Wrinkley Boolits!

[7Acres]

Hi Guys,
I got a new .358 158gr mold. I cleaned it with a que-tip and 70% isoprophyl alchohol. I put bees wax on all the moving/sliding parts and bolts. Then I smoked it heavily. I got my pot cranked up and the first couple throws looked real nice. Then I noticed one spot on the handle that looks like the bees wax didn't melt into real well so I added more in that area. I noticed how well the bees was flowed when hot so I put more on all the other parts too. At this point I think I must have gotten too much beeswax all over the mold. Sprue plate was wet with it and so were the faces of the mold. For the past hour I can't get it to fill out properly. Usually I'd suspect the alloy. And that may be the case. But is there any chance the beeswax is causing my fill out issues?

[Wayne Smith]

Absolutely. The cavities have to be cleaned out of all oil, wax, or any other contaminant. You really don't want bees wax on the mold at all. Find the BullShop on this site and order some sprue plate lube and use it exceedingly spairingly.

Right now clean all the wax off that mold. Scrape it off and ammonia is about the only thing I know of that strips wax. The cavities need to be down to bare metal. Forget about smoking it, too. That only hides other problems if it won't cast bare.

[cbrick]

7Acres, just look at as a learning experience, one that you will not soon forget. There are far worse mistakes and there was no mold damage, just a large PITA.

Wayne is absolutely correct. NO waxes or oil or smoke in the cavities. None, nada. Bare clean metal or, well you saw what happens huh?

Bull Plate is great stuff to lube the sprue plate if it's used spairingly enough, a very little goes along way. No Bull Plate in the cavities either or you will become very experienced in the fine art of mold cleaning. :mrgreen:

Rick

[canyon-ghost]

I use VERY little lubricant on molds, you always have to burn it off just to get good bullets. I clean them with dish soap and warm water, with a bore brush. Alcohol sometimes. Any wax is going to make voids and wrinkles. Takes a pretty hot cavity to pour bullets, less foreign substances is better.

Good Luck,
Ron

[docone31]

It does not fill out as it is too cold.
You need to not lubricate the mold or sprue plate, float the mold in the melt to heat soak and pour.
Six seconds to freeze up.
Too much longer and it is too hot, less time and it is too cool.
No wrinkles at six seconds.
My molds are getting on in years, and expect for a real ocasional dab of beeswax on occasion, I have not lubricated any of my molds. I gave up smoking them as it did not seem to do much good for me.
When I get a new mold. I soak it in Mineral Spirits for two days, then when dry, cast away.
Works for me.

[41 mag fan]

Mineral sprits, brake cleaner, or a degreaser, or the old stand by alot of us use is boiling water with a drop or 2 of Dawn. Scrub the cavities, and surrounding surfaces. Put back or rinse in clean boiling water, then dry with towels.

Buy some Bull Plate, only a drop or 2 is needed on a Q-Tip. Use that Q-Tip and wipe it on the top and bottom of sprue plate ( dont get it in the sprue plate holes where your lead will flow thru, it will migrate to the cavity), use the dry end of the Q-Tip to wipe it off. Dab it around the sprue plate screw, and mold alignment pins.
1 bottle of Bull Plate will last a looooonnng time.

1 thing I do is when using the Bull Plate, I apply mine when the mold is hot. It seems to work good for me that way. Another thing I do is on my first casts, I will take that same Q-Tip and wipe the top of my mold blocks with my casts still in the cavities, Wipe off again, with dry end.
You'll be able to tell, after so many casts, that the sprue plate is grating, so to speak, or you'll notice a change in the feeling of the sprue plate when cutting the sprue and opening. That is when I'll refresh the Q-Tip with a drop of Bull Plate and apply to the sprue plate and screw again.
This procedure seems to work for me, and to date I haven't galled any molds using this method. Of course it took 1 Lee mold, my 500 to figure it out

[7Acres]

Thanks to all for the good advise. Yes, cbrick, it will be a real pain to redo my molds. But I will never foul up a mold like that again! Lesson learned! After seeing Wayne's reply I had to pack it all up as some rain was coming in. When I go to apply ammonia to strip the beeswax off do I need to warm the mold up so the wax liquefies first?

So the goal here is to get back to just pure clean aluminum, right? No smoking, no wax, no nothing besides the clean aluminum, right?

[GP100man]

No heat need to strip the wax with ammonia.

I apply sprueplate lube by first shaking the bottle up ,then with a Qtip wipe the cap out ,then sparingly apply to a cold mold , then wiping the excess with the other end of the Qtip.

Sysnthetic 2cycle will get ya by ,but it shore ain`t Bullshops .

[HATCH]

Hit the mold with brake cleaner when cold.
Pour lead in it. Cut the sprue but do not open the mold.
Put bullplate on top of mold and sprue plate. open the mold and drop the boolits and start casting.
That's what i do.
Always apply the bullplate when you have lead in the mold.
When your finish casting coat the entire mold inside and out with bullplate.

I use synthetic 2 cycle oil personally but its not 100% the same as bullplate is.


sent from my mobile.

