Rust in new mould

[MrXrings]

Bought a new Lyman 358429 recently from midway and when it arrived it had light surface rust in the cavities(4 cav), Being new to casting is this acceptable? Rust is covering 30% of the surface. Seems a bit much to me, will this affect the castings?

[GLL]

Contact Midway and have them send you a new one !

Jerry

[RobS]

if it's only surface rust a bit of kroil or penetrating oil and a rag will wipe it off. Make sure to clean the mold cavities again before casting otherwise the oil will give poor boolits (wrinkles and fillout issues) until the oil burns off. If it's rust that won't just wipe off then yes, contact Midway for a return.

[Bret4207]

Light surface rust won't hurt anything. But, it shouldn't have had it in the first place.

[ku4hx]

Lyman addresses this very issue in their Cast Bullet Handbook. Their advice for surface rust is to clean it off and cast away. They comment that it's possible to get even better boolits after removing the rust.

[gray wolf]

I wouldn't complain--
After all you got it for 50% off for it being rusted --RIGHT.
Are you kidding me ? Sorry my money is worth more than someones mistake.
Back in a heart beat --and not on my dime.
How long are we going to put up with this nonsense ?
I find myself doing it also, so don't flame me.
We pay for our goods with hard earned money and we keep letting ourselves
be taken advantage off.
Sorry I won't do it anymore,
you want to pay for things and then have to De-rust them ?
Pay for things that don't work ?
receive things that need to be fixed so they will work ?
Pay postage to send things back ?

I guess it's the lesser of two evils --
after all a rusted mold is better than no mold.
Sorry for the rant.
OK I will shut my old mouth.

[MrXrings]

Tried cleaning it up with some WD40 and a rag, very little rust came off at all. Would try a pencil eraser but I don't want give them a reason to deny my return. Imagine these are stored in a warehouse that's not climate controlled and the temp change overnight leaves condensation on these iron moulds since they are slow to change temps and is the cause of the rust. Starting to think aluminum may be the way to go in the long run since I live in FL. So much here rusts easily.

[Danderdude]

midway

WD40

I found your problems.

[RobS]

There should have been oil on them from when they left the Lyman factory. Makes me wonder if they were a return or something. I've cast with molds from midway and if they were undersized I sent them back. After my letter with the return, Midway had no questions asked and process the return. They are good with returns.

[ku4hx]

Tried cleaning it up with some WD40 and a rag, very little rust came off at all. Would try a pencil eraser but I don't want give them a reason to deny my return. Imagine these are stored in a warehouse that's not climate controlled and the temp change overnight leaves condensation on these iron moulds since they are slow to change temps and is the cause of the rust. Starting to think aluminum may be the way to go in the long run since I live in FL. So much here rusts easily.

On the one Lyman mold I did have rust, 429421, I used a 44 cal bronze bore brush chucked in a variable speed 1/4" drill. That and a little WD-40 and the rust was just whisked away. Boolits cast after that were as good as they ever were. You do have to be a mite cautious of the brush's exposed tip but that was not a huge effort.

That was oh, 30 or so years ago and I still have the mold and it's still producing great boolits. No more rust either.

[MrXrings]

I found your problems.

Looking at past posts you seem to be an intelligent guy, should I clean it or make them eat it for selling poorly stored goods? I'm on the fence. What's the best method for cleaning it up? Thanks.

[ShooterAZ]

I was given a box of misc molds by someone who gave up casting. A good many of them were rusty, some more than others. I took a toothbrush with some Comet to them and they cleaned up nicely. It took a lot of elbow grease, but it was well worth the effort.

[captaint]

I had to use Naval Jelly once on a mold I got cheap on fleabay. Cleaned it right up and it made nice little wadcutters after that. Not a problem. enjoy Mike

[GP100man]

My first impression is to send it back , but maybe try it & see what dia. it drops & if acceptable maybe not roll the dice twice ???

[MrXrings]

Thinking some scotchbrite by hand, I've cleaned a lot of cast iron engine block surfaces that way. Plastic shouldn't damage cast iron. Could use a little ospho also.

[EDK]

I had some rarely used moulds that had some surface rust, so I did a little reading here and other forums.

Look around for the best price on EVAPO-RUST....checked out prices on eBay and then looked around for similar locally. Got it at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Dis-assembled the moulds and let them soak for several hours, per the instructions. Rinsed them off and then oiled them up and stored in a plastic coffee can.

:redneck::cbpour::guntootsmiley:

[Bret4207]

A pencil with an eraser tip, a tiny bit of 4/0 steel wool and a bit of that WD40 is all you need if you want to keep it. Just rub the cavities lightly with the steel wool by moving it around with the eraser end after spraying the mould with the WD. If it's just surface rust, it'll come right off.

I have moulds that have been pitted they rusted so bad, one was even under my care it's whole life sad to say. I cleaned them up and they cast very nicely. The boolit finish may be a little "freckled", but that's just cosmetic.

[blackthorn]

If its just surface rust, a quick bath in a citric acid solution should take it right off. I have not tried the citric acid on a mould but I soaked an old cast iron pot (holds about 20lbs of lead) for three days and it came up like new. The old pot had been left outside long enough that it had rust caked on it. After one day and night it had rust hanging off it like spanish moss off a tree branch!