Fixing a pitted iron mould

[Gewehr-Guy]

I have a 4 cavity Lyman 311403 that has some rust pitting in one cavity near the parting line. the bullet usually has a small bit of lead protruding off the side of the flat nose, just a little to thick to easily scrape off with my fingernail.

Has anyone ever tried to fill pits with anything, like Liquid Steel or a Devcon product, and had it stay on the mould with the high heat involved ? Would the hot lead stick to a metal filled epoxy product?

[country gent]

Most home grade epoxies start to soften around 400* some industrial grades will go up to 600* Most moulds run in the 350* - 400* range so epoxy is out. A pit is a bigger problem as the material is gone. A ding can be worked back as the material is still there. Would need to see pics of blocks and where the pits are and if they can be repaired.

[Jack Stanley]

Send Eric Ohlen an E-mail I think he had a method .

Jack

[MT Gianni]

When I first started buying molds I got a few that had a punch mark in the nose to identify cavities for orientation. If it shoots fine don't worry about it.

[Fishman]

I used mold release spray on a couple of badly pitted molds with success. The technique was to spray the release on after casting a few bullets. Then spin a bullet in the cavity with some very fine abrasive like bore paste. The pits will stay filled with the release while the rest gets abraded away. Doesn't take too much. Then cast and make sure your bullets aren't too small.

I don't know how long the release will stay but I have casted a few hundred bullets in two or three sessions and the molds are still working fine.