Casting flat points from a mihec cramer

[paul h]

So my first casting session with my 359640 had me amazed at how easy it was to make hp bullets. :-D

I figured, man this is such a great looking bullet, I need to cast a batch of them as flatpoints. Well, I had the complete opossite experience. Without the hp pin to pull the bullets from the mold, I had to very vigorously tap the mold with a stick to get the bullets to drop, and couldn't keep the mold hot enough due to the time it took to drop the bullets. I'm fine with the mold as just a hp mold as I'd likely rather have a 4 cavity of the mold in a fp. I'm just wondering if there is some trick to getting the mold to drop fp bullets that I'm missing.

[tomme boy]

Tap the pins just like when it is a HP. So I have been told.

[paul h]

Tried that, the pins move but the bullets stay firmly in the cavity.

I'm wondering if most folks that cast mp cramer molds only cast hp bullets from them.

[L1A1Rocker]

I was doing this just yesterday. I had to rap the hing point of the handles a couple of times to get them to drop. Didn't present a big issue for me. Don't push the pins out though. You'll end up with the pins out causing the bullet to wedge in. I did that once and had to get needle nose pliers to get everything unstuck.

[Iron Mike Golf]

I think it depends on the boolit design. I have run my 2 cav 41 Mag mold with one FP and one HP. THe FP usually fell out upon opening and the HP needed a light tap.

My 2 cav 44 Mag mold (200 gr RNHP) will release FPs easier if I run the mold a little cooler than when I cast HPs.

[Moonie]

I have cast fp's with them, I had the same experience as you. If I need fp's I use a mold with a fp. I keep the HP pins in my Mihec now.

[tomme boy]

I have the 4 cavity non HP mold. I still have to tap on the hinge pin. I had a set with the pins an it was the same as you are doing. Mine are 45 cal ones. I never could get the HP ones to work right for me. Mihec refunded my $ for the molds. I then had a chance to buy a used 4 cavity non HP an I got that. It makes great boolits, but the mold is just finicky.

[Forrest r]

Run your mold hotter & the boolits will fall out when you open the mold. I also had my first casting session with a 359640 mihec today. I ran the mold with 1 solid pin, 1 hp pin & 2 penta pins.

What a wonderfull mold!!!!

I use a hot plate to heat the molds & the 359640 mold took longer to get up to temp than the mihec hg#68 200 mold with flat pins (for solid boolits) did. I cast 20# of the hg #68's then swithed over to the 359640 mold. It took a lot longer to get the 359640 mold up to temp. I'd let it sit on the hotplate for awhile & then try it and the boolits kept sticking on the pins. It finely got hot enough & I cast another 20# of the different styles of the 359640 boolits for testing.

[Mal Paso]

Miha makes the best molds but some boolit designs are sticky. Hand Lapping with 600 grit Diamond or Carbide made a huge difference for me (#503). No more tapping to open and just a tap to dislodge stragglers. Arrowhead Lapidary sells small quantities of either. Clover compound is carbide but the smallest quantity I found was a pound.

[HiVelocity]

I'm guessing that you haven't found that "sweet spot". Every mold is different, or tempermental.

I, like most of us, didn't read the directions when I first got my mold. I just started pouring. That doesn't work well at all. Back to the drawing board and read the directions. Cleaning the mold is paramount. Afer its clean, I smoke the cavities and the HP pins. Some folks don't care for this process, I do because it works for me. Heating to the correct temp is also paramount to good bullets that fill out and drop easilly. I leave the mold on my casting furnace for an hour before trying to cast.

I just finished casting about 150 NOE 360477-HP bullets and its one mold that will let you know when its reached the "correct" temperature. These HP's simply fall out almost without effort.

[40Super]

I have to really beat on mine to get the bullets to fall out. I did do a light deburing with a hone and it helped. High,high heat makes them fall out pretty good, but like has been said, just the time it takes to get the bullets out and reset the pins,close the mold up good(making sure no lead shavings got in) and the mold is already getting to cold.I'm not totaly sold on brass.Switching over to one of my steel or even Aluminum molds and the fun comes back.

[Forrest r]

I guess I’m at the other end of the spectrum, I really like these brass molds. I’ve cast for years with aluminum & steal molds & the brass seem to have their own set of rules. I know “You need to run the mold hot” is a generic term that really isn’t much help. I have/own 3 different brass molds now including the same one the op wrote about. I was able to cast bullets in mine with it setup with 1 fp pin, 1 hp pin & 2 penta point pins at the same time with no problems.

I use a hot plate to preheat my molds & the hot plate has settings that are #’d 1 thru 5. With aluminum molds I would set the hot plate just over 3 & let them warm up for 20 minutes or so. I would heat the aluminum molds hot enough so that the lead would puddle on the sprue plate & take awhile for it to solidify. That allowed me to slowly cool the mold down to where I had a comfortable cadence for casting. (I got 1 speed, low gear & a lot of whining.) The steal molds I’d do the same thing with but I would have to set the temperature on the hot plate to just below 4. Again, I’d get the mold too hot & let it cool/settle in to a temperature that I could use. For some reason with these brass molds I have to turn the hot plate up to 4 ½ to get them up to a temperature where the lead puddles & takes awhile to solidify. With any of these different molds, if the lead didn’t puddle on the spue plate. I’d put the molds back on the hot plate & heat them some more until they did. I know every hot plate is different but this will give you an idea of the heat I use for the different molds.

I’m not very scientific with my metal/alloys that I cast with. It’s nothing more than range lead/hill picking and a roll of solder. I use a cheap lee 10# pot to cast with & a propane turkey cooker base with a pot that holds 30+ pounds of lead. I get the mold preheating, get the lee pot up to temperature & get the lead on the turkey cooker melting. I use a ladle to refill the lee pot as it gets low from the lead on the turkey cooker. I keep the lead from the turkey cooker hotter than the lead I’m using in the lee pot. It only take 15 to 20 seconds to refill the lee pot this way & allows me to keep casting. Every time I fill the lee pot I put in a 12” long piece of the 50/50 solder. I’ll slow my casting cadence down a little until the lead refill drops in temp (lee pot comes on to heat the lead) to match what the lee pot is set for. These are relative #’s but they work for me & will give you an idea of what I’m doing to cast/get good bullets with brass molds without any problems.
I set my lee pot to 5 to cast with aluminum molds, if I need more heat I’ll bump the pot up to 5 ½. The bullets are not frosted.
I set the lee pot to 5 ½ to cast with steal molds & will bump it up to 6 if needed. The bullets are not frosted.
I set the lee pot to 6 ½ to cast with brass molds & will turn it up to 7 if needed. The bullets are borderline frosted.

Here’s a pick of what the bullets look like from my 1st casting session with my new Mihic 359640 mold & 3 different pin styles in it.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/359640.jpg

I like to run the brass molds hot, the lead hot for them & preheat the brass molds until the lead puddles on the sprue plate. When the lead puddles on the first pour like that it gives me something to work with. It’s easier to let a mold cool down than it is to keep pouring lead in them to heat them up.

I’m no expert by any means & I’m sure there are people on this forum that have forgotten more than I know. I just wanted to put down what I do & hopefully it will help someone enjoy these beautiful molds.