SC357-135-RF
Got a new NOE mold in the mail, yesterday. While I was watching football last night, I preheated it 4 times and got it ready to go. This afternoon I put it on some handles, warmed it (hot plate) and the pot up and gave it a spin. I will say that it was the slowest starting new mold that I have EVER seen. Aggravated the hell out of me...literally, drained the pot (do you realize HOW MANY 135gr bullets are in a 20lb pot?) and it had not filled out all of the bases on a single fill. It is a 4cav and it would have 1 or 2 nice bullets and the remainder would be rejects, every fill...and it was not the same cavities everytime. I did EVERYTHING that I knew to do...nothing worked. When the pot ran dry, I filled it up and laid the mold on top while it melted the alloy. It took about 20 minutes to get the alloy right as I was not expecting this problem and had not been warming any to put in the pot. Anyway, when the pot got right, I took the mold off the top and gave it another go...and within just a few fills, it hit it's groove...like flipping a switch...and RAINED keepers until I just said...ENOUGH. I counted them after finishing up, I counted 1045 keepers. At the outset, I had only intended to cast a couple of hundred...it was just so smooth after finally getting going, that I hated to stop.
For an entire pot, it was the worst mold that I have held in my hand...and it turned out to be the best casting mold that I have ever had in my hand...Jekyll/Hyde type deal. When it got going and until the last fill, I just had to swing in over the bullet pile and GOOD bullets would just fall out...NEVER had one cast this smooth.
Mark another one up to, Al.