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soldierbilly1
05-26-2011, 01:28 AM
I just bought a used mold, and upon closing it and holding it with strong back lighting, I can see a little bit of daylight between the two halves. It's a Lyman 356402 double cavity. It seems to throw OK ... I do see a little seam on the boolits, but it does not appear to be too objectionable.
I do not see any significant stuff between the halves, yes, a little lead and organic - y looking garbage but no show stoppers that I feel would be doing this.
What gives? is the mold warped?
again, it throws nice boolits.
any suggestions from the hive? What say you?
thanks
Billy boy

NoZombies
05-26-2011, 01:41 AM
Try removing the little bit of lead and see if that helps

dragonrider
05-26-2011, 09:15 AM
Check the area around the holes for the locating pins, if you see a raised rim around the hole, carefully file it smooth. Repeated openings and closings will raise this area.

Kraschenbirn
05-26-2011, 04:14 PM
+1 on cleaning up the faces, but before you start filing or stoning on the blocks, carefully weigh and measure a few boolits from both cavities. If the weights are consistent and the boolits reasonably round, I wouldn't be too concerned about a slight gap between the halves. A goodly number of my moulds show a little daylight...mostly from "beagling"...but so long as the boolits don't show a really pronounced parting line, it doesn't seem to affect accuracy.

Bill

ilcop22
05-26-2011, 06:44 PM
I had that happen once - It was the handles causing the issue. I reseated the mould in a different pair of handles and voila - No more gap.

Buckshot
05-27-2011, 01:58 AM
.............You can scrub the block faces clean with some WD40, paint thinner, naptha, lamp oil, etc and steel wool. Or you can use a bit of 1/4" copper tubeing mashed flat on one end. That also works well to clean vent lines. If the alignment pin holes appear to be a bit peened, use a 90º chamfer reamer or centerdrill to clean up around the perimeter. Otherwise if the blocks are dropping good useable boolits, that should be all you need to do.

................Buckshot