Whack, Whack, Whack!

[crabo]

I have a couple of questions. I have finally smelted about 1000 pounds of WW, gotten all my equipment together, and cast some bullets for the first time. I am using a Saeco #69 mold, a plain based, 4 cavity, swc for the .45 acp. I shot the mold down with gunscrubber to get any oil off. I then started casting with a cold mold. After about the 6 or 7th set of bullets, I remembered that I had bought a hot plate to preheat and it was still in the box, sitting on the table in front of me.

Oh well, it still didn't take long to heat the mold up. Here are my questions.

1. I am sometimes having to whack the hinge pin of the handles about 10 times for the bullets to fall out. I seem to recall that someone said something about smoking the mold with matches or a lighter. Would this help?

2. The screw holding the sprue plate keeps coming loose. It has a flat washer on it. How tight should that screw be?

3. If I overflow one of the cavities into the next cavity, should I still try to fill that cavity or skip it and go to the next. I guess an inspection would show if the bullet filled out, but is it possible to have an air cavity inside?

I would like to thank all the gracious people on this forum for all their advice. I feel like I got some really good equipment that I won't be wanting to replace in a couple of months. I think the research, planning, and dreaming is half the fun of the whole project.

Crabo

[sundog]

Crabo, shouldn't be working that hard. SAECO moulds are usually purdy good, but all moulds need a little help from manufacture.

My standard routine for a new production mould is spray brake cleaner and a bronze brush, a stone to chamfer block mating edges and smoothing the sprue plate.

If the sprue plate pivot screw does not have a retainer set screw, it needs one.

The mould also needs lubed on the sprue plate hinge screw and alignment pins.

Another option for boolits refusing to fall out is Drop Out applied with a q-tip, not sprayed directly. If all else fails, get the mould under a magnifying lamp and work it over looking for burrs with something like an exacto knife, but go easy. I like the bronze brush thing best. Burrs from manufacturing will give you fits.

I have several SAECOs and they all needed some 'fixin' as did every other mould I own. Don't expect 'out of the box' perfection.

[PatMarlin]

Crabo-

I smoke my molds with propane flame. One thing for me is if the melt isn't hot enough, and the mold hot enough, my boolits don't drop worth a darn and some times that's just below frosty or at frosty. Some of my molds I have to drop frosty no matter what............:Fire:

[HORNET]

Crabo,
Get the mold warm and smoke it with a Long-necked butane fireplace/grill lighter. Warming the mold first keeps condensation from forming under the smoke so the coating lasts longer and is more even.
If you can get a few well-filled out ones, you might try Lee-menting it (Light lapping with very light abrasive like toothpaste- a search will find the sticky). You probably have some very light burrs. Not unusual.

[crabo]

I had pretty good success tonight. I wanted to try just uping the heat, and that made a huge difference. I had 375 keepers in about an hour. I am going to do the close inspection of the mold next time and smoke it. I forgot to do that. I also want to see how changing one thing at a time affects the outcome.

With the mold and WWs both hot, it was only taking a single hit with the mallet to drop the bullets most of the time.

DO you guys store your molds with bullets in them?

Thanks for the info,

Crabo

[Dale53]

Storing moulds with bullets in them is just a "feel good" operation. It really doesn't protect them much at all from rusting.

If you live in a climate controlled house (humidity controlled with central air and central heat) you normally will not have much of a problem. However, If you leave your mould even overnight in a damp garage or like place, you WILL have rusting problems.

The best solution is to keep your moulds in an air tight container with desicant inside the box will work best of all. Light spraying with silicone mould release (and I mean LIGHT) will keep them fine, also. My suggestion is to use the desicant as it leaves no residue on the mould and you can just pre-heat and start casting the next time you need it. When I pre-heat my moulds, my first casts are ready to use.

Dale53

[1hole]

REF spill-over into the nest cavity, don't use it. The first spill will harden first and fail to become one with the next layer of metal.