Love/hate mold

[BCall]

Ever have a love/hate relationship with a boolit/mold combo? I can say I most definately do. I have 2 RG4 molds from NOE. One is his 32 Keith, the other is his 313640, a 115 gr RF 32 caliber. The Keith one has been very good, and I have had no trouble with it to speak of. It casts easily and gives me good boolits.

That 313640 though. Wow does it frustrate me. I am seriously considering sending it to Erik for a insert bar conversion, but I'm not totally sure how much I like the boolit. I really like the massive HP cavity, but it has been VERY tough to get complete fillout. And I like the design, but I wish it only had one crimp groove instead of 3.

These were some of the few I didn't cull today. And I got Lathesmith to whip me up a .314 die for my new to me Meepos sizer. It works great, just wish I would have had more good ones to size.
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh259/blcall/SN852053.jpg

[nanuk]

is the trouble with the Pins? or the mould overall?

have you tried it with flat pins to make a solid?

[jmsj]

BCall,
Those look great.
How hot are you running your mold and melt?
On my Miha 359640 I have to run the mold and melt pretty hot. I don't have my notes w/ me so I can't tell you how hot I run the melt but I know that they are frosty.
Like you, I think I would like one crimp groove instead of three. There is a fine line between getting good fillout on the HP cavity/ nose and losing detail on the crimp grooves (on my 359640).
I was looking at the 313640 for my 32 H&R when it was a GB but did not have the funds to get in the buy. PM me if you get too frustrated w/ this mold
Good luck, jmsj

[nwilson1024]

Interesting design for sure. It looks cool with the 3 groves but I can see why your having trouble getting it to fill out completely. As mentioned above I also have a Miha mold but it’s .452 acp. I can tell you that I run my melt at 700-725 deg.F. (measured with a RCBS thermometer) and I get good fill out after the mold heats up.
Recently I have been having trouble with the sprue plate pulling away from the top of the mold. When I loosen the screw it flattens back out to the top of the mold. So I have been casting with a loose sprue plate hahah. I love the mold to much to stop casting with it but end up re-melting way to many because of the loose plate which gets frustrating but I love the boolits to much to stop casting with it.

[BCall]

I't pretty much just those pins nanuk. I haven't cast as solids. I'm sure it would do fine as a solid, but I bought it to cast HP's, and I doubt I will ever use the solid pins. jsmj has it pretty much right. I'm having to cast with the lead over 750 and the mold pretty hot so I can get the nose to fill out. If I get the mold any hotter, the crimp grooves get too frosty and don't fill out.

When Al offered a smaller set of pins for this mold, I bought one set and they are easier to get fill out with. But I'm hard headed and I want to use the bigger pins. They probably don't make two cents worth of difference, but I do like that big HP and they sure can make a mess out of a starling if I can hit it.

[zuke]

Add more tin to your alloy and get it hotter.
I have a 4 cavity NOE 45 cal,330 HPGC I run at 820 for complete consistant fill.