.314SP 129Gr. (SKS/AK) Finished Buy

[inuhbad]

I'm getting pretty excited about these! Thanks again, Swede!

[SwedeNelson]

New Zip code list.
78681
08043
84601
72529
DH3 2AY
64093
75227
87124
67062
78413
55101
28752
78132
48415
97504
43445
39272
85283
04691
12306
RG6 7LE
72210
93257
32462


Swede Nelson

[inuhbad]

Thanks for the update, Swede!

I'm getting better and perfecting my own method of casting NICE boolits, and hardening them to be a VERY hard-casting without hardly any deformation. I'm learning this boolit hard casting is a very fine and difficult art to master - but I'm getting there & practicing up for when these molds are done!

It's got me very excited to be able to make my own rifle boolits!

[Trey45]

I sure hope I didn't miss the boat on this one, PM sent for a 4 cavity GC.

[SwedeNelson]

Getting closer.


Hope to run them the first of the week and ship about Thursday or Friday.

Swede Nelson

[inuhbad]

Those boolits are looking REALLY NICE!!!

Thanks for doing this group buy, and making it such a NICE & FAST run!!!

Thanks Swede!

[captain-03]

Great looking boolits!! Look forward to giving 'em a try!!

Thanks!!

[kendwell]

Swede: pg 2, 3, and 4 on the closed 314 129 gr ak group buy returns a "404, page not found error code." should have mentioned that in 1st message. I assume the shipment is incoming?
Anyways, happy with the mould I got, tho it will be a couple of months before use.
regards,
ken

[Piedmont]

This looks like a fantastic design. It should feed in anything. It should also fit a vast majority of .30ish milsurps from Ishapore .308s (with bands sized .311 or .312) through all the Mosins and into .303 British territory with out having to seat below the case neck. Bravo!

[captain-03]

Update?

[SwedeNelson]

captain-03

Boxing the first run of them up today.
Yours was one of them.
Will go out in tomorrow's mail.

Thanks for the order.
Couldn't do it with out you.
Swede Nelson

[inuhbad]

Thanks Swede!

I got a tracking number today!!! The first batch is definitely out on its way today!!!

I can't wait until it arrives! I need to go buy some gas checks ASAP!!!

I'm so excited for this mould to arrive!!!

[inuhbad]

...SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL!!!



THIS IS ONE NICE MOULD!!!

MY MOULD JUST ARRIVED OVER MY LUNCH BREAK TODAY!!! I walked into the lobby and the package was sitting there on the counter waiting for me!

SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL!

I can't wait to cast up a batch of boolits with this thing!!!

Unfortunately, I don't have a set of HANDLES to fit it right now, so I'll have to get those ASAP!!!

THANKS FOR DOING THIS GROUP BUY!!!

INFINITELY FASTER THAN WAITING FOR LEE, and THIS MOULD IS VERY PRECISELY MACHINED!!!

AWESOME!!! THANK YOU!!!

ETA: Sorry for the crappy cell-phone pic! It doesn't do it justice.

[captain-03]

My 4-Cav also arrived today!! Boy, I am impressed with the workmanship of this mould. It is so "purty" I hate to use it!!

GOOD JOB!!

[2 dogs]

My mold arrived today! Well done Sweede and thank
you! You can be sure it won't be my last NOE mold!

[sleeper1428]

My mould arrived today and I've already taken it out for a spin. Ran into a couple of problems which I've covered in a PM to you. Thanks for doing this GB. As others have already said, the mould itself is a thing of beauty, by far the best looking aluminum mould I have in my fairly large collection. Hope I can work out the kinks so that I can start geting consistently beautiful boolits similar to the ones you showed in the photo you posted a few days ago.

