What am I doing wrong???

[Sliver Shooter]

I have used Lee Boolit Molds for many years and they do a nice job. I bought a Lyman Mold for my Swede Rifles (.266) and have a heck of a time getting ant boolits to come out right. They either are wrinkled or the are hard and frosty. Is there a trick to casting with steel block molds? The lead is mostly WW and I have used these biskets I made into one mix, before and they are pretty good boolits.

[ShooterAZ]

1) Clean thoroughly with Dawn soap and a toothbrush in HOT water.
2) Preheat the mold on a hotplate.
3) Begin casting.

[Pb2au]

Pretty much what Shooter AZ said. It simply takes longer to get an iron mold up to temp than aluminum. The hot plate trick is a winner for sure. Or just cast a bunch and toss them back into the inferno to heat it up.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

hmmm, Need more info.
But generally, I find Iron molds cast easier than Lee molds.

[leadman]

If they are frosty but well filled out this is not a problem. I make mine frosty on purpose.
A steel mold takes longer to heat up and also holds heat longer so you may need to chance your casting cadence.

[Sliver Shooter]

Thank you fellas, I will put this to use and see if I can accomplish molden some boolits.

[runfiverun]

the steel blocks also hold heat better than the aluminum ones and run at a lower temperature.
375 versus 425 mold temp.
I think you are trying to run too fast and too hot.
turn the alloy temp down to about 700-715 and slow your pace down to about 3 pours a minute.
once you find the relaxing pace of just making nice well filled out boolits without the rushed pace of an aluminum mold you'll see better results.

if you are getting a greyish looking boolit that is perfectly filled out with square shoulders and base you got everything correct.
just maintain that count.

[Larry Gibson]

1) Clean thoroughly with Dawn soap and a toothbrush in HOT water.
2) Preheat the mold on a hotplate.
3) Begin casting.

Also add 2% tin to the WWW alloy.

Larry Gibson

[dondiego]

I recently bought 2 Lyman DC molds, one an 85 gn .32 cal and the other a 90 gn 9mm. I am having the worst time getting these two molds to release their boolits! My other Lyman molds don't have this problem and a new Lee mold for the Makarov works like a dream. I am ready to throw these 2 molds into the salten sea! Using old COWW's and some tin and pure lead added. I have many molds and these two new Lymans are the worst that I have ever had!

[Pilgrim]

When all else fails, blame it on the grobblies. The dread moglie comes next. The only way I know to clear these two problems is to go out on a cold morning and p*€ on a flat rock.

[runfiverun]

don look the molds over and see why they are sticking.
are the cavity's off set a little?
is there a rolled over spot in one of the lube grooves?
are the boolits not round?
you might just need to run the molds through a couple of heat cycles to blue the cavity's
or lap them a little to smooth things out.
there could also just be a burr along the edge of the cavity and you can pick it off with a razor blade.
run a q-tip up and down the cavity's and spin it back and forth, feeling for dragging, and look for snagged spots.

[ShooterAZ]

Q-tips work great for finding burrs & rough spots. I bought some banged up used molds that were sticking real bad, and I used Comet on a toothbrush to clean them and smooth them out. It worked really well, and the boolits are dropping easily.

[dondiego]

I used comet and a wooden stick to see if it could be easily fixed. I will try the Q-tip and magnifying glass next to see if I can find any burrs. Thanks for the ideas. I have never lapped a mold but that may be in my future. I paid the extra money for the Lyman's to try and prevent this trouble. My recent Lee purchases have been doing great. I have recently retired and am casting up a lot of lead in anticipation of a bunch of shooting soon!

[MtGun44]

Yep, comet and toothbrush - mild deburring process and gets the mold REALLY
clean, too. You have to be a bit careful with an aluminum mold, but you can
scrub an iron mold pretty well and just clean up the bad edges.

Bill