My 4 cavity 452374 is casting small

[chaos]

I just purchased a brand spankin new 452374 4 banger to cover my 1911 needs. Slugs appear to be out of round a bit anywhere from .4505 to .4525


I am running these through a .452 sizer and it just barely skims the edges on a spot or two.

This is my first 4 cavity mould. Am I doing something wrong or is this thing just bad?

Using WW's water dropped for the convience of being able to slam out rounds and not worry about dings.

I have not shot these yet. Javelina 50/50. Reckon I am fixin to lead up some guns? I didn't bother slugging the bores as I have a few 1911's and was just going to run .452's and forget about it.

will Lyman make this right if I have to have larger slugs?

Chaos

[fecmech]

This is one of Lyman's new tricks, I think they are running their cherries too long and cutting small cavities. I had the same problem with my 452374 4 cavity mold. I called Lyman and they said to send it in which I never did. I just "Beagled" the mold and it works fine that way but I'm probably screwing myself if I ever want to sell it. Give them a call and see what they say, the mold is not right if it casts small.

[bullshot]

Just received an email from Lyman concerning the same problem. Casting too small and out of round. They said all of their molds are designed to be cast with Lyman's #2 alloy. If, for example ww's are used they will cast smaller. They didn't respond to the out of round other to say send the mold back and they would see what the problem was, but it would be a charged repair and nothing would be done without approval from the customer.

[gray wolf]

Mine also cast small, Bottom band is ok at .453 but the top just ahead of the lube groove is .450 an one side and .451 on the other. So all I can get to .452 is the bottom drive band.
Mine is a two banger.
Thats why I went for the Mi hec 45 acp in the hollow point. From the pictures I have seen
below and above looks like it will size like a #68 SWC--I hope so.

[chaos]

I will contact them in the morning. For $75 worth of a brand new mould, I dont have much patience.

I just cast a pile more, this time with the sacred #2 alloy (that I mixed up once and will never use) and the results are virtually identical. Out of round. Gets skinny as you go up ( which I hadn't previously noticed) and only slightly drags the .452 sizer in very few spots which are always on the parting line.

Repair CHARGE? That aint gonna happen. I'll donate it back to them if that's the case and take my business elsewhere.

Its bad enough that I'll have to eat shipping.



I keep reading that this is a common problem with current production moulds. Guess I should have done my homework before plunkin down the cash.

Who knows, maybe they will take care of me.

Chaos

[HangFireW8]

I just purchased a brand spankin new 452374 4 banger to cover my 1911 needs. Slugs appear to be out of round a bit anywhere from .4505 to .4525

I had a problem with a brand new Lyman 311041 mold, mold halves were slightly misaligned and casting right at .308. This may have been great for some rifles but the object of my affectations has a .310" bore.

I sent it back to Lyman and they lapped it out to .311" and fixed the misalignment, cost me only shipping to them, and they had it back to me in about 3 weeks. With my alloy is casts at .310 to .3105 which is plenty good enough for me.

-HF

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Lyman quality control has gone downhill. You should not have to cast with Lyman #2 to get it to work correctly. That is a "cop out" answer and rationalization at its finest. Send the mold back to them and have them correct the situation. You could also lap the mold which would work, but I would suggest doing some search work first on the forum as other members have done that and written extensively on mode and method used. Another choice would be the beagling method. LLS

[johnvid]

I just had the same problem with the same mould. After waisting my time on the first run of 200 boolits, I figured that they were specifying #2 alloy. I ran another 100 with #2 alloy and cast just under 700 degrees. I did get them to fill out another .002.
I did not have a problem with out of round, but the diameter just before the lube groove was too narrow. The sizer barely touched the boolit just ahead of the lube groove even with #2.
If Mihec has a mould in the caliber I need, I'll spend my money with him.

[HangFireW8]

This is one of Lyman's new tricks, I think they are running their cherries too long and cutting small cavities. I had the same problem with my 452374 4 cavity mold. I called Lyman and they said to send it in which I never did. I just "Beagled" the mold and it works fine that way but I'm probably screwing myself if I ever want to sell it. Give them a call and see what they say, the mold is not right if it casts small.

If it is out of round and some are coming out at .452+ I don't think the cherries are the problem. It sounds like insufficient boolit fillout to me.

Lyman has a stated policy to make molds at nominal bore size. This is after NRA research by CE Harrison in the 1960's found out that each .001" of sizing beyond .0005" cost about 1MOA in accuracy. Of course, we know a little more now, that floating the top punch decreases this problem. He and Phil Sharpe already knew that making boolits .003" oversize was needless.

Making cast boolits in nominal bore size is great, except my bores are not all nominal size. I have an new condition FN .30-06 that is exactly, precisely, and consistently, from stem to stern, 0.3100" wide in the grooves. Selling me a .3085" mold is not going to help me much. The same goes for .323" molds for my more-or-less, mostly more, .325" 8mm Turk.

-HF