My mould has developed bad habbits.

[prs]

This is a Lee 6 cavity for the bb 452-200-SWC (traditional lube 68 clone). When spanky new last summer it was a bit stubborn to wash-up and very reluctant to drop flawless castings. I had done my usual routine of beveling the edge of the spru plate and slightly breaking the edge of the mold blocks where they meet under the spru plate, and making sure the spru plate pivot was not too tight. Still it seemed to have trouble venting quick enough and I would get too many culls with those funny worm-wood or scarab beetle "etchings" on them.

Took note of the advice here to try Comet, and did so. Worked maybe a little better, but still too many of those same type rejects. Actually, the flaw patterns were/are so shallow that running through the 452 H&G dies erased them from the drive bands. Still, I don't like them. So, I took a sharp awl and a square and made a groove midway between each cavity of one block and another just above the metplat of the cavities. That seemed to work pretty well, but the dang thing still wanted to be run hot and with hot alloy (750F on my PID). Then after a few sessions it was "wanting" more mold heat to drop pretty and now in order to drop them pretty the mold needs to be so hot that the castings are stubborn to drop from the mold. If I run it cooler, the worm-wood patterns return on a good number of the boolits. Filling (bottom pour) slower seems to help and my typical pattern of filling just off center of the sprue plate opening seems to help, but swirling the fill makes it worse. Of course, the heat and slow pour really slows my pace and that, as well as 10 to 20% culls negates the advantage of a 6 cavity mold over the iron 4 cavity. I am still thinking its the air having trouble getting out fast enough, maybe that blasted bb design. I am considering Leementing the cavities with Mutters' Billet Aluminum polish even though my alloy (95pb:2sn:3sb) is dropping boolits at .453+" in each cavity. I am also considering reaming out the bb of each cavity, but rather not have to resort to such.

Oh, nearly forgot, it occurred to me after that last session that this and another stubborn mold are the only aluminum molds whith which I have used Stihl synthetic 2 cycle oil as the pin and pivot lube. I reckon maybe another scrub with comet and casting without lube or with NRA 50:50 (what I have always used before) may be in order before Leementing or reaming out the bb. I notice Lee is now recommending anti-sieve paste.

Any other bright ideas? How about using it as a paper weight?

prs

[Maven]

I don't know how bright these suggestions are, but (1) try boiling the mold with dish soap (NEVER use dishWASHER soap on an Al mold!) for ~20 mins. and rinsing it thoroughly with hot water. (2) When the mold is thoroughly dry, cast with it until it is hot, then smoke the cavities with wooden matches even though some will say this is heretical. Trust me, it works (but not on LBT molds). (3) Try casting with a ladle. If none of these ideas help, perhaps you'll need to add a bit more Sn to your alloy or find a stack of papers that need securing (LOL).

Hope this helps!

[runfiverun]

I'm just guessing here because I can't quite picture the "worm wood" pattern except to think it is just antimony dendrites manifesting on the surface of the boolits.

try this. wipe the worm wood pattern with a rag.

[Driver man]

I just got the same mould yesterday from Southwest 217 , arrived from the states in 10 days. I washed the mould with white spirits and found that when heated it still showed an oily residue so i washed it several more times untill clean. I smoked the mould with a candle and lubed the pins and pivots with bees wax. I proceeded to produce 500 perfect boolits. I cant help but think that your mould needs a good clean.

[Calamity Jake]

A lot of casters on this sight say that you don't need to smoke lee molds to get them to produce good boolits,
that's true for some but 1 of the lee molds I have require smoking the cavities to produce good boolits.

I've been at this for over 30 years, I've always had trouble with lee molds and fillout.
Give it another good cleaning in the boiling soapy water, leave it unlubed then cast some, if your still having
fillout problems, smoke it.

But then R5R may have a point too.

[prs]

No, not antimony wash, it is physical flaw. It is getting a scalding bath then thorough pre heat and non lubed trial. I am too cheap to tolerate a mold that requires more tan 2% tin. The responss here and in a PM call for the hot bath. I will report later.

prs

[leadman]

I have found that if you swing the sprue plate out of the way and run a good flow of hot alloy in one cavity for about 15 seconds or so, then immediately open the mold and knock off the lead this helps get rid of the wrinkles and whatever. Do not hesitate getting the lead off the mold. And make sure you tilt the mold to one side so the lead runs off.
Do this with each cavity and it should be better. Has not failed me on about 5 new molds from Lee recently.

[prs]

I have stripped this mold down to the bare blocks with alignment pins still in. They have been cleaned with Dawn and scrubbed three times with Comet and soft brush. As I write this, they are midway through a 45 minute scalding boil in soapy water.

When cool, I shall re-assemble, pre-heat and cast again. Outdoors here there is a steady cold rain, freezing rain, sleet and wind. Fine weather for ducks. I am no duck, but can endure.

prs

[JSAND]

I hope that fixed your problem, I have a Lee 2Cav that one of them does the same thing, have tried all of the leementing proccedures, it fixed the one and helped the other but not completely. Thanks leadman for your suggestion, I will try that. Again, I hope your soapy boil got you casting good boolits.

[JSAND]

Oh and +1 on all of those that mentioned smoking the cavities, I have switched over to Iron on all but 1 caliber, but thinking back I always smoked the Lee's and got excellant boolits out of all of them but the one. It is the 7.62X39 mould Lee makes.

[prs]

The scalding bath may have helped a little, but performance was still sub par. Not always the same cavities. I tried another Lee 6 cav mold and it dropped the same alloy flawlessly. I then polished the errant mold's cavities with dry clean very fine bronze wool. Rinsed with alcohol and started over. Good bullets! Was it the polishing withcthe bronze? The alcohol? Perseverence? This was a whole lotta work for only 25# of bullets. I began casting in 1976 and this has been the toughest mold to tame yet.

prs

[RED333]

You were being tested, looks like ya passed.:p

[HeavyMetal]

I find a few problems will get better once they are rinsed in Alcohol!

Now that the Aluminum is completely relaxed your casting should be much easier but don't let the mold set for months before using or you'll have to rinse it in alcohol again, a little attention usually keeps thing flowing well.


LOL!