I finally got around to casting with it for the first time today. I didn’t clean the mold before I casted today which I’m guessing is why all my boolits have little dimples all over them? I was thinking my alloy was too hot so I turned down my lee 4-20 pot to the point the boolits weren’t filling out and the alloy still looked “frosted and dimpled” so I figured it was either my 50/50 alloy with 2% pewter mix that gave it the frosted color appearance or maybe NOE sprayed it with lube or grease that I didn’t clean off? I also see there is a couple of chips and dings in the gas check area...is this going to affect my accuracy?
Getting to my mold. When I removed the mounting screws one screw after a few turns started coming out hard. It had a clump or black threads in it I removed. I reinstalled it and it seemed fine. I rested my mold on top of my casing pot for a couple of minutes to warm it up and started casting. I apparently didn’t get it hot enough since my boolits were wrinkled and not completely filled in. I was starting figuring out the mold and getting used to it after about a good 100 dumps. It was kinda finicky at first one of the boolits kept sticking to the side of the mold and the HP was tearing out in the process. Also the boolits were sticking to the HP pins till I smoked them and the mold heated up a little more. It seemed if I dumped them faster the boolits were releasing fine. Well after I thought all was good. All of a sudden the mold locked together like it was welded shut. I literally had the force it apart. I figured I got some lead in it somewhere. Nope, the (male)pins that mate into female machined area in the opposite side of the mold seized together. I quit casting, lubed the pins...no luck. I still had to force the mold apart. I loosened the HP screws and handle screws thinking I needed to adjust them. Nope. After the mold cooled down a little it would start to “snap” together with less tension. I could see the mold ricking back and forth in the lack pins. It’s like the pins swelled? It was tolerable enough that I was able to start casting again this happened two more times and I finally got frustrated and quit I took the mold completely apart cleaned and lubed it there was no lead anywhere. In the picture I showed you I took it completely apart in the mold snaps together and makes a loud snapping noise when pushed together with force and you cannot pull the part with your hands you have to put it in the handles to force it apart can someone please enlighten me what’s going on and what happened. In the picture I showed you I took it completely apart in the mold snaps together and makes a loud snapping noise and you cannot pull the part with your hands you have to put it in the handles to force it apart can someone please enlighten me what’s going on and what happened? I did after several attempts to adjust and lube the mold during my casing session I finally got my 10 pounds of alloy through it.
This the mold after I cleaned it...it will not come apart until I screw it together in my mold handles. It snaps together with a little force now. It dose not seemed warped but it’s like the holes don’t line up with the pins perfect and have to be pressed in place and then they are locked in place. I felt I was almost going to brake my handles during my casting session to force it together to hear a snap when it shut. I could squeeze it together with my gloves on as well. I could see both sides teetering in the middle on the mold pin area before snapping together.
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Originally Posted by bluejay75
