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It never occured to me before but for some reason I thought of it now that I have 2 new very nice new molds. Is there any kind of break in procedure.or something I should do before 1st use? Heat them up? Oil them down? Wipe with alcohol? I can think of a dozen diffefent things I COULD do but what SHOULD I do with them?
I like smoking them after cleaning but others will disagree. I think the carbon layer helps drop out.
My normal procedure is to Clean the blocks and sprue plate with dish soap and water scrunning with a tooth brush and really working up a good lather. this may take 2 or 3 times to get the good lather . I then rinse with hot tap water and let dry a little. I then heat cycle the nlocks on a Hot Plate bringing them slowly to 350*-400* then shut the hot plate off and let cool to ambient temp. I do this 2 -3 times to aclimate the blocks, burn any contaminates off and to help season them. This heat cycle also starts or helps to form the patina or natural coating that makes moulds cast and release well. Ive found new moulds cast better after this procedure for me.
There is an article on treating molds with kroil. Ive been using it with mine.
What brand / maker / material are they . Aluminum , iron and brass get slightly different treatments.
Basically a good cleaning and degreasing then start casting. Lee moulds need to be deburred. brass and some aluminum moulds get heat cycled before use. Don't forget proper lubrication....more moulds get ruined because they don't get lubed with the right lubricant.
With my first steel Layman mould I just took it out the box and started casting....took a while before good bullets were made but I didn't know any better. And I learned about mould lubing the hard way !
Gary
These are brass. When you talk aboit lubing you mean all over except the.mold cavities, right?
I clean all my molds with non-chlorinated brake cleaner and let them dry.
I then preheat them and then use a paper q-tip to apply a VERY lite amount of mold lube on the outside of the sprue plate and on the alignment pins.
After I cast a few boolits to get it all the way up to temp. I then cast and open the sprue plate, leaving the boolits in the mold and give a lite coat of lube from the q-tip on the mold side of the plate and the top of the mold itself.
I go EXTREMELY lite on the top of the mold and underside of the sprue plate. This keeps the lube from contaminating the inside.
I sometimes get a few wrinkled boolits after doing this, but I only need to do it once per casting episode and it clears up in a few casts.
CPL Lou
Aluminum molds get brake parts cleaner and smoked, steel molds get broke parts cleaner and then cast with.
when broken in the cavities should look like they are blued "never take this out of the cavities"!
Brass gets brake parts cleaner and then cast with I do nothing else to them as far as cavities go.
Now a touch of sprue plate lube to alignment pins and the sprue plate pivot point are done at the beginning of each casting session.
store cooled down in a sealed ammo can with dissicant to absorb any moisture and your good to go.
Interesting link. Thanks everyone for your input