can this be saved,,?

[adrians]

hi, i bought this mold of e-bay ( some may have seen it ) i knew it was in this condition so no deception was involved.
my question is: can that left side be saved, maybe re-cut or is it toast and i have a single cavity ?.
which doesn't really bother me anyway .
thanks,,, :twisted:[smilie=1::evil:

[Ben]

Looks to me like the left side ( as you'd say ) is toast.

The right side isn't ideal, but may make a usable bullet.

Ben

[theperfessor]

Gotta agree with Ben. You could probably clean out or even gently lap out the right side cavity. What caliber is it? Could the left cavity be recut to a larger diameter? Maybe something simple without grease grooves for paper patching? Or just use it as a single cavity.

[Rangefinder]

It looks like it rusted pretty bad and then someone bead-blasted it?? I'd reccommend a good lapping polish on the right side regardless. As to the left... Depending on how deep the pitting is, you may be able to lap it out to a useable boolit, but it will be grossly oversized from the original dimensions. Caliber would be helpful to know.

[stubshaft]

Might be usable, what does the other side look like?

[D Crockett]

I hope you did not pay much for it there is only one way I see that you can get any use out of that mould that is to have a mould maker re cut it to a different cal bullet that is bigger that that bullet other than that looks like you have a papper weight things like this is why I do not buy off e-bay D Crockett

[badgeredd]

hi, i bought this mold of e-bay ( some may have seen it ) i knew it was in this condition so no deception was involved.
my question is: can that left side be saved, maybe re-cut or is it toast and i have a single cavity ?.
which doesn't really bother me anyway .
thanks,,, :twisted:[smilie=1::evil:

I'd try electrolysis to clean it up if it were mine. Bead blasting will probably work too. Often one will find that the boolits from such a mold after its clean up are perfectly usable. I had a 6.5 mold that was similar but cleaned up pretty well and cast decent (maybe not perfect) boolits.

Edd

[MT Gianni]

If it is a 31141 which it resembles you could lap out the left side to a 31641 and see if it cleans up. That might shoot OK in an over sized 303 or other surplus rifle.

[MikeS]

If it still has rust on it, get some Evapo-Rust and give it a soak, that will remove any remaining rust (it also removes bluing with is after all a form of rust). I would say to try it, while it will certainly cast ugly boolits, the driving bands will probably clean up when sized, and it might shoot acceptably. It could surprise you!

[lavenatti]

I agree with MikeS. You bought it, might as well give it a shot.

[adrians]

If it is a 31141 which it resembles you could lap out the left side to a 31641 and see if it cleans up. That might shoot OK in an over sized 303 or other surplus rifle.

sorry fella's ,forgot that part,, yes it's the ideal 31141.
i have done a couple of casts with it and the right side drops "useable" boolits but the left as expected drops rabbit turds ( i knew it would ).
MT Gianni, i have a couple of brits and lapping to the 31641 +/- would be a possibility .
Now i have to go to the lapping stickies and find out how to do this properly,,,, i have nothing to lose do i ?.
have a great day and thanks for all your help on this one guy's:-P

adrians,,:evil::coffee::twisted:

[cajun shooter]

I would say that for the price of a new Lyman or RCBS 2 cavity mould you have a good fishing weight. If you have plenty of time on your hands then you have a one cavity mould.
There are no processes that are worth trying to bring back that left side.

[adrians]

I would say that for the price of a new Lyman or RCBS 2 cavity mould you have a good fishing weight. If you have plenty of time on your hands then you have a one cavity mould.
There are no processes that are worth trying to bring back that left side.

cajun , i already have the Lyman 31141 ,i don;t know why i got this one .
i will play a while with it just to see what can or can't be done, it looks worse on the pic than it really is ,i "navel jellied" the offending cav and the pits are not as deep as expected so who knows a lap or two might work or i may have to get my fishing tackle out and see if the cats are biting:bigsmyl2:
as far as time goes ,i got all the rest of my life ,,,,,:evil::veryconfu:evil:

[6.5 mike]

In either one of the lee-menting stickys or castpics, the author talks about filling pits with a spray on mould release, lapping it, & leaving the pits filled that don't lap out. If you go up to a larger size cavity this may help the cleaning it up. Think it was graphite mould release that was used.

