In what is becoming a routine .........(pause for dramatic effect)
A layman's first experience with a "top of the line" brass mould .
Thank goodness I won it as a prize .......
Attachment 197770
Oh this is a good looking mould and I fully appreciate the learning curve for a brass mould and I'm sure that has an impact on my experience .
This is the 462-420 HB with plain base plugs . It should cast I would think 462 if not 463........ Both cavities are 4605-461. 420 gr ? Please , the PB only made 406 , even my 457193 @.459 that is supposed to be 405 is 417 gr. It is supposed to drop a 395 gr HB and that manages just 380 .
So this $120 2C brass nose pour mould with 2 sets of base pins drops under sized and under weight by some 15+ gr .
I washed in Dawn per my routine for new moulds , all 4 assembled base pins , cavities and faces rinse in hot-hot water and heat dry to the aluminum moulds 350° setting and let cool the first time closed and dry . The second heat run was done with a half drop of lube shared across the sprue plate face after dabbing at the slide rods and a half drop touch on the sprue hinge screw and a little on the mount screws . This time it was run open base down about 40 min up and an hour and a half cool and repeat without the lube twice .
By all accounts this should have been sufficient .
Off to the shop !
Pot , lights and hot plate on . Attach a set of Lee handles . Put the mould on the hot plate get out a good set of Wiss tin snips and cut out the slot in that #10 tomato can for the oven shroud on the hot plate I've put off for 10 yr and set it on the hot plate over the mould .
My super secret alloy for rifles pours well in everything from 225-37 NOE to the 45-405 HB Lee so it was natural to expect it would pour well here . Besides there was 20# in the 4-20 . It tends to run heavy and full figured also .
I poured about 10 pours and just dumped them back in the pot . Then with good noses visible I poured 30 drops . Not a single keeper .......
Not being one to give up , I cast a few in in 225 37 just to be sure it wasn't me or alloy , it wasn't . Great noses , great bases , the bands refused to fill out .
The second go was better . I washed it out with brake clean , smeared the sprue face to color with lube and set it on the hot plate while the super alloy melted for removal from the pot . This go around I had a 15# jacketed core metal to pour from . The mould was at 350 and the pot at 725 and off I went .
Every pour after the 3rd pour was frosted , clean and shiney when dropped and frosted like a gravel road . Well I kept about 75% from the major defect cull and ran some 311291U that drop at 307 and some 301618 that drop at 3015-7 for paper patch work out of the core the 301618 NOE 4C delivered 110 keepers in 35 pours the 311291U 2C delivered 140+ from 90 +- pours .
I hope in the next run or 2 that this cream d'la cream mould comes around or I figure out it's thing . If not I can honestly say that it is in the top 5 most troublesome disappointing individual moulds I've owned ....... Pity that 3 of the other 4 were Lee and the 4th just wouldn't work in my applications .....