Tried something new with my moulds...

[Boerrancher]

I have been meaning to post about this for a few weeks now, but it would seem every time I log on to do so, I get distracted reading all the new info that with my ADD riddled brain I forget about my post. Well, No distractions I have done all of my reading earlier and I am not going to look at anything until I am done. That said, Here it is:

I had been reading about folks spraying their moulds with drop out and spray on graphite. It put me to thinking about how I use to lube my rifle in the desert. While I was waiting for the furnace to heat up I grabbed a couple of my Lee moulds that were a bit tricky on dropping the boolit. It would seem that they wanted to hang on a bit longer than I liked. With those two molds in hand I grabbed a No 2 pencil from my oldest daughter's back pack along with her pencil sharpener and put a nice sharp point on the pencil I had confiscated.

I than began to lightly draw with the pencil point in all of the corners and edges of the moulds, stopping only to resharpen the pencil. Once I had all of the tight places coated(lube groves, and rotating bands) I then lightly scribbled over the rest of the mold cavity and then blew out any of the remaining dust. By the time I had finished with both moulds The pot was nearly ready to cast so I set the two molds on top of the pot, and got my boxes and padding ready for boolits and sprues.

I was very pleased to find that my boolits dropped out of the moulds with out so much as a tap, and the fill out was great, nice clean sharp edges on the boolits. I only had 2 culls out of a run of 500, and they were my fault as I filled them to slowly. I knew there had to be a poor man's way of getting easy drop outs with out spending any money or time, and it seems the good old No 2 lead pencil is it.

For those of you who have ordered all of those fancy release agents in the last few weeks, sorry about my ADD and my failings to post this. I promise to do better the next time I make a money saving discovery.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

An ADD riddled Joe

[jhrosier]

Thanks Joe,
Better late than never.:drinks:
I have a couple of moulds that may benefit from this.

Jack

[sundog]

Joe. mould prep is often one of the culprits when used improperly and/or so long that a build up begins. A good sharp lead pencil has always worked well for me cleaning the nooks and crannies. I use mould prep regularly, my own technique with a qtip, on other than aluminium moulds. To me, mould prep on aluminium is a nono.

Another thing that sometimes helps a cantancorous iron mould is a thorough cleaning and a cold reblue, cavities and and all.

[Boerrancher]

To me, mould prep on aluminium is a nono.


I use to think this way as well, but I got tired of tapping on the handle hinge bolt forever in order to get my boolits to drop out of these two moulds. I tried smoking then and that didn't work, so the only other thing I could think of was the light coating of graphite from a sharp No 2 pencil. These are the first lee moulds I have ever had any issues with. They already drop a bit larger than I would like with the alloys that I use, so to me the option of polishing them more is out.

Best Wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[44man]

Rapine mold prep works on all molds. It is micro fine graphite.

[leftiye]

NEI mold prep - graphite - apply w/ q-tip. No problem. I like the pencil too!

[DLCTEX]

I have been using the pencil for several months now and it works well on aluminum also. DALE

[oso]

Dang it, been using a blunt carpenter's pencil. Shoulda realized I was missing the fine details. Now i have to sharpen a knife to sharpen the pencil!

[leadeye]

I will have to give that a try, I have a RCBS 45-405 that is sticky about releasing.

[Boomer Mikey]

+1 on the cold blue, bullets seem to jump out... helps prevent rust too.

Boomer :Fire: