Kroil in a boolit mold

[Hahndorf1874]

Hi guys,
Mal in Australia ,can't buy Kroil here in AU ,CRC SCREWLOOSE,made in The US,was available here in Aus,I have tried it and it works a treat!!! Sold here in South Aus,by SPRINT AUTO SHOPS,Works just the same as the Kroil is claimed to do.JMTCW,

CHEERS MAL.

[SgtDog0311]

Thought I'd start slow... put some Kroil on, then washed the mold with detergent and a toothbrush and let it heat up with the pot. Bullets dropped like a champ. May try it more directly without the cleaning first next go-round and see if results are the same or better. Thanks for the post. Interesting reading!!

[too many things]

the kroil works best when mold is hot.

[Tenbender]

A friend let me have some old molds that are in sad shape. Rusty and lead in the vent groove's. Will Kroil clean them up ? Most are Lee.

[too many things]

lee are AL cant be rust . but no kroil will help loosen the crud. rust is another problem naval jelly will work for rust on steel but you have to watch very careful on al as it will eat it up fast

[Tenbender]

Here is a link on a Kroil deal. I have some on order going to try and clean up some old molds.
http://www.kanolabs.com/google/

[Tenbender]

lee are AL cant be rust . but no kroil will help loosen the crud. rust is another problem naval jelly will work for rust on steel but you have to watch very careful on al as it will eat it up fast

There's a good bit of steel on a Lee mold. Especially the ones with the hollow point pin.

[tomon]

Kroil advertises that it will wick one MILLIONTH of an inch. That will get under just about everything, so YES it will clean them. I have three inherited moulds that look like they were creosoted to store them, and won't come apart! I will start soaking them today. The two .45 Lyman/Ideal moulds I am going to sell, but I need to shoot the 25-20 60 grainers before I decide on it.

A friend let me have some old molds that are in sad shape. Rusty and lead in the vent groove's. Will Kroil clean them up ? Most are Lee.

[gondwana]

KROIL in Australia. I found the Australian Distributor in my home state and called them and paid for a gallon to be road freighted up to me. I have no experience with KROIL on boolit molds but after trolling this board for a year or so and reading the amazing results of others I was convinced I should try it. I think the one gallon can will last me a while too.

[gondwana]

, forgot to tell the Aussies where to get KROIL - http://furmanite.com/contact-us/australia/queensland/

[usmc1963]

Ok another use for the 20 gallons kroil i have

[dryflash3]

I tried this Kroil method on 3 of my Lee 30 caliber molds that always cast wrinkled bullets.

Very happy with the results, no more wrinkled boolets.

[coyotewacker]

Kroil I have a can on every bench in the shop never out of a arms reach....I've restored antique cars and motorcycles for a living the past 45 years....thanks for a new use bullet molds........

[ZippyHillbilly]

Kroil is the cats meow ...... in a million, billion different ways. I always have 4 to 6 cans on hand. It goes on sale at MidwayUSA on many occasions. thanks for the tip on it's use in this case. I shall give this a whirl.

[Andy]

I'm pretty new to casting and wanted to give this a try, so I read through this and the other thread on kroil in molds and tried it out tonight. I didn't have much luck and wanted to tell you my process and see if you guys notice anything I'm doing wrong. I realize many people have had good success with this and I want to get it right.

Tried with two molds at the same time: lyman 2 cav 175 grain 30 cal mold and the rcbs 2 cavity 35-200, both iron and well used.

Immediately before trying the kroil treatment I cast about 150 bullets with each mold, roughly 80-90% came out good and those that didn't were almost always due to a messed up pour on my end, so the molds are fine in general. Both molds had one annoyingly sticking cavity (3 pin wraps to get the bullet to drop every single time) so I thought I would stop and give the kroil treatment a try and see if it helped with that.

Stopped casting for about 15 min, re-read these threads. Sprayed aero kroil on both molds, thoroughly soaking them so there was liquid kroil remaining on all of their surfaces (they had cooled to just warm enough to touch a few seconds but not hold too long temp). Set both molds on the hot plate while I got the lead back up to 650-700 degrees.

