Is my mold worn out?

[mattellis2]

I purchased a used mold recently and have been playing with it the last couple of nights. I’m in love with heavy 45 colt loads, so picked up a used Lee 300 grain WFN mold when it poppped up.

I can’t get it to cast a clean bullet. Some are better than others but all have defects. Pictures are below. I was getting bad results so I broke it down, carefully cleaned each cavity with acetone and a cotton swap, then scrubbed the whole think with hot water and dish soap. It still drops the same defective bullets. I messed with it for an hour or so...the Lee mold was too hot to touch.

For comparison, I cast a few 44 mag SWC from a Lyman mold I have. They’re almost perfect after the third cast. Alloy, temperature and everything else where the same.

Any thoughts?

[popper]

Symptoms of a cold mould. Try non- chlorinated brake cleaner. May take a while to get any oils out.

[mattellis2]

Two things: it cast some okay bullets in my first session, not perfect, but better. The Lyman mold was almost stone cold and dropping better bullets. I’m not sure how hot the Lee mold was, but I burned myself through my (non welding) gloves.

[popper]

Not much metal in that mould, did you preheat it?

[frkelly74]

You do have to get those 6 bangers hot for them to work properly. I heat mine a little bit with a torch and then start by filling one or two cavities and rejecting the boolits until they are nice then fill 3 or 4 cavities like wise. and finally up to all 6. Have plenty of ingots ready and handy to feed your pot as the level drops and do not stop to examine your boolits until you are done once you are up and running. On occasion I have filled the cavities gradually without having closed the sprue just to get things heated up nice. all those boolits go back in the pot immediately. Get it hot and don't stop. Ove Gloves will protect your hands much better than anything else I have tried.

[bmortell]

the aluminum mold id just stick the corner of the mold in the melt and get it a bit too hot then work down from there for a sweet spot

[Markopolo]

run it hotter... heat the mould up real good.. get it to the point it take a 3 or 4 count before the sprue solidifys, and see how it runs then, could take 75 boolits or more before it starts running correctly... dont even look at the boolits till you get 20 casts done. get that rhythm running. once you get good boolits comming out, then you can gradually run it cooler till you find the sweet spot.. i have a feeling it will be a 2-3 count for sprue to correctly change colors and solidify. but just like every gun has its own sweet spot, molds have a personality also.. some moulds I cringe at getting off the shelf, and some are completely joyful each and every time...

dont quit..

marko

[mattellis2]

Thanks. I will try to get it hotter next time. I had my pot at maximum, but didn’t put the mold in the liquid melt.

I like the idea of doing a cavity or two at a time.

[lar45]

You might try smoking it. I use a BBQ butane lighter to give them a light coat of soot.
Also preheat the mold.

[Crash_Corrigan]

I have been using Lee six bangers since '95. I have learned to place the far end of the mold into the molten alloy about a quarter inch or so and leave it there for 4-5 minutes. Then I fill the closest two holes in the mold with alloy and wait until the color changes on the sprue. Then I dump the boolits and load up the same two cavities again and again until I get good boolits. Then once I am getting good cast boolits I gradually fill hole 1 2 3 and then dump. Then 1234 etc. The weakest part of the Lee six bangers is the cheap handles that break so to prevent that I dump boolits fast immediately after the sprues change. Waiting make the alloy more difficult to break with the handles.

[kevin c]

I get wrinkles until my six and eight cavity aluminum molds are hot.

I'd read here to keep the melt maybe a hundred degrees over the liquidus, but that was too low. I had to raise the temp another 50 or 60 degrees and also preheat the mold on a hot plate with the element red hot so I didn't have to literally use up a third of the pot in getting the mold to temp (it really would sometimes actually take 20 or so pours in cold weather). The hot plate also helped save me from casting for just a short while with what little alloy was left and then having to recharge the pot with ingots and wait for them to melt and for the pot to get back to temp, which meant the mold now was cold, and the whole cycle of wrinkled boolits would start over.

Glenn Fryxell's articles on LASC, it turns out, covers just about all of this, and includes a further observation that bottom pour pots sometimes need to be run VERY hot (850 degrees!). I kinda wished I'd read all of them more thoroughly when I started out.

My only other observation is that with my molds, alloy, and technique, my best casts are lightly frosted.

[Maven]

"You might try smoking it. I use a BBQ butane lighter to give them a light coat of shoot.
Also preheat the mold." ...lar45

This!

[lightman]

I don't think its a wear problem. Most likely you just need to find the speed that your mold likes to be cycled at. The bullets from your Lyman mold show a little bit of fill out problems from being too cool.

[Conditor22]

scrub mold well with toothbrush and dish soap (I like dawn)

get a hotplate and warm your mold to apr 400°

what alloy are you using and what temperature is your pot set to?

I like to have at least 2% tin in most of my alloys, helps them flow better - better fill out at lower temperature.

I set my PID at 680 for harder alloys, 700 for softer alloys and 720 for pure.

Your Lyman mold looks like it's not closing completely, check it for debris on the mold faces that might be preventing it from closing

[kungfustyle]

+1^^^^^^^^

[brewer12345]

Hot plate.

[RED BEAR]

I would clean out the mold dish washing liquid and tooth brush and increase melt and or mold temp. What do you use to lube the spruce and mold? If i get carried away with the oil mine come out like that until it burns off or i clean it.

[truckjohn]

1. Looks like the alloy is cold. A hot mold won't make up for cold lead.

2. Are you ladle pouring or bottom pouring? Are you pouring fast or slow?

3. Make sure all the vents in the mold are good and clean/open where they intersect the cavity. Take a sharp pointy thing and give them a light scratch to make sure they are all open.

[Moleman-]

I have several Lee 6-cavity molds and several NOE 4- cavity molds. They all have to be run hotter than any of my 2 cavity molds. I set them on top of the Lee pot as it is coming up to temp and then dip the bottom of one end into the lead until it no longer wants to solidify onto the outside of the mold. Don't let any steel parts of the mold sit in the lead or the lead will eventually stick to it. I've always used a set of those fuzzy yellow cotton gloves while casting. As long as they stay dry you won't burn your hand picking up just cast bullets or sprues. My buddy who is a plumber got me started on them after watching him wipe excess lead from a joint while wearing them.

[earlmck]

There is no substitute for age (for a mold). I have several of Lee's nice 6-cavity molds and have learned not to even look at the boolits or try to keep any until about the third casting session. They keep getting easier to use and faster to come to making good boolits every time I use them. And smoking as lar45 and Mavin say helps (once she's half-way broke in).

That mold wasn't wore out -- it was too danged new! Keep at it: you'll get there.