Can This Mold Be Saved?

[BigRix]

I took the plunge and am bought this Lyman 429421 out of an add on another forum. It comes with handles so I figure at the very least I can use them if this mold does not pan out.

This is the only picture I have as I haven't gotten it in the mail yet.

http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss208/BigRix/LYMANMOLDS-2-1-1.jpg

Just wanted your thoughts on if I can save the rusty cavity. Maybe save the other one and have it hollow pointed? What has been your experience on resurrecting rusty molds?

[GRUMPA]

Well if it were me I would take my lapping stones to the faces and get those all cleaned up (VERY litely). Then clean clean the rest with an alcohol rub, then cast out about 4 per cavity. Then a LEE-Menting process (using comet) of spinning the cast boolits in the cavity in which they came out of to clean them up. Then a liberal washing, and see what I have after that. If all worked well it should be good to go.

[JDFuchs]

It looks like you have a good chance of that turning it back into an all but new mold without the risk of damaging the mold. I would not even touch it at first other then some blueing/rust remover to pull out all of the corrosion. Check that the two faces are still flat and meet together well, same with the spur plate. Then give it a try with a quick casting session. Sizing afterwords will also get rid of a lot of minor imperfections.

If it proves to be so badly pitted that it dose not drop well or the finished boolits are to ugly to use then look at all the lapping suggestions given.

[-06]

Would soak them well in some oil(diesel fuel) for a couple days or more first. That should soften the rust enough to be easily removed. Like the idea of spinning the boolits in the mold.

[Wally]

Coat with Kroil or penetrating oil then wipe off and use fine steel wool to polish. Do this a few times them clean with Carb cleaner & cast with it to see how well the bullets cast from it. If no deep pits, it will be just fine.

If bullets stick in the cavities...let it cool down--make a plug of 00 steel wool and insert in the cavity (one at a time) with the blocks closed--spin it in a drill.....does wonders...guess how I know?

[dragonrider]

That mold has cerrtainly sat around some but I don't think it has seen much use. If you look at the locating pin holes they still appear to have very good edges, that is not beat up from repeated closings. The cavity edges are also good and sharp looking. A good cleaning and some lapping and I believe you will get good boolits from it.

[LEADHOPPER]

If you would like, I have a chemical that I can soak it in and it will look like new as far as the rust goes. I used it on a cast iron carb for my tractor and could not believe the results. PM me if you are interested. I have tried to purchase the chemical for myself, but can only get it in a 5 gal pail. I got the rust remover from the shop that I work at, we use it to refurb some the angle and plates on assembly jigs when we rework them.

[EDK]

Do a search on EVAPORUST...good stuff...available at various auto parts stores. Do a little comparison pricing for places in your area. It will clean up surface rust with an overnight soaking. Since you don't have the mould in your hands yet, you may find this is all it needs.

If it needs more work, then I'd get some CLOVER lapping compound in one of the finer grits and clean/lap the cavities. Avoid the power drill for your first attempts. This is one activity that really requires a finer touch and some discretion.

[GP100man]

After all is cleaned up & ya have pit that ya wanna fill clean it again & put a liberal coating of mold drop out spray in the cavitys ,then carefully lap the cavitys to remove excess drop out .

I do the final lapping with a boolit only .

[mooman76]

It is salvageable. Probably won't be as good as new but certainly could make decent boolits. I'd clean the rust off and lap it.

[Glen]

Clean it and try casting with it. I've got an old Winchester mould that looks MUCH worse than your mould, and it casts good accurate bullets. They are a little rough, but they drop from the mould just fine, and they shoot very well indeed.

If you want to clean your mould up, you can lap it lightly with some 600 grit lapping compound (I like SiC) and it should clean right up.

[MT Gianni]

I would go over the entire rusted part with a #2 pencil, first with the lead/graphite then with it broken and using the wood to burnish it. It should clean up most of the rust without removing anything else.
Follow Glens advice first.

[10x]

Clean it and try casting with it. I've got an old Winchester mould that looks MUCH worse than your mould, and it casts good accurate bullets. They are a little rough, but they drop from the mould just fine, and they shoot very well indeed.

If you want to clean your mould up, you can lap it lightly with some 600 grit lapping compound (I like SiC) and it should clean right up.

I would use steel wool first.
I have cleaned up molds that looked far worse than that and they have cast descent bullets.

[MikeS]

+1 on the Evapo-rust. That stuff is amazing! I just bought a mould much rustier than yours and in just a few hours of soaking (with no effort from me) and the mould is rust free! I got it in the mail today, and it's heating up on the hot plate as I type this.

-Mike

[Shiloh]

I took the plunge and am bought this Lyman 429421 out of an add on another forum. It comes with handles so I figure at the very least I can use them if this mold does not pan out.

This is the only picture I have as I haven't gotten it in the mail yet.

http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss208/BigRix/LYMANMOLDS-2-1-1.jpg

Just wanted your thoughts on if I can save the rusty cavity. Maybe save the other one and have it hollow pointed? What has been your experience on resurrecting rusty molds?

Is this the one on E-BAY?? From last week?? IF so I passed on it.

Shiloh

[BigRix]

No I picked it up over at the Smith and Wesson forums.