[Bullshop]

If you have any WD40 will take off the bees wax. Wet it with wd40 and let it set for 10 minutes or so then wipe it out with paper towel. You may have to do it a couple times to get the tight spots clean.
WD40 will disolve lots of sticky stuff. We use it to get pitch off the floor when a pitch pocket bleads out of fire wood when the wood warms up from bringing it inside.
After the wax is cleaned off the wd40 will clean of easily with hot water and Dawn dish soap.

[leadman]

WD40 is a great cleaner, since about 90% of the contents is Stoddard Solvent (paint thinner). For awhile they even had butane as the propellant, until a guy shorted out a can on his starter!

Do buy the Bullplate and apply very sparingly with the Q-tip with boolits in a hot mold. A bottle goes a longggggggg ways.
If you can't seem to get the boolits to not wrinkle use some Acetone on a cold mold to soak it in. The acetone evaporates fast so watch it and do this outdoors as the fumes are nasty.
Then heat the mold up so the lead in the cavities takes too long to solidify. When you finally cut the sprue and drop the boolits let it cool for awhile. This has worked everytime with an ornery mold for me.

[MtGun44]

Smoking process can add oily residue and is not necessary in any good mold, regardless
of what Lee says. Scrub cavities with Comet and a toothbrush and start over.

Wrinkled boolits = dirty or cold mold.

Contact Bullshop for some Bull Plate Lube and use that instead of beeswax which lubes marginally
at best and burns into nasty guck after a while.

Bill

[7Acres]

I've reached out to BullShop and the lube is on its way. In reading the recent posts it seems that some folks reapply BullShop upon each casting session. While it seems like others rarely reapply. How can you tell when a reapplication of BullShop is needed.

[Bullshop]

I've reached out to BullShop and the lube is on its way. In reading the recent posts it seems that some folks reapply BullShop upon each casting session. While it seems like others rarely reapply. How can you tell when a reapplication of BullShop is needed.
When you apply bullplate to your mold you will immediately feel the difference. There will be no rough feeling when turning the sprue plate. It will glide smoothly over he mating surface of the mold blocks.
When you begin to feel any roughness in turning the plate or see any lead on the plate or blocks re-apply.
Re-application while casting should only take a couple seconds and make no noticable change in the mold temp so casting tempo may be resumed and have had no effect on the next couple castings after re-application.
Once you get the hang of it you can re-apply without ever missing a beat.
Making sweet casting music is like making any sweet music in that it is best if you can stay with the rhytham.
I cast with a large wall clock with sweeping second hand hung at eye level to keep an even beat to make my sweet boolit music.

[41 mag fan]

7acres...read what Bullshop posted above and what i posted earlier. You'll feel a difference....try opening the mold while hot without any casts in it...open the sprue plate and the mold.
Apply Bull Plate to the alignment pins on the mold. Open it a few times and you'll immediatley feel a difference. Then do the sprue plate, apply a thin coat to the top and bottom of the sprue plate and the sprue plate screw. Wipe off excess with a dry Q-Tip on the sprue plate.
Open and close it a few times and you'll notice a difference in the feeling of it. The grating feel you'll feel when it's dry will go away when lubed up.
With casts in the cavities, use a q tip with the Bull Plate on it and wipe top of mold, use dry end to wipe off excess.

you'll feel after maybe 100, 200, 300 casts the sprue plate is getting a graty dry feeling, time to take a second and reapply to sprue plate top of mold and hit the alignment pins again just because it'll help keep things in synch.

Some people will start seeing a smear of lead on the top of mold or under the sprue plate, and will stop and reapply lubricant. I usually try to get it before this happens, so that way theres no problems with lead buildup or possible galling of the mold.

In fact go here, lots of usefull info on lubrication:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?137982-Mould-Lube-Instructions-(works-with-BullPlate-too)

[7Acres]

BullShop! I love it. Making "sweet boolit music!" Makes me want a wall clock for the shop now :-) Anyone care to share your favorite way to keep tempo for your sweet boolit music making'?

[MBTcustom]

Well, I suppose you could get a kick drum under your bench and a harmonica harness.........

[Bullshop]

Ive got rhythm, Ive got music, Ive got my mold who could ask for any thing more

[7Acres]

Wanted to follow up... I used Bullshop's WD40 method to get off all wax, smoke, etc. Got some free time last weekend to try it out. Put it on a hot plate and after a few throws I was seeing perfect boolits with zero wrinkles and nice perfect machining detail! Wow, I'll never smoke again. Since my original post I acquired 2 new molds. I used docone31's method of leaving the mold blocks in mineral spirits for a couple days before air drying and casting. Worked perfectly.

Also, I love this Bull Plate! I was even showing my wife how effortless the sprue plate slides open. She acted impressed ;);) After my first casting session with Bull Plate + gloves + being worried I'd knock the bottle over I located an empty eyedropper bottle of MCM (those tiny bottles of pink gun cleaner that used to come with guns). Cleaned it out real good with soap and water and filled it up with Bull Plate. It worked very well as even if you knock over the eyedropper it won't spill.

So after executing all of the great advice on this thread my casting sessions are yielding perfect boolits and with much less effort than before! Thanks to each of you!