trouble with NOE 9.3 mold

[saskgunowner101]

Just received my 9.3 mold from NOE and happier than a pig in....well, you know. First I give it my standard hot water/ dish soap and a toothbrush treatment. I then gave it a few heat treating cycles in the oven at 300 degrees F. Gave it a dose of brake cleaner outside and wipe it down.

I then warmed it up on a hotplate for a bit, and filled the cavities from my Lee drip-o-matic. I then added bullplate to the top of the mold, and underside of the sprue plate and then wiped it with another Q-tip. All good so far. For the life of me though, I can't get it to drop a nice bullet. They're good from the base to the lube ring, and the rest of the bullet is wrinkley, lines etc.

Now, I'm pretty sure the mold is clean, as this works fine for my other molds, and I think the temp is high enough. I usually crank it for a long time, then turn it down to 6 for casting, which usually works well with other molds. I didn't want to leave the pot on max and risk shortening the life of the mold.

Any thoughts on what my problem is?? Would Bullplate foul the mold and cause what I'm seeing?? What might be my next step. Thanks in advance.

[btroj]

Clean it again and go cast with it. My 3 NOE moulds all were much better the second or third go around. Don't know if it is oil in the pores, what they use for cutting fluid, or whatever vut they do like a second cleaning and a break in period.
Trust me, that mould will soon be casting a beautiful bullet.

Brad

[saskgunowner101]

Thanks Brad, I'll give it another cleaning session and maybe crank up the heat a bit more. I just wanted to drop some nice boolits and couldn't figure out why they didn't get better.

[Blammer]

make the mould hotter, give it a few casting sessions, it usually takes 2-3 to get it working well.

[btroj]

Went thru same thing with my first NOE mould. It was one of the first they ran and man dis I sweat it the first casting session. By the third session I realized a break in was needed and that the mould was awesome. They sure do know how to make a nice mould.

[geargnasher]

Swede mentions several heat cycles as I remember, but I've found that heating it in my mould oven and cooling it down isn't the same as casting with it: You have to cast with it at least three times, at least 50 pours each, then the forth session it's ready to go. I don't know why, I cleaned and checked the mould each time I heated it and tried casting with it, and I figured I'd give it one last go before I gave up. That third time I actually cast with it did the trick, the fourth time it started cooperating as soon as the mould came up to temp and cast good boolits from then on out. Just heating and cooling it without casting did nothing.

Gear

Gear

[nanuk]

I wonder if the metal itself has some property that has to be casted out of it....

like someone said, porous and has residual oil from machining?

but at least everyone now knows how to get them working

[btroj]

I like to give any new mould a few cycles to settle in. I have learned that it might need to break in and I need to learn what that particular mould does and does not like. Each mould has a personality and it takes a bit to figure out what it is.

Brad

[saskgunowner101]

Made some progress today, but the boolits look like they came from a rough home. Better than yesterdays attempt for sure. I kept the heat up and frosted some of the boolits, and went down to between 7 & 8 on the temperature dial. I hope I get it running well eventually.

[0verkill]

Any news on the NOE mould?

I just bought my first NOE (a .314198) and cast with it, an old LEE .309 130R single cavity and a new LEE 2 cavity 120gr .309. The new LEE ran perfect straight out of the box, the old LEE performed as usual (sticks a little) but the NOE was horrible. I cranked the heat and that didn't work, I had baked them and allowed them to cool 3 times before casting (as I had read in another thread).

I did a search here to see if maybe I were doing something wrong, but I guess it just needs more time.

[CWME]

Heat the mold upside down on a hot plate set on MED for mine. I couldn't for the life of me get rid of defects with my 311365 from NOE. I tried cleaning, heat cycles, hot hot hot pot, three different batches of lead, even melted a box of Oregon hard cast that I had no use for to get virgin metal.

The hot plate heating the mold through the sprue plate fixed my fill out issues.

[Gunsmoke4570]

I have several of the NOE molds. I heat cycle on a hot plate set at 500* 4 or five times. Pre-heat, then start casting. Usually within 10 casts I am getting good boolits. I have the 9.3 mold the OP has questions about as well.

[a.squibload]

Suppose the break-in casting sessions should be done with or without the HP pins?
Seems it would be easier without (and less cussin').

[masscaster]

Hi saskgunowner101,
Just keep running it. Don't slow down to look at the boolits.
This may seem like a waste of time, but it'll insure proper break in.
Alot of moulds will act differently when new. I spend even less time cleaning a new mould and simply cast it out. You can always remelt the rejects.
Like Blammer says, run it faster & hotter than normal at first. Just don't gall the cavities.
Try a hot smoking also. Use alot of matches. Then use a little break cleaner and a soft cloth to remove the excess smoke.
Hope this helps.

Jeff