NOE mold construction

[Marlin Junky]

I'm considering the purchase of a 44-265 three cavity GC mold from NOE's website but can't find any details about the mold construction.

Do the alignment pins mate with steel sockets or simply holes drilled in the 2024 mold blocks?

Thanks,
MJ

[Tazman1602]

Dude just buy the mold. If you're going to use it in a .444 Marlin you will NOT be unhappy as that is one of my go to molds for that gun.

I just recieved another NOE mold yesterday and cast for it with the first time today, it's for a .38 but NOE's quality is extremely good. The pins DO go into steel sleeves and after a bit of break in they drop the right bullet every time.

Even though this is a new mold and I just cast with it for the first time today, it dropped the bullets like hot butter from a knife.

Art

[canyon-ghost]

They're good quality aluminum molds, they work nicely.

[runfiverun]

follow the break in procedure of heating/cooling the mold 3-4 times then do a big run of boolits.
you'll see them getting better each time.

[Bigslug]

The pins DO go into steel sleeves and after a bit of break in they drop the right bullet every time.


And compared to me, it sounds like Tazman had a difficult time. I heated my .364-200 5-cavity in the oven and let it air cool three times to help seat the alignment pins per instructions, then started casting. After sitting on top of the Lyman pot during the melt, full warm up took all of three, maybe four pours, an gorgeous bullets started falling out.

My only problem was when I followed their instructions for application of Bullplate to the top of the mold to reduce streaking, it capillary-actioned it's way into the cavities and I had wrinkly slugs until it burned out - not doing that again.

Order the mold MJ - they do nice work.

ALSO - spend the $17 bucks they're asking and order their "mold mallet". We've probably all had our "field expedient" methods of tapping the mold handle to free boolits, but this is absolutely the right tool for the job.

[Tazman1602]

Guys I might have been mistaken by saying the alignment pins go into steel sleeves -- I'm getting ready to do a run and looked and it looks like they do NOT go into steel sleeves.

It doesn't really matter, I've never had a bad mold from NOE, MIHEC, or BRP (RIP) molds.

On the bullplate there's a trick to that. Take a Q-tip and use ONE drop on it to lube the sprue plate. Yes it will cause a bit of wrinkleing at first but no worries it will go away.

What I do with all my new molds is to use a hotplate -- I did NOT in this case as I really need to get some of those cast for my wifes .38 and my .357 so I didn't follow my normal procedure.

What I do is put the handles on the mold, use a rubber band to hold them together and heat them up on the hotplate for an hour or so then let them cool on the hotplate. I've also got a steel plate on top of the coils so it holds heat for a bit and lets it cool slowly. Wash the mold up good with Dawn and a toothbrush and heat it again.

Then I pre-heat ALL my molds on the hotplate before I start casting. This has cured a SLEW of problems for me -- another forum tip I got here.

Last night after throwing a hundred or so bullets -- I was using a very fast cadence to get the mold up to the temp where it was throwing frosty bullets, I let it cool a bit and just like every other NOE mold I"ve got started throwing nice bullets that only required a little shake of the handles to get the bullets to drop out. No smoking the mold or anything...........

Oh yeah, I've got the 265 grain version of that mold and the 300 grain version of that mold and they both work great in my .444's...................
Art

[SwedeNelson]

Tazman1602, Marlin Junky, others

Yes we do use a steel alignment pin and bushing.
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i80/swedenelson/pins002-F640x480.jpg
I refer to it as our bank vault pin system.

Art
Thank you for the great endorsement

Swede Nelson

[Tazman1602]

Thank you Al.

Art

[madman]

You will not find a better guy or a mold any where. I have several of his molds and I have case thousands of boolits and have shot thousands and so have my friends and they are the best. I am looking forward to some heavy 460 dia for 45-70. Hint hint Al.

[Tazman1602]

I second that one madman. You just can't lose with Al....oh and about that heavy. 460.........grin

Art

[Blammer]

Yea, I have more NOE moulds than any other brand in my "collection" 25 and counting. :)

You should see the rows of sprue lube bottles I have. They look like soldiers all lined up. :)

[MikeS]

The only thing better than an NOE mould, is two NOE moulds! Or that NOE mould made out of brass, rather than aluminum! I really like brass moulds!