Mold cleaning?

[bradley.moss72]

What are your thoughts on using brake cleaner to clean your brand new molds of grease and oil?

What do you use?

What and how often do they need to be cleaned after use?

Does any one lube or otherwise treat their mold cavities to protect them between casting sessions? (From rust, oxidation, etc.)

If so, how and what do you use?

BW

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[Yodogsandman]

I just wipe down the cavities with rubbing alcohol before use and after storage.

I do apply a sprue plate lube on top of the mold and on the bottom of the sprue plate. Any pivot pins and alignment pins, too. I've been using air conditioner refridgerant oil lately for the sprue lube, Ester ISO100.

I only clean mine when I feel like one of the cavities got contaminated with an oil.

With a steel mold, I spray it down with Kroil and store in a zip lock baggie. I throw a small desiccant bag in there for extra protection. See the sticky on Kroil use on a mold.

For an aluminum mold, I wipe down the sprue plate with Sheath gun oil and wipe off with alcohol before use.

[.22-10-45]

For years, that is all I used to de-grease my moulds..then I started to experience problems with oil residue in cavities..went to simpler very hot water/detergent and old toothbrush. Problems vanished. I do still use brake cleaner for the old 1 piece integeral handled Ideals not being able to dry interior or hinge..but hot plate probably would take care of that. Michigan is humid..and some moulds go for years between use so I use a commercial aresol containing lanolin designed for injection mould dies.

[country gent]

On a new mould I will clean scrub with acetone first then the hot water dish soap to remove any residues left behind. On my existing I simply clean the night before with hot water dish soap and lube according to need. Top and bottom of sprue plate and blocks. Hinge pins and block pins and screws. I then pre heat while the pot is warming up and cast.

[Dragonheart]

I have not had good luck using Kroil Oil for storage and do not recommend it in a humid environment. For long term storage wheel bearing grease sealed in plastic and your mold will be as you stored it even years later.

Basically, you want to remove all traces of oil off a mold before casting, so you are looking for something that is a degreaser to begin with. Then a rinse with acetone should remove any remaining residue.

[gwpercle]

A brand new mould gets cleaned with acetone , brake cleaner or carburetor cleaner to remove machining oils and any protective grease from the pores. I heat cycle them, let cool and degrease again. I like to heat cycle two or three times before casting with aluminum moulds.

After each casting session I clean the mould of all/any grunge on the blocks , use a bit of 0000 steel wool on exterior and sprue plate. Wipe out cavities and make sure there is nothing in the cavities but other than that leave them alone. A wipe down with Liquid Wrench Dry Lubricant and a soft rag leaves the mould ready for the next session. After the cavities are seasoned I don't clean them with acetone...don't want to mess up the seasoning of the cavities.
The Liquid Wrench Dry Lube has been doing a good job of rust prevention so far( it will not contaminate cavities either, works better than smoking). Baton Rouge gets a fair amount of rain...today is the only day it hasn't rained since August 11-12 th when we got 24 to 32 inches in 24 hours , we been getting an inch or so every day since, some days we get 2 inches.....I wish it would stop!
Hey...if those people who can fix globable warming would just move the rain to drought stricken areas then we all would be happy !
Gary