TexasGrunt
03-16-2017, 06:29 PM
USPS dropped of a new to me mold today. A Lyman 358 156 with handles. I was busy casting tail spinner bodies, 300 with a single cavity, so I just took the mold off the handles and put it in my Kroil pan.
Once I was done with the lure bodies I restocked the pot with boolit alloy and started cleaning up the mold. It might need a soak in EvapoRust as there's a bit in cavities. Anyways I scrubbed it down, put it back together, and started casting. Did 6 runs to get it hot then used some brake cleaner to remove the Kroil from the cavities. After that it took about three casts to get going. After that it started to drop the prettiest boolits. Once cavity is a bit sticky due to some hard surface rust in the nose but that's easy to solve.
I bought this mold with the idea that it used a gas check. My mold doesn't use one. It has a full size base band. That's ok with me since I either PC or Hi-Tek. The curious thing about this mold is there are three small holes next to one of the cavities. They are about 3/32 deep and pretty clean looking, almost like they were drilled.
I just love it when a evilBay purchase works. It's always exciting to get a new mold. I've been trying really hard to get a good mold, aka not Lee, for my .45 ACP. Haven't been able to pick one up at a decent price yet. I'll keep trying.
Once I was done with the lure bodies I restocked the pot with boolit alloy and started cleaning up the mold. It might need a soak in EvapoRust as there's a bit in cavities. Anyways I scrubbed it down, put it back together, and started casting. Did 6 runs to get it hot then used some brake cleaner to remove the Kroil from the cavities. After that it took about three casts to get going. After that it started to drop the prettiest boolits. Once cavity is a bit sticky due to some hard surface rust in the nose but that's easy to solve.
I bought this mold with the idea that it used a gas check. My mold doesn't use one. It has a full size base band. That's ok with me since I either PC or Hi-Tek. The curious thing about this mold is there are three small holes next to one of the cavities. They are about 3/32 deep and pretty clean looking, almost like they were drilled.
I just love it when a evilBay purchase works. It's always exciting to get a new mold. I've been trying really hard to get a good mold, aka not Lee, for my .45 ACP. Haven't been able to pick one up at a decent price yet. I'll keep trying.