Lazarus Raised from the Dead

[Ben]

Recently I bought a " Grab Bag " of casting items. A casting pot, some Lyman H & I sizing dies, about 8 or 9 bullet molds, some bullet mold handles, etc.

In the " lot " were quite a few molds that had been neglected and left in an unheated storage building.

Fortunately, not one of the molds had any rust at all in the mold cavities . The outside of the molds , that was another story.

This one ( I think I'll call the mold Lazarus ) might very well have been the poorest of the lot. No sprue plate, no set screw for the sprue plate bolt, the sprue plate hold down screw was broken off level with the tops of the mold blocks and a small portion of the threads could be seen down in the hole. The bolt seemed to be rusted in the hole. Probably broken many years ago and the owner was at a loss as to to how to fix it and just pushed it aside.

I thought that I'd try and raise this one from the dead today. So , I began work on " Lazarus " .

I looked in my Lyman mold parts box, found a pretty nice sprue plate, and a set screw for the sprue hold down screw.

I decided the best thing to do was drill out the broken screw and re-tap the hole with fresh threads. I chose a 6 mm bolt with an Allen Head screw head.

Here are photos of the work done.

I put about 1.5 hrs.into this clean -up , repair, refurb project , but I believe it was worth the efforts invested.

I think " Lazarus " has come back from the dead...........

Tomorrow, I'll cast a few and see how it cast.

Ben

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/90766.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/90767.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/90778.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/90773.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/90769.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/90770.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/90779.jpg

The silvery " halo " around the alignment pin holes is a thin coating of high temp anti - seize compound for lubricating purposes.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/90785.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/90775.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/90780.jpg

[DeanWinchester]

I wanna see this in your 358 Winchester.
I've been meaning to pick up a wad cutter mold to try in my 35 Remington.

[Ben]

Using the right powder charge, this one might do real well at about 800 - 900 fps as a " plinking bullet " in my .358 Win.

[BNE]

Nice Save.

[bhn22]

Great bullet! One of my favorites.

[Walter Laich]

great job and pictures as well.
If you cast half as well as you clean up molds your bullets will be winners

[TXGunNut]

Nicely done, looking forward to hearing how this mould works out for you.

[tonyjones]

What do you use to remove surface rust?

Thanks,

Tony

[Ben]

What do you use to remove surface rust?

Thanks,

Tony

I have a brass bristle brush that is 3 " in diameter. I chuck it up in my drill press and remove rust with it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/Capture-10.jpg

I do not use the brush on the interior of the mold, only on the outside.

Ben

[texassako]

I like your mold resurrection, and you always put together great photo essay type posts. I have a 4 cavity sitting here that needs a similar treatment.

[Ben]

I cast some with the 358432, 148 gr. mold today.

WOW ! I'm impressed with this one !
I guess you really can't tell a book just by looking at the cover.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/001-103.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/002-97.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/haysb/media/002-97.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/017-14.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/haysb/media/017-14.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/018-13.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/haysb/media/018-13.jpg.html)

[Artful]

Proof is in the shootin :wink:

Nice work Dr. Ben

[Ben]

Many say this particular design is a good one.

I received a PM from Swede Nelson ( NOE Bullet Molds ) earlier in the day.

He said that the 358432, 148 gr. was one of his personal favorites.

Ben

[Uncle R.]

Very nice restoration. I especially like the little touches - the alignment pin lube, the copper thread protector. Those details speak of craftsmanship. Hats off to you sir!
<
Uncle R.

[Ben]

Uncle R.

You are MORE THAN kind with your words.

Thanks,
Ben

[MT Gianni]

Nice work, did you fix those original screws or toss them? That looks like a miracle save.

[Ben]

Nice work, did you fix those original screws or toss them? That looks like a miracle save.

Believe it or not......those screws in the " After Photos " above are " saves of the originals ".

Took some work and reshaping with a file and re-cutting the slots, ( look close at the after photo, you'll see the one on the left had to have a good bit of metal removed to clean up the slot ) . In other words, the slot on the left is wider than the screw slot on the right .

