is it normal to see light through your mold?

[mac1911]

I have a lee TL452 230gn LRN mold. with the sprue plate open and looking into the mold I can see light between the two mold cavities. It looks pretty uniform on each side. The bullets show a bit of a seem but not really leaking into the gap ?
I think the bullets are dropping nicely even though I just noticed this

[Springfield]

Shouldn't really be any light showing, although just a tiny bit doesn't seem to hurt much.

[mooman76]

What Springfield said is correct but I wouldn't worry about it, if you are happy with the boolits. You have air beagling there. Probably just a small little sliver of lead somewhere keeping it from closing all the way. You could also try holding the mould close and tap it with something that won't damage the mould. It will probably jar it enough to close it all the way.

[Catshooter]

The human eye can usually detect a gap of .001 of an inch against a strong light. That's also smaller than lead can flow through, at least at the pressures we cast at.

If you're happy with the boolits, I'd say that's what is most important.


Cat

[Southron Sanders]

With most of my moulds, I can see light between the halves. THIS IS A GOOD THING AS LONG AS LEAD DOESN'T LEAK OUT! This means that the air can clear out of your mould, preventing air bubbles from forming in your bullets!

[zomby woof]

Look for a small burr or piece of lead causing this gap.

[mac1911]

the more I look at it the more it seems on purpose ? it just appears to be very even and its only the space between the 2 cavities ?

[41 mag fan]

Put it on a piece of board thats flat and try closing it. See if that helps. If not check the pins and see if you got some lead on them. I made that mistake once, took me awhile to get the lead melted with a torch and picked off

[Bret4207]

Only when you are wearing those "X-ray glasses" you bought out of the back of that comic book!

[pdawg_shooter]

I have a lee TL452 230gn LRN mold. with the sprue plate open and looking into the mold I can see light between the two mold cavities. It looks pretty uniform on each side. The bullets show a bit of a seem but not really leaking into the gap ?
I think the bullets are dropping nicely even though I just noticed this

No, but light is about all I see when I look in my billfold!

[subsonic]

Measure your boolits with a micrometer on the front and rear driving bands across the parting line and at 90* to the parting line. The measurement you get across the parting line (as long as the parting line isn't very pronounced) will be what diameter your boolits should be. If it's larger at 90* than it is across the parting lines, something is holding the mould open or it's warped and causing the light that you see.

[Sonnypie]

Close your left eye....
Now close your right eye...
The light should be gone.

There, I fixed it.

[canyon-ghost]

You can scrape the mold halves, inside surface clean with a razor knife and see if it helps. If not, you can always tap the pins inward with the appropriate pin punch. Notice I said tap, when they move, it only takes 1/32nd to 1/16th".

I've done that on one mold, but most just need to be scraped clean. Take a look at the vent lines and the areas around the pins.

Ron

[MiHec]

Also you can do "aluminum foil test".

Take a strip of kitchen aluminum foil, put it between halves. If you can pull it out without tearing it - you have gap. If not - it is just "visual" think.

Mostly "gap" is visually muuuuuuch biger than it really is :-P

[cajun shooter]

If you bullets are dropping with out having any fins at the separation lines then you don't have a problem that deserves you taking time time to even think about it. Take the mould apart and lay some 400 or 600 grit sandpaper on a flat hard surface. Very slow and lightly rub the mould across the paper and see if the surface is evenly marked. If it is not, then you have lead or a block that is a little out of square.