[shdwlkr]

big Rix
I would pm me and I will take it off your hands and save you the heart ache of learning that some molds just need extra care. ha ha
Yes it looks like you will end up with a serviceable mold. Seriously if it really is bothering you send it to me I like challenges

[imashooter2]

A perfect candidate for electrolytic rust removal:

http://www.smex.net.au/Reference/RustRemoval02.htm

A quick and easy set up I have used several times:

http://home.comcast.net/~imashooter2/pictures/ERR-out.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~imashooter2/pictures/ERR-in.jpg

The trickle charger shown works over 24 - 48 hours on heavily rusted items, faster on light rust. A 10 amp charger does the same heavily rusted stuff overnight. The higher the amperage on the charger the faster it works, but the wires will need to be larger and the solution boils off so needs to be watched. Use a big enough container.

Washing soda in water is the preferred solution, but baking soda works in a pinch. A couple tablespoons to the gallon is good.

[cdet69]

imashooter, How does this system work? Where do you get washing soda and where do you place the mould iin the bucket?

[MikeS]

You can get washing soda in most grocery stores. Look in the isle that has laundry products, it'll be in a yellow Arm & Hammer box that says 'Washing Soda'. Easy enough. But if it were me, I would go with Evapo-rust before going thru the hassle of setting up an electrolytic rust remover. It works as well or better, and is easy, just put the mould (or other parts to be de-rusted) into a container, pour in the evapo-rust so it covers the part(s) and let it soak overnight. In the morning you will have a part with no rust on it. One word of caution, if you're using it on anything that's blued, it will remove the blueing as well.

[imashooter2]

imashooter, How does this system work? Where do you get washing soda and where do you place the mould iin the bucket?


The picture shows a mold block hung from the bailing wire just as it would be for actual use, about two inches off the bottom.. The anode is just a piece of carbon steel sheet metal "drop off" from a local shop's shear. Rebar is cheap, available and works just as well. In practice, I fill the bucket half way with water, throw in a couple rounded spoons of washing soda (supermarket laundry aisle) stir it up, add the anode, place the article to be cleaned and plug in the charger.

It works by electrochemically removing the oxygen atoms from the iron oxide (rust) and reducing it to iron. Note that this is not putting iron back on the part. If there is pitting, the process only removes the rust from the pits.

Be careful of the power hook up! Positive goes to the anode, negative goes to the part.

[BigRix]

Well the mold showed up in the mail a couple of days ago and it looked pretty rusty.

http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss208/BigRix/Casting/b057c683.jpg

http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss208/BigRix/Casting/b899df05.jpg

I started off by casting some hot glue bullets and the rust was sticking to them and coming out of the mold pretty well.

http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss208/BigRix/Casting/1dc40008.jpg

I then saw the thread about Evapo-Rust and noticed the suggestions to use it in this thread. All I can say is wow. That stuff is magic.

I wished I had shot some pics when it first came out of the dip. "In the white" is a perfect description. The color came right back after I started casting.

http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss208/BigRix/Casting/11f25709.jpg

http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss208/BigRix/Casting/66ce1656.jpg

And the bullets looked "OK". They will do just fine for the shooting I do.

http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss208/BigRix/Casting/cfd7b326.jpg

I was casting them alongside my other 429421 with flat bottom grease groove. These round bottom grease groove boolits drop SO much easier that the other. If they shoot well I might just use this thing exclusively.

I think this mold may have seen little if any use before it was left to rust. It will see some use now to be sure.

[imashooter2]

Looks perfectly usable to me. The Evaporust did a nice job.

[BigRix]

New problem now.

Started sizing the boolits I cast this morning to .430 and my other 429421's work well as always. Run a few of the ones cast with this mold through and it starts pushing lube past the second driving band. Tried a few more and same problem. Dig out the micrometer and find the second driving band is .429 and the front band is .425.

Now the question begs, try and fix it myself? Send it out for professional help? Or stop throwing good money(and time) after bad and write this one off?

I knew I was buying a project mold but wasn't expecting this. My hope was to have it hollow pointed down the road. Does anyone do hollow pointing and opening up driving bands?

[jameslovesjammie]

Does anyone do hollow pointing and opening up driving bands?

Erik at hollowpointmold.com does both. Take out your pocketbook but he does some darn fine work from what I've seen on here.

[CWME]

Maybe it is the photos but it looks like your examples are not filled out on the front driving band. If I were casting those I would speed up my cadence a little to get some more heat into the mold.
It may not be the issue here but that is what I see. That evaporust looks like it is the thing for this type of restoration. Nice work

[BigRix]

I see what your saying about the fill out. I'll give her another go before I condemn it.

[BigRix]

I think the question of whether this rusty mold could be saved has been a resounding YES.

http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss208/BigRix/Casting/2d2bfb7b.jpg

The question now is, was it worth it?
I cast this mold last night by itself and got it nice and hot. Started dropping very nicely filled out driving bands and I was happy.
http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss208/BigRix/Casting/5558d50a.jpg
Then after they cooled I measured them.

Top Band .425-.4255
Middle Band .4285-.429
Bottom Band .4295-.430

My research indicates that the "Improved" Lyman 429421 had a reduced front driving band size to improve loading in a fouled chamber. But that does not explain the second driving band.

Maybe I will try and beagle this mold and give it another go. Maybe I will tumble lube them and load them un sized.

Any sage advice for a newby caster? Am I just spoiled with my first 429421 that had a flat bottom lube groove and three full size driving bands?

/frustration

[CWME]

Well you have gone this far with it, why not load some up and let em go bang. At least see how they shoot so you are not always wondering what could have been.

You stated that these drop better from the mold than the other one. If they shoot ok and cast nice I would use it instead of a sticky mold.

My 2 cents.

Really impessed with how well that cleaned up. I will say it again, nice work!