After about 15 min molds on the hot plate started smoking off the kroil, removed the molds and sprayed them again with kroil and saw that it dried/evaporated or soaked in. Wiped any remaining wet areas so that there weren't drips from the sprue plate moving etc. Started casting.

In the previous session, with the molds pre-heated the same amount and the lead at the same temp, I was getting good bullets after about 3-5 drops from each mold. After doing the kroil treatment, I had excessively wrinkly bullets for 10-15 straight drops from each mold, with no bullets anywhere close to acceptable.

The bullets did drop much easier from the mold however so I kept going to see where it would lead. When I got to about the 30th drop from each mold the bullets had started coming out better, with what I would call minor wrinkling (ok for plinking bullets) on a small random area of each one. The problem was, the molds were back to sticking just as much as before.

So, my first foray with kroil resulted with many wasted casts and no improvement in performance. I am not questioning anyone else's experience, but for me this seemed just like any other time a mold has been contaminated: it cast poor bullets until repeated castings removed the contamination then it slowly cast better and better bullets. At the end of casting (120+ bullets of each type) only 10% of the bullets were at the quality that I was achieving 80-90% of the time before using kroil.

What can I change with my process to make this work better? I currently have one mold soaking in a plastic bag of kroil overnight as a test to try out tomorrow morning. The other mold I left alone so I can try a different method if anyone has any ideas.

Thanks,
Andy

[Andy]

Update to my last post above: still no luck with the kroil after many different experiments today. Stopped using it on the lyman mold so I would have a control group, cleaned the lyman thoroughly with denatured alcohol and it quickly went back to casting good bullets. Meanwhile contintued casting alternately with that and the RCBS side by side.

I had let the RCBS set all night soaking in kroil in a bag, heated it up this morning, wiped off excess started using it again and kept getting badly wrinkled bullets. Remembered the advice in this thread or the other to get the mold very hot or the kroil treatment might not work so tried that. Got the mold very hot on a hotplate and sprayed it with kroil, let it set on hotplate after wiping off major excess. 15-20 min later no liquid residue left, wiped cavities with q-tips and started casting, bullets were slightly less wrinkly but still not anything anyone would keep.

Figured I would give it a real college try so casted about 40-50 more sets with it, again it never stopped giving wrinkly bullets, just got gradually less wrinkly and the less wrinkly they got, the more they stuck again. During this whole time I'm doing everything the same with the lyman (from which the kroil was removed and no new kroil added) and the lyman is casting 90%+ good bullets.
Got sick of wasting time, stopped casting with the rcbs, sprayed kroil on it one more time and let it set while I used other molds all day. At the end of the day gave the rcbs one more try and again it only cast wrinkly bullets. If I have counted right this is at least 5 heat, kroil, cool sessions here with nothing changing for the better.

Let the RCBS mold cool, cleaned out the kroil with denatured alcohol (took many spray, brush, test sessions more for this to get clean than the lyman, soaking probably to blame there as it likely absorbed more kroil). Mold cast fine again, just sticking, so the kroil was definitely the problem.

Took some 1500 grit polishing compound and did the lee-menting abrasive bullet/nut technique (took only about 10 hand turns of the nut) on the rcbs mold and 5 min later it was clean and dropping both bullets without any mallet taps, first 10 drops in a row, should have just done this in the first place.

I'm glad some of you have had success with whatever is working for you with the kroil but I feel like I did a very thorough test here and for my situation with these two common iron molds it just does not work, does only harm and no good.

My recommendation to anyone reading this is that if the kroil doesn't work for you the first time, just stop messing with it and address the root cause of why your bullet is sticking in the mold.

