Missing Vent Lines

[ranger391xt]

I bought this mold a couple years ago shortly after I got into casting. The price was right so I couldn't pass it up. When I got it out recently to use I noticed for the first time it doesn't have any vent lines. Anyone else ever seen one like this? It is an Ideal mold and besides the 358311 number it also has the number 612 stamped in the lower right corner on the outside of each block.



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[country gent]

I have seen moulds with out vent lines. I really suggest you cast some with it before worrying about it to much. Most cast fine as is. If you have to have the vent lines a small square and carbide scribe will cut them in cut from cavities out to edges of blocks so as not to raisea burr in the cavities. .003-.004 on a side is all thats needed.

[MT Gianni]

I forget when Lyman added vent lines to the Ideal mold line. It was a short window before the went to the Lyman brand so an Ideal with vent lines is harder to find than one without them.

[catskinner]

I have several Ideal and Winchester molds without vent lines and have never needed to add any vent lines. Try ir before you alter it.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

It is quite hard to get two plane surfaces to mate together, especially after endless cycles of heating and cooling, well enough to give less of an escape route for air than those vent lines. I'd be very surprised if it doesn't work fine.

[Moonie]

I have a 280412 134gr 270 Ideal mold with no vent lines, makes beautiful boolits.

[RU shooter]

My best casting mould is a old flat face ideal 358315 fills out great and bullets just fall right out when you open it up .

[gwpercle]

I have two of the old Ideal moulds a #358431 and a #358432 , no vent lines on the flat faces but they cast and fill out just fine. I remember reading how balky casting moulds would be vented by the owner with an awl and scratching your own vent line in the face from the trouble spot to the outside edge....sounds like a good way for someone like me to ruin a mould.
Gary

[TCFAN]

I have a Ideal 225438 2 cavity mold with out vent lines and it cast very well.I have been told that Lyman introduced 2 cavity molds and vent lines in 1949.If that is true then it would seem to me that any 2 cavity mold with out vent lines was made in or around 1949.