved.

Bill Lawrence

I could use a 322 base for my 32-40 and a 409 base for my 40-65.
Flatlander