Nose wrinkles

[Tom-ADC]

Lyman 457677 this is a pointed 490 gr boolit I'm pretty sure the mold is hot enough as all of the boolit looks good except I'm getting wrinkles in the nose, thermometer says 750-800 degrees I don't see frosting, what can I do?
Thanks Tom

[docone31]

Heat the mold a little more.
The mold temp is making the wrinkles.
This is presuming the mold is clean of oils.

[Tom-ADC]

Cleaned the heck out of the mold, soaked over night in lacquer thinner. I'll try gettng the mold hotter, thanks for the tip..

[Tom-ADC]

Heat the mold a little more.
The mold temp is making the wrinkles.
This is presuming the mold is clean of oils.


That was it I broke out the hot plate set it on med hi and it worked just great, boolits looked great full length. Can't wait to load and shoot these.

[AZ-Stew]

Tom,

More heat and thorough cleaning are the usual cure for wrinkles, however I've had a couple of moulds that defied the usual wisdom but produced excellent results the next day or a few days later after they had cooled, then been re-heated by casting. I don't have an explanation for this phenomenon. If it happens again, first try more heat, then if you're still struggling with wrinkles, go for a second cleaning. If that fails, leave the mould sit cold for a couple days, then try it again.

Regards,

Stew

[Tom-ADC]

Stew thanks, I seem to be okay with the non aluminum molds but I'm not happy so far with the results I'm getting from my Lee molds, practice I guess.

[captaint]

Tom - My aluminium molds all want more heat than other types. Brass, OK. Iron, OK. Aluminium, more heat. enjoy Mike

[AZ-Stew]

Aluminum moulds don't necessarily require a higher temperature, but they do loose heat faster than more dense metals. This means you have two choices:

1.) Cast faster. Leave less time between pours.

2.) Raise the melt temperature. This allows you to cast slower while still maintaining enough heat in the mould to cast good boolits at the next pour. The mould temperature swings will be greater with this method, but no harm will be caused.

The goal is to cast good boolits without overheating the mould. Overheating results in heavily frosted boolits and longer waits to cut the sprue. It's also a waste of heat. When you get close to "too hot", you'll get boolits with frosted patches. Examination will show these patches to be sunken spots below the nominal boolit surface. Not a good thing, especially if they span driving bands. You'll have to work at it a bit to find the sweet spot for some moulds.

Regards,

Stew

[geargnasher]

Remember, Tom, mould temp is far more important to quality boolits than alloy temp. In your OP you said you though you were casting hot enough with a pot temp of 750-800 degrees, but that means exactly squat if your mould is 150 degrees. I get great results from Lee moulds if I cast three pours a minute with 600 degree alloy. That means HOT mould and cool alloy balanced to make nice, LIGHTLY frosted, sharp-edged, full-size boolits at a pretty decent pace with 5-7 second pour-to-cut sprue time. I have never been successful casting shiny, filled-out boolits from any aluminum mould with antimonial alloys, but that may just be me. Steel or Mehenite, but not aluminum.

Gear

[Tom-ADC]

I tried it again today, preheated mold on the hot plate set at med hi, was amazed when the very first boolit out of the Lyman mold was perfect, did 50 of those then switched to the Lee 405 HB, even got it working just fine, this is getting scary I almost know what I'm doing now:castmine:

BTW thanks to everyone for the help!!