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/90769.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/90770.jpg

Ben

[tazman]

Very useful information. I had water in my basement this past spring. Just a month ago I found that a couple of my molds had gotten moved into the area where the water was deepest a month or 2 before the water problem. I forgot all about them until recently.
I think I may be able to save them using your examples.
Thanks for the great post.

[Ben]

tazman

You bet, if I can help, let me know.

Best to you ,

Ben

[.22-10-45]

Nice looking "after" pictures of screws! A trick I use is to clamp screw bodies in vice between soft jaws--copper, plastic, etc. & using small ball-peen hammer..gently tap screw head surface following contour as you tap. Brownells sells screw slot files in various thicknesses. I then clean up excess metal peened into slot & polish. If I want to get real fancy for a special mould..I might even heat-blue. I wonder if they still make those old typewriter erasures? The wooden ones with plastic bristles on one end? Those are the best things to clean up cavities..removes burrs..but won't scratch. Nice work!

[MtGun44]

Nice job, Ben. As usual. ;-)

Bill

[Ben]

Thanks fellows.

I do believe I'll like this design. Yesterday, I noticed it took a couple taps to get the bullets to fall free of the mold.

I stopped everything and spun ( at slow speed with my elect. cordless drill ) bullets with Clovers fine abrasive paste in the two cavities. WOW ! ! What a difference. The cavities look polished now and the bullets jump out of the mold when the mold is opened.

Obviously there were some minor burrs in the two cavities causing the bullets to stick and not fall free as they should.

Ben

[fcvan]

I had a SAECO mold get rusty on me due to improper storage. I had a box of molds stored in a cool dry place. I had an ex-wife move them to a cold damp place. No, that's not why she's an ex, but it would certainly have been a contributing factor! I didn't notice the rusty mold until years after the damage was done.

Anyway, I always store my molds with lead and sprue intact. This kept the molds tight and so the rust didn't affect anything but the exterior. The rust on that mold was much worse than the example shown above. I learned from reading tips here at cast boolits how to restore the mold. Nowit looks as good as new and casts as good as when I bought it new in 1988. You have to love all the knowledge and helpful tips from the great members here at cast boolits.

[GP100man]

I`ll chime in here , the tips & tricks I`ve gleaned from this site has made my casting much more relaxing & theraputic !!!!

I hope 1 day to contribute 1/10th to the betterment of casting of which I`ve learned from fine members here !!!

Ben, your title needs to be changed from "Boolit Master" to "Mould Master" !!!

Good job on Lazarus !!!

GP

[Ben]

GP100man



Many thanks for those kind words.

Ben

[LenH]

Ben,

Great information on the proper way to restore a mold. I need a bit of help. I just found a H&G #50 mold makes a great 38 wadcutter. It is a 4 cavity mold but 2 of the cavities have to be coaxed
out of the mold. I had 8 boolits that were good for this process, I centered the screws on the boolits and used a fine valve grinding paste and spun the boolits as slow as I could with a cordless drill,
about 30 seconds in each cavity, I used a separate boolit in each cavity and repeated the process with the other 4 boolits. The cavities were shiny almost new looking. I cleaned the mold with hot water
dish soap and a soft bristle tooth brush, gave it a shot of oil and put everything back together. I then cleaned the oil out of the cavities with a couple of shots of break cleaner. Heated the mold on a hot plate & got the alloy ready. The first 8 or 9 pours the boolits fell out with only a shake of the handles after that a minor tap on the handle nut with a lead hammer they fell out and the longer I cast the harder the tap. I didn't cast long but finished up with about 200 boolits. I'm just wondering if I need to start over, I really don't want to screw up this mold, I'm sure that it is almost as old as I am.
Thanks
Len H.

[Ben]

If your compound is a very fine abrasive , it isn't likely spinning the bullets at the speed you're turning them right now that you're going to do any harm at all.

Ben