Lead Mold

I made this 4-core lead mold on the lathe by boring 4 tapered holes in the piece of 150 yr old cedar. It was laying on the floor of the wood room and often got wet. When I went looking for the wood for this mold it said "pick me, pick me !!".
I wanted to turn a lot of old lead pieces into 2# ingots to be used on my old Howe beam balance scale. I mounted the block on my faceplace by using the 1/8" pin to pick up the center of the bores and then 3 or 4 screws to hold the block in place for boring. I bored it from 1 1/2" to 1 3/8" at the bottom which proved to be too little of a draft angle for these to release quickly. I made 2 shots and then split the block to pieces after the second round.  In the future I'll use steel or aluminum for molds . It gives a much better finish on the ingots as seen  with the 1# ones I poured using the split steel mold.
This was quick to make and I did reshape all the scrap lead pieces including a cup full off 22 bullets I pulled out of my backstop. Next is to weigh them to see how close they are to 2#.
cheers, Jim