[adrians]

6.5,,,, i will look for that sticky it sounds interesting and another option to try.
thanks man,,:drinks:

[DLCTEX]

6.5 Mike beat me to it. Spray with mould release and then spin a boolit from better side in both cavities.
Edit:
You'll be surprised what you can fill up with Frankford Arsenal mould release. Spin a boolit after each coat, then don't use brake cleaner to clean the mould.

[Reg]

From all appearances, I doubt if it will clean up even at a .320 dia. If it were mine, I think I would try to recut the bad cavity to a .35 caliber or so. Actually to do it right, it needs to be resurfaced on the contacting faces, then recut and if this were done you would have to come up with a cherry but you could go back to the factory size.

[beagle]

Give it a shot, you can't go wrong. I had a SC 311329 that a fellow gave me. One side of the cavity had pits after cleaning but you know that thing shot pretty well for me, pits and all, for a free mould./beagle

[adrians]

well fella's i reckon the offending left side is beyond help,,,,,
ya'll agree? :evil: :violin: :twisted:

[lavenatti]

Maybe it's not beyond help, run some through a sizer. Remember, all the pits make the boolit bigger. The sizer may clean up the bands perfectly. It'll still be ugly but it may shoot ok.

[6.5 mike]

Think I would give lapping it a try, you really don't have anything to loose but a little time & might be surprized what would happen. I have rolled boolits on a file to texture them for pp'ing, your's just came with it bulit-in, [smilie=l:.

[adrians]

well if my grandkids leave me alone long enough this weekend i'll give lapping a try.
what's the best compound to get ,and would my handy dandy Auto-zone store have it by chance ?.

have a good weekend...:twisted::roll::twisted:

[badbob454]

I hope you did not pay much for it there is only one way I see that you can get any use out of that mould that is to have a mould maker re cut it to a different cal bullet that is bigger that that bullet other than that looks like you have a papper weight things like this is why I do not buy off e-bay D Crockett

i saw this and it was fully disclosed that i cavity is bad , on e bay , i might have bid on it too thought i could leement it cast on the good side use the boolit to leement the bad side cast and shoot it , may shoot ok , for blasting probably not good enuf for hunting

[badbob454]

well if my grandkids leave me alone long enough this weekend i'll give lapping a try.
what's the best compound to get ,and would my handy dandy Auto-zone store have it by chance ?.

have a good weekend...:twisted::roll::twisted:

try a( fine ).. valve grinding compound as fine as you can find[smilie=l:

[badbob454]

if you hate it send it to me ................i would shoot worse ... he he

[6.5 mike]

Pour a couple boolits through a 5/16 nut on the good side of the mould. I use a "t" handle & socket to turn bout 15 times each way with a paste of comet & water. Found the "t" handle gave me better control then a drill. Clean up is easier then lapping compound, just rinse with water. If it begins to "feel" loose add a little more paste. After you turn it awhile it will feel loose & spin fairly easy, rinse it & see what you have. This should give you a some idea of this how much damage the cavity has & if it's worth trying to lap the rest out. BTW I use a 1/4" drive handle & socket. Might not be a bad idea to do the other side while your at it.

Another idea may be to open that side up to something that would work in your brits using a "D" profile reamer, I know some here have made their own push out moulds this way. Search should bring up these. They come out looking like a smooth sided paper patch boolit. Check 303 Guys posts, I'm sure he does this.

If you decide you don't want to fight with it, give me a shout, I'm looking for a doner to try something. Have fun[smilie=1:.

[mroliver77]

I would lap it some, clean, cast a few more and use them to lap with. After you do that I would Beagle it a touch and use them to lap after removing the Beagling spacer tape. You might try shooting a few of them uglies for giggles compared to the "nice" side boolits. The rear of the boolit is the most important.

Just fine valve lapping compound will work. If it is too expensive or you can't find it shoot me pm and I will send you some silicon carbide grit to mix up your own lapping compound.