Success with NOE 311299 finally!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Well today I finally got my new NOE 311299 2 cav to produce the perfect bullets I knew it was capible of with strait wheel weight material.

This mould has given me fits for the last 2 weeks thru the pre breakin heat cycling, and thru 5,,,, yes 5, casting sessions with 95% scrap.

The problem has been wrinkles and poor fill out.

The cure was to run the mould preheat to about 90% of what my Proctor Silex hot plate will do, and run the lead temp to 800 F.

I had moved up in temp in 25* increments to 775F and had a few perfect boolits.

At 800F I get 85-90% perfect boolits. When the mould has just come off the hot plate the boolits drop clean and super shiney and then turn heavily frosted while cooling. After about 5 fills the boolits are not frosting as much, and I am still getting perfect fill out and no minute wrinkles.

These boolits are super soft. But now that I have found the right temp I will start water dropping them tomarrow.

I know a little tin in the mix will help but since I don't have any it is mute.

Now as for measurements. When I was trying to get lower temps to work it was dropping boolits at .2998 on the nose and .311 in the driving bands, however they were not complete drops,,,

Increasing the temp to 800F made them smaller due to mould expansion, and these are coming out mostly .299 on the bore rider section except for one spot just next to the parting line which is .298, and the driving bands are .310/.309 in the same places as the front section. This may be due to the machining process or maybe mould warpage which unfortunately in this case was unaviodable, however both holes produce the same measurements in the same places so I am inclined to rule out warpage.

If this condition persists I will lap the cavities.

I have about 60 good ones right now and will make some with water cooling tomarrow, and then try backing the temps down.

All of this might just be atributable to mould break in too, as I have seen other moulds I own start making really nice boolits after lengthy breakin cycles.

One thing is for sure. This mould is making better quality boolits, that are closer to what I want size wise, than my Lyman 311299 ever did.

Merry Christmas!

Randy

[longbow]

I found much the same with my 316299 so made sure I pre-heated well and ran lead hotter than usual and got great boolits right on spec out of range scrap.

I didn't have any noticeable "break in" period, just had to run things hot and cast fast to keep mould temp up. In fact that is probably the most critical issue is to keep the mould good an hot by casting at a good steady pace. Once going I found I could turn my heat down.

I usually keep lead and mould hot enough to slightly frost as I do not normally add tin to wheelweigts or range scrap.

I have two NOE moulds and both make very nice boolits.

Merry Christmas!

Longbow

[seagiant]

Hi Randy,
As you might remember I got a mold off of the same GB except mine is a 316299 for my MN rifle. When I got the mold I did the recommended heat cycling in my toaster oven as per Swede"s directions. I cleaned the mold with degreaser and then preheated on MY Proctor Silex hot plate.

When I started casting I got a little aggravated as I kept getting wrinkled boolits even though the mold was hot as it should be. I kept casting with a little faith and after about 50 boolits they started coming out perfect. I also used Bull plate which I find helps the base of the boolit among other things. I have had no trouble since then using this mold and I cast with a pot temp of 775
degrees!

Another thing is that the Hornady gas checks just snap right on! Here is a pic from my crummy little camera to show color/frosting if nothing else!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Yeah Greg: Mine came out pretty frosted when they were coming out good. The long boolits just have to run that way in order to get filled before the nose starts to solidify. Unless there is some pressure on the mould from the sprue while the entire boolit is still molten they won't fill out completely.

Funny thing about the frosting. I had several that were really frosted. Under a magnifier they looked like Galvanizing. The stuff just wipes off with a paper towel. Also it should be known that those nice pretty boolits that everybody makes that are so shiney have been rubbed with a rag or paper towel to make them shiney before the picture is taken.

I'm doing one right now!

Randy

[Beau Cassidy]

10 to 1 says if you break out the ladle you will have good bullets without the trouble. That has always worked for me when nothing else would.