Andy

[Smk SHoe]

I use Kroil on all my lee molds. Starting out casting I wasn't nearly as careful with the molds as now. Couple were pretty beat up and not seasoned as should be. I dipped a q-tip in kroil and hit each cavity, let it soak for a few minutes, and cleaned out the excess with a fresh q-tip. Started dropping bullets as soon as heated up. Will only use it on my expensive molds if I am having problems. Most of my RCBS molds are good and absolutely no problems with my NOE molds.

[Tar Heel]

Having been casting for over 40 years now I have developed routines that work for me well. I always however keep my eyes and ears open for new ideas, methods, and material which makes life easier and more productive when casting.

I always used a light film of motor oil on my steel molds after a casting session to keep them from rusting. Motor oil has worked very well for me and I am still using some RCBS and Lyman molds I purchased decades ago which look like they did when I first used them. I remove the oil film prior to use again with an acid brush and the wonderful M.E.K. which you can still find if you look hard enough for it. I also smoke my molds with a kitchen match prior to use. As usual, after preheating them on the top of the casting pot, they would start throwing usable bullets in about 6-10 casts.

I had read on this site about the use of Kano Kroil as a rust preventative for storage and how molds treated with a light post use film threw better bullets faster on the next casting session. I am reporting that this is balls-on correct. I have used Kroil on my steel molds for three casting sessions now and can actually say that on this latest session while casting with my RCBS and Lyman 38 caliber molds, they threw perfect bullets on the first, I repeat first, cast.

I apply the oil in a light film after casting and while the molds are still warm – not hot – warm. I rub it in with my fingers and use a Q-Tip to get a film in the bullet cavity. Before use, I use the MEK as always to remove the oil and smoke the molds as usual. I have had the bullets simply drop out before with this method but now they are perfect on the first throw and no subsequent smoking is needed to cast 30 pounds of bullets. The stuff really does treat the mold somehow.

Prior to using the Kroil, I would need to throw 10 casts before the bullets filled out properly and would have to re-smoke the cavities several times per casting session. Now I don’t.

I don’t know how it does it but the stuff works. This isn’t meant to be a commercial for Kroil but is meant to enlighten other old curmudgeons on here to try something new that actually works.

Has anyone used Kroil on Aluminum or Brass molds with similar results?

[iplaywithnoshoes]

Most oils should work to preserve the life and usability of molds. I had leftover candle wax inside the Lee cavity one time and started casting right away. The first few bullet were wrinkled (cold mold) then cast just fine and quite consistently thereafter. I tried storing with CLP as well, wiping only the mold closing surfaces and kept the cavities wet. No issues with leftover film gumming or affecting casting dimensions. The bullets dropped noticeably better. It's likely that an oil with a fairly low flash point and minimal residue from high heat will work just fine for casting without wiping the mold cavities. Beeswax on the other hand is horrific on the mold surfaces.

shoe

[Wincacher]

Having been casting for over 40 years now I have developed routines that work for me well. I always however keep my eyes and ears open for new ideas, methods, and material which makes life easier and more productive when casting.


I had read on this site about the use of Kano Kroil as a rust preventative for storage and how molds treated with a light post use film threw better bullets faster on the next casting session. I am reporting that this is balls-on correct. I have used Kroil on my steel molds for three casting sessions now and can actually say that on this latest session while casting with my RCBS and Lyman 38 caliber molds, they threw perfect bullets on the first, I repeat first, cast.

Prior to using the Kroil, I would need to throw 10 casts before the bullets filled out properly and would have to re-smoke the cavities several times per casting session. Now I don’t.

I don’t know how it does it but the stuff works. This isn’t meant to be a commercial for Kroil but is meant to enlighten other old curmudgeons on here to try something new that actually works.

Has anyone used Kroil on Aluminum or Brass molds with similar results?

Wish I had known about this before I left Ohio 38 years ago. BTW, back then I cleaned oily molds with brake parts cleaner and usually good good casts as soon as the mold was hot.

To brag a little: I now live in central New Mexico where the humidity averages around 10%. Haven't used anything on my molds for nearly 40 years and all my old steel molds from Ohio are still in line-new condition, save for some blue coloring from repeated heating.