Mold box apparatus

A self-aligning mold box apparatus for casting mortarless interlocking cementitious blocks of the type having vertical side and end walls, upper and lower horizontal surfaces and a pair of spaced passages extending vertically therethrough which form substantially square openings with open corners in the upper horizontal surface and form substantially square openings in the lower horizontal surface with a corner corbel in each corner of the openings formed in the lower horizontal surface and a projection depending from each of the corner corbels, said self-aligning mold box apparatus comprising:

• (a) a mold box die which is open at the top and bottom and has at least one compartment therein which forms the vertical side and end walls of the cementitious block when cement is deposited therein;
• (b) a core die assembly mounted on said mold box die so as to span the open top thereof, said core die assembly having a spaced pair of core dies depending therefrom into the compartment of said mold box die to form the pair of vertical passages through the cementitious block when cement is deposited therein;
• (c) each of the core dies of said core die assembly being of substantially square cross section with four corners at the upper end thereof and having an inwardly flared cavity at each lower corner so that upon deposition of cement into said mold box die the upper horizontal surface of the cementitious block will have the pair of substantially square openings to provide a predetermined array of the open corners and the lower horizontal surface will have the pair of substantially square openings with the corner corbel formed in each corner thereof with the corner corbels arranged in an identical vertically aligned array with respect to the open corners;
• (d) a plurality of projections depending from each of the core dies of said core die assembly with each of said projections located adjacent a different one of the flared cavities formed therein;
• (e) a pallet die positioned in engagement with said mold box die to close the bottom thereof, said pallet die having a plurality of recesses formed therein with each disposed to receive a different one of said projections therein for self-aligning precision positioning of said pallet die relative to said mold box die;
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• (f) said projections each configured to close approximately one-half of the recess of said pallet die in which it is received so that upon deposition of cement into said mold box die the cementitious block will be formed with the projection depending from each of the corner corbels formed in the bottom horizontal surface thereof.