Lyman 457122 --- help?

[Old Ironsights]

I cast up a pile of 457122's Saturday, 3/1 ww/pb alloy, casting temp of 700deg.

The first 150 or so cast fine, but around 140 the mould block started to get "sticky" on opening and closing. I also started to get many more wrinkled noses.

By the time I was at 160, I was having fillout issues.

No change in alloy, no change in temp, occasional pauses in the rhythm to let the mould cool whil I remelted sprues... Pot (Lee 10# bottom pour) always better than 1/2 full.

Whassup? Never had this problem with my 358156... and I've done over 300 at a time on it... :confused:

Went back & played with the mould today ant it's STILL "sticky"... like one of the pins has swelled or somthing. :-?

[Ricochet]

Could sprue plate or hinge lube have gotten down in the cavity and on the pin?

[MtGun44]

Look for one of the alignment pins to have moved and possibly
hanging up in the hole on the other side. This would explain the
sticky, but temperature would seem to fit the wrinkles.

Bill

[Old Ironsights]

Ricochet: I don't think so.

MtGun: How would I be able to fix a moved pin?

700ged is too hot? Cold? Why would the first 140 boolets come out OK but the last 20 be bad?

[hicard]

Sounds to me you added too many sprues and cooled the mix too far. The trick is to add a small amount at a time to keep the lead at the proper temperature without cooling it to the point where wrinkles and plugged pour spout occure.

[MtGun44]

The pins are friction fit (usually pretty tight, but not always) and can be tapped
back into place with a brass rod and some TLC. Look closely to see if they have
more than a very tiny amount of cylinder part sticking out. The ball part of the
alignment pin should JUST be turning into a tiny bit of cylinder so the cylinder part
does the final alignment, but too much cylinder part out of the hole will cause
stickyness.

The wrinkling could be cooled mold, it can be hard to keep the pin hot enough,
esp if you slow down casting just a bit or some air blows thru the casting area.

Bill

[Tom Herman]

I have a Lyman .45 LC 255 gr. SWC mould that not only got sticky, but developed fins.
I found out that the stickiness was due to the pins migrating out. Very carefully tapping them a little at a time got me to the point where they closed without chattering or moving, but didn't stick.
I found out I damaged the moulds by slamming them shut repeatedly. Fortunately for me, I was able to carefully file the peened metal and save the mould.
Now I carefully close them, and all is well.
Try some more heat. I find SWC moulds tend to cast well. My .455 WEbley mould with the hollow base pin needs craploads of heat, and just won't fill out or cast worth a flip without at least 800 dgree alloy, and even then, it takes about 15 bullets for it to come up to temperature.
Try bumping up your heat to 750 degrees.
Also, fillout in everything was crap until added 2% lead to the alloy. Here's a link to the Grauinger blowout sale on Tin for only $6.93 a pound: http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/1ZHW2
I've bought ten pounds! My favorite alloy is 10# WW, 10# scrap lead, and 4/10# Tin. It's roughly 40:1 in hardness, fills out great, and has produced the least amount of leading in my .455 Webleys and .45 LC's.
Good Luck and Happy Shootin'! -Tom



I cast up a pile of 457122's Saturday, 3/1 ww/pb alloy, casting temp of 700deg.

The first 150 or so cast fine, but around 140 the mould block started to get "sticky" on opening and closing. I also started to get many more wrinkled noses.

By the time I was at 160, I was having fillout issues.

No change in alloy, no change in temp, occasional pauses in the rhythm to let the mould cool whil I remelted sprues... Pot (Lee 10# bottom pour) always better than 1/2 full.

Whassup? Never had this problem with my 358156... and I've done over 300 at a time on it... :confused:

Went back & played with the mould today ant it's STILL "sticky"... like one of the pins has swelled or somthing. :-?