cavity dings

[pearson1662]

I have a saeco #410 and the bullets stick from one cavity so I examined it under a magnifying glass and there are some very small dings and roughened edges in one side of one cavity that I suspect are causing the sticking. They will fall out with several good whacks on the hinge. The bullets are satisfactory. Can/should I attempt to smooth out the rough spots or will I do more damage than good? If so how? And how much abuse can the handles take? The "ding is in the center of the pic, highly magnified.

[STP22]

You should not have to whack the hinge pin that much. It`s not good for the block pins nor the sprue plate screw...it will to loosen them eventually. Try smoking the cavities to lay down a coating of carbon with a Bic lighter or similar.

[pearson1662]

yeah, I'll have to agree with you in regards to the sprue plate screw; it works itself loose every other cast but I just figured I'd get a wave washer for it.

[Maven]

pearson 1662, If smoking the mold doesn't help, you may want to polish it with CB's embedded with a very fine lapping compound. Pearl Drops toothpaste, a slurry of Comet cleanser & ATF, even red auto body [rubbing] compound will work very well and cut the frustration too.

[pearson1662]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

[DLCTEX]

Insert a screw into the center of the base of a boolit cast in the cavity, remove the head and chuck it in a varible speed drill. Using Comet, Bon Ami, whitening tooth past, or various mildly abrasive products with oil or water, spin the boolit slowly as you carefully close the mold on it. Search the archives for Leementing a mold. The boolit should drop freely with at most a gentle tap on the handle rivot. After a further look at the dings, you may need to scrape any protrusions with an exacto knife, or similar tool, but only scrape anything that protrudes into the cavity. DALE

[longbow]

I'm with Dale and I would start with removing burrs or fins at the edge of the cavity first.

You could try either "ironing" the seam edge with a center punch or pin punch just lightly pressed at the seam edge and dragged carefully around the cavity edge. Very small burrs can be removed this way. Don't use much pressure on the punch though or you will wind up with a bevelled edge.

Larger burrs or fins may require the Exacto knife treatment and polishing.

Longbow