Any advice for casting with this old mold?

[BCall]

I got this mold in a box of stuff I bought, and was wondering if anyone had any advice for casting with it? I've tried a couple of times, but I'm still getting wrinkled boolits, doesn't seem to matter how hot. I've cranked up the pot to full, and heated the mold on a hot plate, so I don't know how much hotter I can get it. Maybe just more cleaning or some soak time? It is an old Winchester mold for the 25-35. Thanks, Billy

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh259/blcall/SN850459.jpg

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh259/blcall/SN850458.jpg

[Dale53]

Those are excellent pictures. You need to heat up the mould and scrub the "crud" off the face of the mould. The safest way to do this is use a hard graphite pencil well sharpened and use that . It won't hurt a thing but will allow you to get the crud off that might be plugging the vent lines (they show very faint on the image).

When you get the obvious stuff off, the squirt some Dawn Dishwashing liquid on the face and scrub the "bejesus" out of mould with a toothbrush (don't use yours, use your partner's as that stuff doesn't taste too good:lol:). Then rinse the mould in hot tap water until it is well rinsed and heated up. I then use a facial tissue (no lotion, please) or paper towel to carefully dry it. I immediately put it on the hot plate to "chase the damp".

You may have to "break it in" after many years of little use.

I recently bought a NOS Lyman mould that was many years old that was still new. It took quite a while to get it broken in. However, after it was broken in it worked extremely well.

Sometimes, you just have to get the planets aligned before things start working well.

P.S. That looks like a valuable old "artifact" and is (or should be) a collector's item.

Dale53

[Slow Elk 45/70]

BeCall, what Dale 53 says is right on. but if you are really going to use this mold, I would add this to what he said, seeing what you have already done, I would soak the mold in mineral spirits for 12-24 hours then I would use the info Dale gave you to clean it up.

The mineral spirits will decontaminate the mold of any oils that may have migrated into the pores in the metal, I find that this makes life a bit easier for me with used molds and aluminum ones that are new.
Good Luck.

[Bret4207]

That's the old 25-35 Short Range design, or one of them rather. I never realized they had a slight bevel base to them. Nice pics.

As the other fellows said, get it clean first. Those "smooth faced" moulds work very well once you get the hang of them, or so I'm told. I don't claim to be real experienced with those as I only own one I think and I'm not sure I've used it. But I have used the similar smooth faced brass round ball moulds and they can be a bear to get right. A lot of the venting with those takes place through the sprue hole and under the sprue plate. You can play with sprue plate tension and try keeping the alloy stream off to one side of the sprue hole when pouring.

In the event it be becomes clear additional venting is required, and only you can make that call, people report excellent results from just a very slight pin prick on the face. It doesn't take much, Beagling tape might be a better idea since it does no harm to that collectible mould.

[runfiverun]

beagling tape or 3m flue tape as ace hardware calls it. can be used to add vents to a flat faced mold.