Just tried a hollow point mold from noe

[odfairfaxsub]

Wonderful mold!!! Excellent bullets!!! Noticed a few things

1. Keep a pair of pliers near by.

if you don't heat your hold up or smooth things out with the pins the bullets stick till things get warmer/worn

2.get the mold pre HOT

3. Keep the lead hotter than usual till you get great bullets then adjust til temp works better for the bullets.

[tazman]

All very true.
I make sure my mold is hot enough that it takes the sprue longer than usual to cool for the first couple of passes.
Even after that I run things hotter with the hollow point than with solids.
Run this way, my NOE hollow point mold casts as fast and well as all the others.

[tg32-20]

+1 for the NOE RG mold Once you figure it out it casts as good and quick as any other mold.

[odfairfaxsub]

That noe mold like you said once up to temp cast just as fast as any other mold. This was using those longer pins they come w too so not like it's just making indentations. Bought this in hopes of trying something new and effective.

[DrCaveman]

I just got my first hollow point mould, it is a NOE 453423 aluminum 2-cavity

I am understanding that the mould needs to be HOT. 15-20 minutes on hot plate, then also sume dunking in melt seems to be required for good fillout and drop out

So now, how in the hell do you keep the mould hot enough? If i let the boolits solidify enough to not have the hollow points torn by the pins (as per recommended by Al), then the mould has cooled to the point that my sprue solidifies too quickly. Like, about 2 seconds. Several times the sprue had soldified on the first cavity before the second cavity was even filled

Ive been dunking the mould in the melt every 3-4 pours, but this has caused problems with lead sticking within the RG channels, which prevent the pins from sliding out like they are supposed to

Run the furnace hotter? I had the lee pro iv pot running near max this morning, no major improvement. Im thinking of leaving the hotplate on high next to the furnace, and setting mould on it every few pours, and then i guess running another mould along side so i am not sitting watching the grass grow.

You guys say these can be fast production moulds...how many pours a minute is considered fast for an HP mould?

When the boolits come out good, they are darn nice ones. No complaints at all with size, concentricity, or cavity release

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Maybe instead of running 2 molds at once, just run the NOE by itself and keep it hot. Don't give it a chance to cool down at all. When I cast HPs I concentrate on keeping the mold hot and therefore only cast with the one mold. Now if I am casting a larger bullet in a Lee six cavity, I will run 2-3 molds at once. A lot depends on the size of the boolit.

[mattw]

I do not know that I would dunk them they may warp! I run my hot plate at 500F and allow them to warm the whole time the pot is coming up to temp. I pour into NOE's at about 735F with a 3% tin alloy. Heat the pins with a propane torch before the first pour, after heating take a q-tip and put a tiny bit of sprue plate lube on the pins then bullets will just jump off. I have smoked the moulds for the first casting session, after that they do not need it.

Using 2 cavity moulds, I can make 4 or sometimes 6 bullets per minute. I do not let the bullets get frosty hot, personal thing. I do not think frost will hurt them, just dont like the looks. The tiny bit of lube on the pins was key for me, I do it about every 50 to 60 pours. My pins have seasoned almost to the point that I do not need the lube at all. The pins are a beautiful blue color and release like mad. I also chucked my pins up in a drill and used wet 2000 grit optical paper to polish them before I even cast a bullet.

Once you learn these moulds, you will love them. I suspect all captive pin moulds are just as picky to start our with. I do have one mould that I did send back, 360-160 that would stick a bullet in the right side of the cavity with every pour, I am sure it will be fixed! Just do not give up, figure them out. It took me 3 very frustrating casting sessions, questions here and a call to Al to get them working like they should.

BTW, I have been casting for 20+ years and had always used Lyman and Ideal non-captive pin moulds, work well but very slow!

Matt

[odfairfaxsub]

Noe is prob the greatest semi-custom inventory carrying mold manufacturer that I bought a mold from and I feel I can say that after the hollow point mold. Wow these things look mean . Wish they would get this second .410 bullet mold on the road but just need one more person on it.

[Smoke4320]

Hot Plate at 550 to 575 while lead is coming up to pour temp (725) 50/50 with 2% HSB
I lightly dab 2 cycle motor oil on pin heads (using Qtip) at the start and about every 100 rds .. Actually get the mold so hot I have to lay it Bottom down on a wet rag every 4 or 5 pours otherwise the pins tear out the HP.. a quick touch on the rag and good for another 4 or 5 pours

[DrCaveman]

Still having trouble keeping the mould hot. The balancing act between not tearing out the HP cavity and running fast enough seems to be the problem.

Ive been using propane torch on pins, and tried 2-cycle oil on them. No help in boolits dropping, at least nothing consistent. Actually knocked the handles off my lee 6-cav handles several times this evening just trying to get the boolits dropped so i could keep mould temp up.

Do you run 3-4 throwaway pours between keepers in order to keep the temp up? The sprue can be fully liquid, yet when i open sprue plate,boolits are already solidified. Need to bust the sprue WELL before solidification in order to keep things hot

Maybe my boolit shape (keith 452423 style) is a tough one to do HP with?

4 to 6 boolits a minute? Crazy! No way in this moderate climate that the mould would stay anywhere near hot enough at that rate! I must be missing something

[oger]

I have that mold in a 4 cavity and I am actually able to overheat the mold if the temp. in the garage isn't too cold. My RCBS pot is set to max for alum. molds and the hollow point ones all get warmed on a hot plate. I use a propane lighter to smoke the cavities and cast as fast as I can. I do have a 2 cavity NOE 40cal mold with large hollow points that simply will not work unless the weather is warm no matter what I do.