Lead melter
05-18-2008, 03:45 PM
Well, with some good advice from you good folks, the Lyman 314299 problems mentioned have been worked out.
After cleaning the mold, I beagled it again, switched to a Lee 6 cavity handle [I don’t own a Lyman 2 cav set], and light at the mold halves problem disappeared.
Removed the sprue plate, wrapped 400 grit paper around a nail and smoothed up the sprue hole, then smoothed out the entire bevel. Spread the sandpaper on the kitchen counter and smoothed the bottom of the sprue plate. Sprue sticking gone.
The unfortunate part of the story is that there is now another problem. After the clean/switch/sand ordeal I cast up about 40 boolits to try. These all came out .314”-.316” at the widest point. Lubed, sized, checked with Gator checks and examined. Each boolit is tilted, meaning they do not stand straight. I looked at the checks and found a deep nose shaped depression in the base of the checks which can be attributed to the nose pushing the previous boolit through the .314 Lee sizer. A couple of the checks even came off the shank. No problem, so I thought. Just invert some boolits and try that. Same result…the boolits are not straight on the check. Maybe too much pressure on the boolit, causing the check to pull back on the shank and seat crookedly. I then tried Hornady checks and got the same junk.
I went back to some of the ones cast yesterday when the mold was not beagled. These size out .312”-.314”. I ran these through the same sizer with a whole lot less pressure and got the same result. Crooked boolits.
I then set boolits as cast on a flat surface, some larger, some smaller. Each one was tilted without the gas check. I looked at the shank, and on the bottom there is a definite, yet tiny, plug of alloy that sticks up from the boolit base. Where the base should be flat, it is not. This “plug” keeps the boolit tilted, the situation is increased by the gas check.
Since the boolit will not stand straight, I will assume the plug is crooked, which would lead me to believe the mold cavities are not cut straight, but are also crooked.
Remember, the boolits were cast before and after smoothing the bottom of the sprue plate.
Maybe I could have the top of the mold milled a few thousandths, but if it is not cut straight, the result will be the same even with a flat base.
I’m above my level on this issue. Anyone got any ideas or remedies?
After cleaning the mold, I beagled it again, switched to a Lee 6 cavity handle [I don’t own a Lyman 2 cav set], and light at the mold halves problem disappeared.
Removed the sprue plate, wrapped 400 grit paper around a nail and smoothed up the sprue hole, then smoothed out the entire bevel. Spread the sandpaper on the kitchen counter and smoothed the bottom of the sprue plate. Sprue sticking gone.
The unfortunate part of the story is that there is now another problem. After the clean/switch/sand ordeal I cast up about 40 boolits to try. These all came out .314”-.316” at the widest point. Lubed, sized, checked with Gator checks and examined. Each boolit is tilted, meaning they do not stand straight. I looked at the checks and found a deep nose shaped depression in the base of the checks which can be attributed to the nose pushing the previous boolit through the .314 Lee sizer. A couple of the checks even came off the shank. No problem, so I thought. Just invert some boolits and try that. Same result…the boolits are not straight on the check. Maybe too much pressure on the boolit, causing the check to pull back on the shank and seat crookedly. I then tried Hornady checks and got the same junk.
I went back to some of the ones cast yesterday when the mold was not beagled. These size out .312”-.314”. I ran these through the same sizer with a whole lot less pressure and got the same result. Crooked boolits.
I then set boolits as cast on a flat surface, some larger, some smaller. Each one was tilted without the gas check. I looked at the shank, and on the bottom there is a definite, yet tiny, plug of alloy that sticks up from the boolit base. Where the base should be flat, it is not. This “plug” keeps the boolit tilted, the situation is increased by the gas check.
Since the boolit will not stand straight, I will assume the plug is crooked, which would lead me to believe the mold cavities are not cut straight, but are also crooked.
Remember, the boolits were cast before and after smoothing the bottom of the sprue plate.
Maybe I could have the top of the mold milled a few thousandths, but if it is not cut straight, the result will be the same even with a flat base.
I’m above my level on this issue. Anyone got any ideas or remedies?