If there be many bullet moulds to make the circle of, the joints can be made by means of a cutter revolving in the lathe. Make this cutter about two and a half inches in diameter and half an inch thick. Cut teeth in the sides as well as on the circumference. Fit it in a spindle so it will revolve. After the joint is drilled fit it so as to turn on a pin fixed in a piece of iron that is held at one side of the cutter. By feeding the mould up to the cutter the surface or shoulder is cut where the two portions of the joint come in contact when opened. By turning the mould slowly around a portion of the circle is cut, say about one-half. Remove the mould from the pin, invert it, and the remainder of the circle can be cut; the whole “round” and the abutting surfaces being produced at two cuts; a little smoothing up with a file being necessary to finish it. This operation and the cutting is shown in Fig. 66. [Illustration: FIGURE 66.] _How to Make a Ball Cherry._—The term “cherry,” as applied to the tool used to make the mould for spherical balls or bullets, was no doubt borrowed from the fruit of the same name—in fact the fruit and tool are very similar in form and size. To any one not conversant with the process of producing a sphere in metal it seems a very difficult operation, but nevertheless it is very simple, and only requires a little knowledge and experience to make a cherry to fit any bore of gun. This is the rule governing the operation: A rotating body is passed through a properly-shaped circular aperture in a flat steel die that is held with its upper or cutting in the same plane as the axial line of the body rotating. That’s all. [Illustration: FIGURE 67.] Now, to make application of the rule. Suppose we have a rifle of a certain bore to which is to be fitted a round ball. First, take a piece of steel, we will say about one-quarter of an inch thick, about one inch wide and about six or eight inches long. An old file of good quality, with the temper drawn and the teeth ground away, may answer the purpose. It should be annealed as soft as possible. With a drill make a hole near one end, but a little less in size than the bullet to be produced. With a taper half-round reamer cut out the hole until that side of it which is to be the upper or cutting edge is exactly the size of the bullet desired.