A little help on HP mold...

[catman81056]

I bought my first HP mold, a Lyman 452374 SC Devastator. First thing I did was wash it good with brake parts cleaner. My alloy is 50/50 COWW/Pure with 2% tin. I brought the alloy temp up to 700* -/+ and had the mold on a hot plate. First few showed base's not filled out properly so back on the hot plate. With the base's filled out I was have problems with the HP not being fully formed. I don't know how to fix this, maybe hotter alloy? Does the HP pin need to be heated? The only other problem was with the mold/handles. The only handles I had were Lee 6 cavity and although the mold bolted in it just didn't seem to close right. Had to squeeze alittle then they would snap into place. So I just got through ordering a set of Lyman 1/2 cavity handles. Any ideas about the HP problem would be doubly appreciated as a Lyman SC 9mm 125gr Devastator mold will be here soon.

[AnthonyB]

Run your lead hotter and cast faster.

[catman81056]

Thanks I'll give that a try.

[dubber123]

Make a holder out of a coat hanger, or better yet a block of metal with a hole drilled in it to hold the HP pin on your hot plate, they need to be kept as hot as the mold to get good HP cavities, and being a smaller piece of metal they lose heat quicker than the mold. Keep the pin hot.

[white eagle]

your pin needs a wee bit of seasoning
keep running your alloy and your mold it takes time but it will be droppin excellent boolits before long

[bhn22]

I usually dip my hollowpoint pins in hot lead for a few seconds at the start, then wipe off any lead before inserting it in the preheated mold. So far, this has produced usable bullets for me. After the initial heating, the pins stay hot enough for me as long as I cast really rapidly. I only cast with one mold when casting hollowpoints, as opposed to my regular program of 2-3 (usually 2) molds when casting solids.

[longbow]

I always pre-heat until the sprue plate lube just starts to smoke. That ensures the whole mould is hot including pins.

Casting fast and steady is also required with brass moulds in general and Cramer style in particular to keep the mould and pins hot. Somewhat hotter alloy should also help but you do not want to overdo that.

I found that with penta point pins, a wipe of sprue plate lube now and again helped with release... but that may also hurt fillout which is your problem.

A bit of tin in the alloy might help as well but heat is certainly your friend.

Longbow

[bhn22]

I don't usually get things that hot, but my standard mold temp test is to touch a piece of wax to the sprue pivot. If it melts readily, I'm ready to begin. It also serves to lubricate the pivot. But just a light touch now, or the wax could run into the cavity and foul it.

[catman81056]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to wait on the Lyman handles before trying to cast the HP's. It will be another plus to the equation.

[Beagle333]

I'm going to find a scrap block of metal and drill a hole slightly larger than the pin, and keep it on the hot plate and use it like a hot "pencil holder" to keep the pin nice and toasty while I cut the sprue and dump the boolit.
I have no trouble casting with a pin, since I've been doing it a while and got my ryhthm down, but it would allow a little more relaxation to not have to always cast like my arm was on fire, just to keep the pin from cooling too much between pours.8-)

[catman81056]

I've taken the advice given here and its working, poured at 800-825 degrees and dipped the pin in the alloy to heat it up. The holes are greatly improved but I'm running into another problem. The bottom of the HP will have a hole or cavity at the very bottom like its not filling in. My % of usable bullets is around 30-40%. Any idea on what might be going on?