Problems with NOE mold

[hogstad7]

What is this and how to get rid of it?


Looks worse on pictures than in real life.

[square butte]

Contact Al at NOE for the answers to your questions

[fryboy]

hard to tell after i zoomed in looks like a cutting oil stain ?? if so clean it again and warm up the mold a couple more times , a cutting oil residue will indeed leave the castings looking like the ones in the foto , ajax works if you do not scrub it aggressively but it also takes away the "shine" of the aluminum , aggressive scrubbing can actually lap the mould ( is what i use in fact to lap ones that need it )

[hogstad7]

I have cleaned it several times with hot water and soap.

[Springfield]

Mould is a tad too cold. Cast a bit faster and see how it goes. Personally I think all this cleaning a mould is way overdone. Just cast with the thing, all the oil WILL burn out of there. I have cast LEE and Mihec molds without cleaning at all and they all eventually cast fine bullets. You generally just don't get great bullets until the mould has done at least 200 bullets, in my experience.

[georgerkahn]

I concur with Springfield re temperature. I have several NOE brass moulds, and the two "tricks" to eliminate what you're getting -- I have had very similar -- were to pre-heat my moulds on a GE hotplate (PID controlled) to 360*, and to set the PID for my RCBS Pro-Melt bottom pour pot to 810*! Wowsers, this seems too warm for both; I'd expect frosted boolits if someone offered this "solution" to me! However, I suggest you crank up the heat and try casting a few; mine look great and shoot well. A worse case situation, if yours get frosty, is you can throw them back in the pot. Re cleaning moulds, NOE recommendations on their site simply suggest using a tooth-brush and soap in warm water. It works for me, and I hope you find a solution, should this not work. But, again,I'm pretty confident if you just increase your temps -- the defects will disappear.
You may wish to read Mr. Nelson's words on his site, at: http://noebulletmolds.com/smf/index.php?topic=2.0
BEST!
george

[Tackleberry41]

Its just getting the temps right. I have an NOE mold, used to curse it. Got alot of bullets w the little wrinkle in them, inconsistent weights. Once I got the temp right it casts beautiful bullets.

[John Boy]

Hog - bring the pot & mold temperature up so that after a 5 second pour ... the sprue puddle frosts in 5 seconds = Nice Bullets

[1johnlb]

Looking at the bullets, it looks like a cold mold as already stated, but looking at the pictures of the mold, looks like lead oxide build up in the cavities. Is the picture just deceiving or is that lead oxide stuck to the cavities?

[hogstad7]

Yes there is something stuck in the cavities.

Mold is preheated and sprue solidifies at 4-5 seconds with 700 degree coww.

[bdicki]

Google brass mold tinning.

[oldblinddog]

Get the mold and the melt HOT! as stated above. My NOE molds do the same unless I run the hot plate and the pot on High!







I hate aluminum molds!

[hogstad7]

A hotter mold did the trick!
Slightly frosted and perfect, filled out bullets.
Appreciate the help folks.

[TXGunNut]

Congrats, look great to me! Sometimes a mould needs one more heat cycle or a little tweak of the mould or pour temp.

[stubert]

My new brass NOE mold likes to run at 475 deg. using the probe, with the lead at 750.

[pjames32]

Took me a few tries with my first NOE mold. Higher temps mold and faster pace cured my problem. The NOE molds are great, just a learning curve for an old guy used to Lyman molds.
PJ

[typz2slo]

Just ran my first NOE mold. Found out that it likes to run way hotter than even my Lee molds. Mine was making the same wrinkles. I even shut down and let it cool and did a good scrub and that still didnt help. I kept raising the temp on my PID until it started frosting and then it made good boolits but they didnt drop free. I may have to do a little cavity polishing with comet before I use it again.

[dragon813gt]

Your cadence is off if the bullets aren't dropping free on their own. Hard to say if you need to speed up or slow down to fix the issue since I'm not doing the casting. All of my NOE molds drop the bullets w/ ease. It's just a matter of figuring out the timing. If it was a MP mold that's a different story because some of them are just a bear to dial in.

[oger]

The mold needs to be hotter. I put my alum. molds in a toaster oven at max temp to pre-heat and the lead in the pot is at 800deg. With alum. molds there is a definite learning curve that will drive you crazy until you figure it out.

[mac266]

I'm glad I kept reading. I was going to agree that temperature was your problem. Then you posted an update that said I was right I'm glad you got it running!