Is it possible to repair Lyman mold?

[hunter64]

I looked in the archives and couldn't find any reference to repairing scratched Lyman molds, or maybe I just missed it. I bought a mold off of ebay, lyman 44 keith style 250 grn 4 bullet mold and the second bullet has a small scratch on the side of the mold. When you pour the lead it comes out with a small raised line about 1/16th inch long, looks like someone was trying to get a stuck bullet out of the mold with a screwdriver and damaged it. I have been using the other 3 and it is working fine but I was wondering how you could fix the damaged one if at all possible. I was thinking since it is metal, I have a mig welder and just fill the scratch in and them polish it down to the correct height again. I also would be worried about over heating it and somehow warping it and really messing it up, since it would be such a local heat for just a second I am not sure it would do anything to the rest of the mold. Any suggestions?

It is such a small line and I am not competition shooting and the longest range is 25 yards, I really don't think it would matter all that much.

[hivoltfl]

I would load it and try shooting it, I have an old loverin mold by Lyman that throws a real ugly bullet but they sure shoot good, my best shooting bullet in 30 cal.

Good luck with it

[cherok9878]

Look in moulds, maintenance and design. Check the first sticky about Lee menting a lee mould. If it will work for a AL mould why wouldn't it work for a Lyman

[hunter64]

cherok9878: I have the opposite problem, he explains what to do for a raised surface on the inside of the mold, mine is a scratch which is a depression in the mold and thus when the bullet is cast it protrudes out of the lead bullet. I think I will just do some grouping with the 3 other bullets and once I find the correct loading I will try the bullet with the slight imperfection and see if it makes any difference.

[Bullshop]

If it were mine and it bugged me that bad I would first set the blok in a vice, then with a smallish punch with rounded end try to peen the scratch closed from both sides. Once closed peen the area evenly. I have done this before, just take it slow and gentle. Think engraving.
BIC/BS

[Dale53]

There is a kind of "narrow line" between "cosmetic" and "real". I would do absolutely nothing until I ran accuracy tests. You may have nothing more than a "cosmetic" problem (if it shoots good it is just cosmetic - if it doesn't then you may have a "mechanical problem). If it is just cosmetic I would just use it as is. Even with a mechanical problme, I would not be inclined to work on the mould. It is, at best, an extremely delicate operation, and chances of success are not high. Right now, you have at least three good cavities. You could easily end up with none...

FWIW
Dale53

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive seen bullets with bigger flaws then that shoot just fine.

[sundog]

Dale got it right - leave'er be. That mark may have been put there intentionally to identify and index that cavity. I mark many of my iron moulds with a center punch, one high and one low so they can be segregated, and if needed registered. In fact, I have a SC for a single shot that is marked just as you describe. My guess is you will not be able to tell it is there. sundog

[carpetman]

Maybe take that mig welder and put little spots all over the nose then it would look like a golf ball. Those dimples on golf balls do something. Maybe you could hook and slice and shoot around trees with it? Then again you might leave it alone and shoot through trees.

[Bass Ackward]

I don't see any reason to risk using the welder. If it bothers you or prevents the bullet from dropping from the cavity, then possibly some JB Weld would take the heat. But I agree, leave it alone.

The cavity could be marked for a reason.

[44man]

You can always scratch the spot off the boolit with your finger nail if it bothers you. It sure will not affect the shooting if you leave it alone.

[MT Gianni]

Let us know how they shoot. I would load 3 scratched and 3 not in no paticular order and see if you get 2 groups. Gianni.

[hunter64]

Here is what happened. Best group for this combo was 8.1 grn of Unique, I only used the other 3 bullets and left the ones with the mark out. I then tired the flawed bullets and the group was all over the place and opened up from 1.5" at 25 yards to hitting the target with 3 out of the 6 bullets and the target was an 8x11 size target. I took the mig welder and and welded up the cut, grand total of about 2 seconds of weld, took out the dremel tool and smoothed it out till there was no raised portions as per the Lee Mold with the release agent and the comet trick in the archive section. I have retested the repaired bullet and it now is the same as the other three. Very easy with a mig welder, a little bit of time spent polishing the repaired mold to where it needed to be, about 1 hour total. Now I have a mold with all 4 working perfectly.

[Bass Ackward]

Here is what happened. Best group for this combo was 8.1 grn of Unique, I only used the other 3 bullets and left the ones with the mark out. I then tired the flawed bullets and the group was all over the place and opened up from 1.5" at 25 yards to hitting the target with 3 out of the 6 bullets and the target was an 8x11 size target. I took the mig welder and and welded up the cut, grand total of about 2 seconds of weld, took out the dremel tool and smoothed it out till there was no raised portions as per the Lee Mold with the release agent and the comet trick in the archive section. I have retested the repaired bullet and it now is the same as the other three. Very easy with a mig welder, a little bit of time spent polishing the repaired mold to where it needed to be, about 1 hour total. Now I have a mold with all 4 working perfectly.

Ahhh. But how does it shoot now?

That cavity could have been marked for a reason so those bullets could be discarded. Now you will have a hard time identifying them?

[Dale53]

"I have retested the repaired bullet and it now is the same as the other three."

It seems that the question has been answered. Methinks, that "hunter64" is an artist with a mig welder. My hat is off to you, "hunter64". Congratulations on a job well done.

Dale53

[Quality NUt]

What a man! That is miraculous. I LOVE a good success story.
I've had to rebuild a couple of molds myself and found WD40 and sliding the faces together will gently reduce/eleminate parting lines - if not too bad
QN

[dltaskey]

Methinks we need to keep hunter64 in mind when a treasured mold needs help. A man that good with a mig, tig or wooden match can be a real good friend!
Congradulations sir!

[hunter64]

Actually it was easy to fix the mold, it took about one second to just buzz the flaw and fill it in, the hard part was to be paitent in slowly removing excess metal to the correct profile. Since it was in the middle of the bullet between the crimp groove and the top there was lots of room to work. Used the dremel tool to slowly polish it down to just about 1 thou of where it needed to be then I used 400 grit sandpaper by hand wrapped around a small round ended pencil, to do the final polishing. I cast a few bullets in it and let the mold cool down and had a couple of spots to do a little bit more polishing. Now there is no diffence between any of the bullets from anyone of the molds and the accuracy is the same, before with the bad bullet it was a miracle to hit a 8.5x11 piece of paper at 25 yards.