Thanks again.

sleeper1428

[rmaster14145]

got mine today .

its sweet. its my first NOE mould, and not the last. thanks for the fine product. its always great to buy something that has "USA" stamped on it.

sleeper can you let us know the minor problems you encountered? its gonna be awhile before i get to use mine. maybe you can help us all out.

thanks

thanks swede nelson

rm

[sleeper1428]

As I've already stated, the mould itself is a thing of beauty and since I had the time - I'm 71+ and retired so I don't have a lot of other commitments - I decided to get right to it as soon as I got the mould in the mail. As I usually do with any new mould, I cleaned it up using brake cleaner in copious amounts along with a stiff toothbrush until I was satisfied that all machining lubrication and/or storage oil had been completely removed. Then I followed Al's instructions and ran the mould up to a temp of 350-400F three times, allowing the mould to cool between heatings until I could handle it with my bare hands. While I was doing this heating/cooling I had my Lee 20lb Leak-O-Matic bottom pour pot, filled with Taracorp Magnum alloy equivalent (2-6-92), heating up with the dial set on maximum (10). While I didn't measure the temperature of the melt, I'd done so on enough previous occasions to know that the temperature would be at least 800F if not higher. Anyway, once the preliminary heating/cooling had been completed I started casting and after about six pours that resulted in inadequately filled out bases I finally got one where all four bases were completely filled out. That's when I applied the Bullplate Sprue Plate Lube, following the instructions that come with Bullplate Lube, and in addition I applied just a very, very small amount of that same lube to the two steel locating pins.

Once I'd done that I went back to casting but after just a few casts the sprue plate began binding - apparently the set screw hadn't been tightened - and I had to readjust it so that it would just swing closed under its own weight, the way I adjust all my sprue plates. This usually allows enough venting to provide well filled out boolit bases but in the case of this new mould, that didn't completely solve the problem and I continued to see one or more of the bases incompletely filled with each pour. Keep in mind that my pot was still set on maximum - it's a fairly new pot less than a year old - so the alloy should have been at least 800F, if not higher, at that time.

It was during this time that I ran into another problem and that was the difficulty that I encountered getting the mould halves to open and getting the boolits to drop from the mould. I found that I had to give the handle joint bolt one or more good hard raps with my wooden mallet in order to get the halves to open and then, in order to get the boolits to drop free of the mould, I had to continue whacking the bolt several more times before all four boolits would finally come loose. I should state that I had not smoked the cavities - I have rarely had to do so and from the looks of the mould I didn't think it would be necessary - so I just continued casting, hoping that the problem would clear up on its own.

It took a dozen or more casts until I finally started getting well filled out boolits, including the bases, but by this time all the boolits were coming out well frosted. Now, I'm not at all adverse to using frosted boolits. In fact, most of my Lee 6 cavity moulds work best when all the boolits are dropping out frosted. But after seeing those neat, shiny boolits in Al's photo that he posted a few days before sending out the completed moulds, I was really expecting to see those sort of results.

I've PM'd Al and he's cleared up a misunderstanding regarding temperatures that he suggested in the instructions enclosed with the mould. When he states that the mould temperature that works best is below 600F, he's specifically talking about the temperature of the MOULD, not the melted alloy temperature. In fact, he says that he runs his melt at 780-820F which is just about what I had my melt at during my casting session. He also suggested smoking the cavities which I plan to do before my next session and I'll hope that that helps with the difficulties I encountered in getting boolits to drop from the mould. If that doesn't work, I may then go on to Leement the cavities to see if that will solve the problem as it usually does with Lee moulds. I may also go back and soak the mould halves in mineral spirits for a few days and then clean them again with brake cleaner just to make sure that it's not residual lubricant that's causing the problem with incomplete fill out of the bases.

I've been casting boolits for over 25 years and have run into my share of difficult moulds so I don't think the few minor problems that I encountered are going to be hard to overcome. Each mould has its own characteristics and one just has to work at it until one figures out what the mould likes in the way of heat, alloy temperature, pour speed, etc. And once I figure that out for this mould, I expect to be getting some great boolits out of it.

Hope this helps out.

sleeper1428

[Blammer]

for the bases not being filled out, I'd suspect that you got some bullplate in them. I've done that and immediately noticed that the bases were not filling out. I had to clean them again, or at least the base area, then back to normal.

[Johnch]

Mine arived last night
But I am working 7 - 12's
So maybe I will put off sleep a hour or 2 tonight and cast a few

John