mold lube?

[45fan]

what is the purpose of putting lube on your molds? I see you are to put it on your hinge points, alignment pins and sprue plate. Particularly baffling to me is why on the sprue plate. I have a couple Lee 6 cavity molds and finally cast a few boolits out of each mold last weekend my first attempt. I can see i didnt have my molds hot enough when I filled them and will correct that next time i cast. But i didnt lube my molds am i setting myself up for some type of failure by NOT lubing my molds?

Sorry about the newbie question i am sure it has been answered in the past.

[geargnasher]

The sprue plate is the MOST important place to lubricate on most moulds. The Lee Two-cavity moulds benefit particularly from keeping the vertical alignment pins lubricated as this aids a rather shaky alignment design. When you get your moulds hot enough for good casting you will start to get lead smears on the top of the blocks and the underside of the sprue plate which can lead to galling of the metal surfaces, scratches, gouges, and eventually keep the sprue plate from sitting flat on the blocks. Using a full-synthetic two-stroke engine oil keeps the metal from galling and enables you to simply wipe away the lead smears with a dry cotton cloth when the mould is hot.

For instructions on how to use it, go to the boolit lube sub-forum and find the sticky on mould lubrication.

{edit} scratch that, the mods moved it here to the mould sub-forum where it should be, I think there was some discussion about it. Anyway the sticky is above, or follow the link here: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=137982

Gear

[45fan]

Thanx for the info Gear, I will follow this link and check out that sticky too I appreciate it!

[GP100man]

PM RandyRat for lube needs , Good feller !!!