Opinions?

[augois]

I have had a Lyman 266386 Mould for some time now, and never got around to trying it. It is intended to cast a 6.5mm 105gr Plain base bullet. Well, Today I thought to myself...(that bullet just looks too cute to not dump a few) so, I did. I learned 3 new things during this session:

1. I don't know everything
2. I am not as patient as I thought
3. Clearly this mould is a minion of the Devil himself!

This is by far the wrinklingest mould I have laid hands upon. Now, don't get me wrong....I don't consider myself as "Captain Castastic". However, I have done a bit, and used various moulds, though none as deviously evil (it's just such a cute little mould). I tried casting hot, fast, slow, pouring fast, and pouring slow. I finally got some decent bullets by casting fast, pouring fast, and not giving the mould a chance to breathe. I had to stop, because the handles were getting too uncomfortably hot to hold.

I have a couple of theories, see if I'm on the right track.

1. This is an old single cavity mould, that was made with Lyman's
tiny little blocks. My theory is that since the blocks are so small,
they cannot store enough heat and therefore cool too rapidly.
2. Upon study, amd reflection, it ocurred to me that the vent lines in
blockfaces are virtually non-existent, Thus trapping air in the cavity.

Am I close? Opinions? theories?

PS. to make matters worse, I laid my arm on a hot sprue and burnt the shinola out of myself.:twisted:

[Shotgun Luckey]

I hate to state the obvious, but my first 2 thoughts are:

1. did you SUPER degrease it and...

2. Is the sprue plate screwed down to tight to allow venting there also?

[augois]

I did Degrease it, but I never thought about the sprue plate.
Thanks.

[Bent Ramrod]

Some moulds often need "breaking in." Cast hotter than you normally do until the inner cavity is either yellow, purple or blue from oxidation, and leave the blocks open until they cool to room temperature when you're done.

It's sometimes taken me three or four sessions of this breaking in before a particularly balky mould has been cooked into docility and the boolits come out the way they are supposed to. Generally, though, the difference is quite noticeable the second time the mould is used. When they start coming out good, then I start reducing the casting temperature toward my more usual level.

[Piet]

I once had an 6.5 mm RCBS mold . I was nearly impossible to cast good bullets with this mold until the vent lines were enlarged.

[IcerUSA]

Picked up one of the GB moulds in 6.5 for my shooting buddy and he has to run that thing HOT to get good boolits out of it , seems like it is a close cousin to a 22 mould , not enough lead to keep it upto temp between pours unless you are casting like a mad man .

Just my thought.

Keith

[Ben]

It may take multiple attempts to de grease the mold ( while it is hot ), look at this thread.

You may be $3.00 away from success.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=32213

Once it is CLEAN and free of any cleaning agents, ( rinsed with clear tap water ), get the mold warm again with a propane torch, lightly soot it with a Bic lighter and you should be good to go.

Ben

[Bass Ackward]

If you use Hoppies Elite gun cleaner, that stuff was formulated for cleaning down to the pores in metal aircraft skins.

Clean with that stuff before using a mold for the first time and then keep a wet Q-Tip handy when your mold is hot in case you get lube in the cavity, and the need for all the old cleaning rituals disappear.

It will even remove light leading if you get that in or on your blocks too. But it is no cure all for lead on a hot block and it still best avoiding that problem altogether.

[augois]

Today I gave it another crack. I re-cleaned and degreased it, and sprayed some Frankford Arsenal Drop Out on it. WHAMOLA! Like a charm......my oh my, what pretty little bullets. Thanks all!







The more I think I know, the more I realize I don't know nothin'