Bigger Holes In NOE Spure Plae

[guicksylver]

OK So here it is.
I was just using my Lyman Ideal 311467 4 banger ( I love this thing),
pumping them out!

I have two NOE 30 cal molds that I also like but are very finicky.

When I first got them , my brother (who doesn't cast) was watching.

After a couple of pours he said, " those holes need to be bigger".

Me being who I am said "maybe ,but this guy knows what he's doing".

Now, after having run several hundred boolits from the Ideal mold tonite, I stopped
and compared the difference between the Ideal and NOE spure plate holes.

WOW what a difference!

The Ideal hole are almost 50% larger and allow the metal to flow directly
into the cavity with no interference.

Not so with the NOE mold.

The NOE molds are a 311299 and 311284 4 bangers.

Questions, anyone opened these up?

What do you think?

I was going to try and buy and extra from Swede with bigger holes and give it a shot.

What do you think?

[gunoil]

no. Leave your plate alone. Some pros make smaller holes. ya going backwards. Sometimes bullets are hard.

[1874Sharps]

Quicksylver,

You may very well be right about opening up the holes on the NOE mold. Casting is an art and there are several factors that go into a successful casting: alloy, rate of pour, temperature of the mold and alloy, etc. The only thing is that once the hole is enlarged, it is irreversible for practical purposes. Also, I can only guess how hard the sprue plate steel is. I have encountered some that seem like they are pretty hard stuff. There are still ways to enlarge the holes, though, hard or not. At least if you do enlarge the holes and it does not work out you could buy a new sprue plate in the worst case scenario. I suspect that NOE made the holes on the small side to improve the inherent accuracy of the boolit, but I do not know. There are many molds (like the Lyman) that have large sprue plate holes and shoot very well. Hope this helps!

[Southpaw 72]

I would just enlarge one hole to see if it makes a difference.

[bosterr]

All you say is the the molds are finicky. In what way? Your Lyman molds are iron, NOE's are aluminum. This could be the biggest reason that the NOE's are finicky.

[Goatwhiskers]

Old German saying: Dere iz alvays a cure for der sausage dot iz too long. GW :kidding:

[Wayne S]

It all depends on what you are after with these bullets, something, that with the aid of gravity will hit the ground OR cast bullets that will shoot nearly as good as J bullets out of the same weapon.
The old practice for CB BR shooters was to position the sprue hole so that only half of the hole was on the edge of the GC shank.
As stated above, The NOE molds are Alum. and will act much different that the Lyman iron mold.
If you don't have a hot plate to pre heat your mold either leave the mold over the pots mouth till your alloy is up to Temp. Then stick the ear of the sprue plate in the melt for a few minuets. Your first few pores may take a little longer for the sprue to harden but are you after quality or quantity/

[Wayne S]

78097

[white eagle]

after the mold gets up to temp
hold the mold at an angle while pouring the lead into it
kinda like pouring a beer
I have had many molds form Swede and never had a finicky one
just take some casting getting used to

[GLL]

I would just enlarge one hole to see if it makes a difference.

I agree ! Do one hole in small increments and test to see if there is any difference.

Jerry

[Springfield]

Opening the holes generally will help venting, but it will also be harder to cut the sprue. I have opened up the holes in some of my 6 cav LEE moulds when I just couldn't get consistent sharp base edges and it almost always made it much better, but then these were pistol bullets so the long range accuracy wasn't the most important element. If it is a GC mould then go for it, the sprue cut will be covered anyway. You might try loosening the sprue plate just a bit first, also helps the venting. I have to do this will most of my Mihec molds, he sets the screws too tight from the factory for my taste.

[Lefty SRH]

I've opened up a couple NOE sprue holes. Now I find it better to change the angle of the countersink to 90* instead. Works much better than opening the holes.

[LynC2]

Interesting; I recently picked up a Lyman 311291 4 cavity mold and I was wishing for smaller holes!

[guicksylver]

O.K. Guys.

As usual I've left out info.

I set both molds on the hot plate prior to casting.

The iron mold heats up faster ( in my opinion).

The NOE mold will just not cast at the same temp the iron one will...period.

WHAT I have done and don't yell at me, is to heat the spure plate with a torch(gently) to see if that makes a difference.

It does.

I've been casting for over forty years and these Al. mold are new to me.

My experience with the dozen or so Ideal and Lyman molds of yesterday has been buy and use.

No fuss, no problems.

I am impressed with NOE Molds and their service and would keep them as a work of art.

I thank you for your input.

BTW the 311299 delivers a consistent 1-1 1/4" group @ 100 yds w/ 11.5 Universal in my stock 1917 Enfield.

I have just been dreaming of taking an hour or so and creating a pile of the beauties.

But then again anything worth doing etc,etc.

One last note I poured some w/o the spure plate and they came out great except for the glob on the end.

[leadman]

I have opened up quite a few sprue plate holes. The stream of alloy coming out of my RCBS furnace is larger than the small holes so the alloy does not like to go down the hole easily.
If you open the hole with a drill you end up with a blunt edge in the bottom of the sprue hole so a countersink will have to be used to give the bottom of the hole a nice sharp edge again. Mine is from Home Depot and works well. Haven't found a sprue plate it won't cut.
I also use the countersink to finish off the Lyman plates that they leave a blunt edge on the hole.

[Bigslug]

Seems to me that you need to accomplish two things; get lead in and let air out. NOE molds have plenty of venting - so long as the sprue plate is not screwed down too tight, air should have lots of exit points. A larger sprue hole is just going to make for harder cutting.

I find it a little strange that you find the iron molds heat faster. The thing that amazed me about my first aluminum mold (five cavity NOE 200 grain .38 SW round nose) was that after sitting on the mold rest of the pot, it was making usable bullets by about the third or fourth pour. My Accurate .45ACP mold is the same way. Now molds that have hollow point or base pins are a different story, and I don't have enough time on them to have all my voodoo worked out yet. Still, aluminum seems to be a very easy material to work with.

[guicksylver]

The reason I said I believe the iron mold heaths faster is because of the way my hot plate works.

It comes up to temp then shuts down.

It does not maintain an even temp.

I got a piece of 1/4 plate steel and placed it on top , it helps maintain the temp until the
hot late comes back on.

The iron mold also holds the heat better, the AL. ones were cooling off along with the
hot plate between cycles.

[bobthenailer]

DONT open up the holes ! instead stone a small bevel breaking the square edge going from front to back on the top inside edge of the mould blocks where the mould halves meet. this will give you small vent line for venting , go a few strokes at a time until mould is venting proplery.
I got this tip from LBT first book on bullet casting years ago and all of my mould now have the blockes modfied in this manner.

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

My first custom mold was NOE 30 cal. It cast beautiful. The next one was a NOE in 7mm. PIA to cast with.
Then I notice the sprue hole in the 7mm was smaller than the 30 cal. I open it up to the same size as the 30 cal
and now its a dream to use too.