Copper rods and Lathe...hmm

I have a lathe, a forge, and gauges accurate enough for good readings. Perhaps I could mill out some bullets. All I need is copper rod. I have used the lathe to turn down plenty of things and it was used for very exacting work in its old home. Any thoughts? I had a look at prices for rod and it made me chuckle. A foot loong piece of rod .25" in diameter would cost me about 40 bucks shipped. I can buy solic vld's for cheaper. It is too bad they dont make a ceramic mold for bullet casting. If they did I could cast the copper into a mold. My forge measures 2700 degrees when I have it cranked fully, and I have heated huge thick pieces of metal and hammered them out to make odds and ends before. I know for a fact my forge has the muscle to melt it. Again, am I missing anything or is this truely a lost cause?

I considered making a tool that has the proper profile (angle of boattail and point) that will fit on the tool chuck. The lathe has 2 wheels, one for going lengthwise and one for depth, each wheel has a secondary fine adjustment knob sticking off the big wheel. The big wheel is marked for .01" adjustments and the fine knob moves in clicks of .001". It should be easy if I had a tool that will cut the proper profile. Sadly my shop is my garage ( 2 car but no cars could hope to fit) and the forge is outback on the patio. I have some tungsten carbide for making new bits and quite a few plates of d2. If I could cut out the shape i want for the bit, mill the copper ( probably with prior annealing in the forge) and then anneal it or heat quench it back some stiffness again if necessary. I actually built the forge myself and it cost about 25$ for the basic design. I would be happy to tell you guys how so you can anneal things that you need like bolt handles so you can bend them, cases, etc...I even made a few changes that boost the performance to the level it is now ( from about 2k to 2700). As I see it copper melts at about 2,000 degrees, iron melts at 2800. I should be able to use an iron mold to cast copper though I dont know how well seasoning the mold with smoke would work. I dont know much about casting at all and there are probably other ways of preventing adhesion of the casting metal.

thats real cool of you to say Twmaster. It is nice to hear some advice minus the chiding undertones. I am a novice at machining. All the knowledge I have about blacksmithing/machining is self taught so I guess I need to look up the exacting terms because it is apparently extremely important to use them properly. I guess making these things is a little more complicated than shaping parts to repair an old clock or the other odds and ends I have practiced on. I read a bit more about the bullet making process and have decided that I will write my ideas down and get back to it when I have time over the winter break to experiment. There is alot more going on when making bullets than I expected. As for drawing out d2, its called a hammer. Heating, air cooling, and reheating anneal the metal. Quenching in an oil bath, (and clay tempering which I am just beginning to get the hang of) work fine to reverse the annealing process and form lovely martensite. I have a few knives around the house made out of the stuff, and no, it wasnt fun to do, hence my refusal to make any more with that material. I stick with old car springs now. I have a jig made of cast iron that is pretty stout and the slit in it directs the heat and gasses into a fairly narrow area. While the heat takes some time to get any glow on the metal that would be enough to anneal a bolt handle. No I have not tried, and the point wasnt whether I could. I was offering to help you guys make your own cheap forge which can be infinitely useful and i offered up some ideas about what you could use it for offhandedly. You can take my advice and say thank you, or read over it and ignore it. Here I am again, feeling like I need to ward off an attack instead of having a pleasant discussion about what I am up to...