Can this mold be recovered?

[Al_Bundy]

Bought a $10 burner to heat my mold but after reading the temp with a laser it could only reach about 200F. This lead to a lot of wacking on the side of the mold to release the bullets and it got messy from the inside with bits of lead clinging inside and on top of the below the sprue plate.


Is the first option to heat up the mold and scrape the lead with a wooden pick and what can i find at my local CVS or hardware store to clean the mold from any residue left over?


http://i63.tinypic.com/9tz8sh.jpg http://i66.tinypic.com/14ccv0n.jpg

[country gent]

A wood popcycile stick with the end cut square will push a lot of that off with little force The point of a bamboo skewer stick will clean the grooves easily. What dosnt come off with this you can carefully heat the blocks and wipe off with a coarse cloth, burlap, heavy flannel or denim work well. Final clean with dish soap and water with a tooth brush.

[Al_Bundy]

Thanks I'll try that

[Yodogsandman]

You can also heat it up to casting temperature and rub with a cold ingot.

[Traffer]

It looks better than the molds I use. I clean stuff with Synthetic ATF. But then you have to clean the atf off well with alcohol. Seriously though, at least it is not scratched up. I can tell you what not to use... wire brush, sand paper, hydrochloric acid, oven cleaner, Comet cleanser, wood chisel, heavy rasp, grinding wheel... all these things could cause harm to the aluminum block of your nice mold.

[too many things]

Kroil and dont clean it off

[Dennis Eugene]

Nope can't be salvaged at all. Just send it to me and I will dispose I of it for you free of cost. You only pay for shipping. Glad to be able to help. D. C.

[Al_Bundy]

I was able to scrape most of the clumps of lead droplets by scraping with a wooden kabob pick. Soap and scrubbed with a toothbrush and heated up to 300 for a final wipe down. I dabbed some CLP brake cleaner over outside of the mold but I can't seem to get rid of the charred areas. Do you guys mostly have sparkly mirror finish molds or does the charred marks give it character and should be left alone? Gonna try my luck casting with it again tomorrow. Sending the hot plate back as it only gets my mold up to 300 and shuts off when it reaches max temp. I had better results when I left it hanging over the casting pot.

[D Crockett]

what I do to get the mold up to temp. is just dip one corner of the mold in the lead for a few seconds bring it right up to where I can cast with it . hope this helps . D Crockett

[seaboltm]

Oven cleaner

[country gent]

Be carefull with oven cleaners some will etch aluminum. the outside can be cleaned with a scratch pad if you want to. but it dosnt matter a lot.

[John Boy]

Is the first option to heat up the mold
Yep - got a gas kitchen stove or an electric one?

[HeavyMetal]

country Gents info is the best, the wood popsicle stick and bamboo are the ticket.

Also, as you've just learned, the mold needs to be hotter. If you can't find an open top coil hot plate cheap dip a corner of the mold in the alloy your using until the lead doesn't stick to the mold, being very careful how far into the alloy you go, alloy will fill guide pin holes and all kinds of fun stuff happens after that, LOL!

It is easier to cool the mold than it is to get it hot so have at it!

I have found that if I set my hot plate at just under medium with my custom made steel mold holder set on the coils I can have the molds and the alloy ready to go just about the same time, provided I give the hot plate a 5 minute head start!

Got my hot plate at wal mart of under 20 bucks but that was a few years ago, it is absolutely positively a fact that you need one with the exposed coil heating element the enclosed type will not get hot enough, or worse, will self destruct from internal heat after a session or two of casting, I've had my unit at lest 6 years and it's never failed me!

HM

[vzerone]

No that mold is shot. You had better send it to me so I can put it rest! [smilie=1:

[Grmps]

You could dip the whole mold in the lead, I dip most of the mold in when I do 2 hardnesses of lead in 1 boolit

Sometimes the ole grey matter works a little slow:
I have flooded the affected surface with 750 - 800* lead and the specks peeled off with the lead.

[HanaHH]

Please write after you try how you did it and what is results. I'm interested in. Also, have one similar situation.

[jonp]

fill a glass with Kroil and let it soak for a week. Clean with Comet and a Toothbrush. Ignore what's left and try casting, if it works don't worry about the color

[ascast]

degrease it, soak in Mercury for a bit, remove it spray off and start casting. Lead dissolves in Mercury at room temp. be careful -no little ones around

[Moleman-]

heat it up till the lead melts and wipe it off with a dry cotton cloth. Those yellow fuzzy cotton gloves at the hardware store work great for soldering. Get a little solder where you don't want it, you can wipe it away with those gloves before it solidifies. If they're damp that can give you a steam burn though. Works the same on an aluminum mold.

[Traffer]

I heat my molds up with a propane torch. Gotta be careful not to burn the handles but it works QUICKLY. I got a hotplate because people were saying that is the way to go. I don't use it at all anymore. Once my mold is hot I mold them up quickly. That way the mold doesn't have a chance to cool down. I generally do about 8 moldings per minute. That works for me. It may be against everything that a person should do, I don't know. It's just way it works for me. As far as having little bits of lead on the mold, the reason they are there is because the mold is too cool. I would just melt them off with a torch. Problem solved in a couple of minutes.

[Bent Ramrod]

Unless the “baked-on grime” keeps the blocks or the sprue plate from closing right, ignore it and keep on casting.

Keep mercury away from aluminum! The only reason aluminum metal exists is because it forms a thin, hard, invisible coat of aluminum oxide on its surface when exposed to air. This coating protects the rest of the aluminum.

Mercury will amalgamate in the surface of the aluminum, bringing fresh aluminum to the surface to be oxidized. The oxide, which would normally stay on the surface, will slough off, allowing fresh aluminum to be oxidized.

I read up on this after an ill-starred attempt to get mercury out of mercury batteries. I ran the paste through an aluminum funnel at one point, and then occupied my attentions to further separation attempts. After about an hour, I happened to glance at the funnel, and saw that it was full of white “feathers” and too hot to pick up with my hands.

After frantic washing, oiling, and rechecking to make sure the reaction had stopped, I saw that the inside of the funnel had been etched and pitted. Didn’t ruin the funnel, but it would have messed up a mould cavity.

Mercury doesn’t amalgamate iron or steel, so you can use it to get lead off that. But don't try it with brass or aluminum.

[ascast]

hummph! I would swear I have used Mercury on Aluminum blocks, but better to err on the side of caution and not do it. I have used it many times on steel or iron blocks and barrels.

I stand corrected

[Al_Bundy]

Welp i've done goofed up my 2nd mold in the same month. Starting to feel bad for abusing Amazon's return policy and the free shipping included. Ordered a 3rd for the 457-405 and picked up a 6 hole mold for 45's. I'm not quire sure what caused that chunk of aluminum from the mold to come out, could be the pliers i used for extracting very stubborn bullets or the wacking from a wooden mallet on the back of the blocks. At one point the mold was really hot and freely releasing the bullets and that was achieved by speed casting a dozen or so without inspecting bullets so that i dont lose the heat in the mold block. yeah i know im pretty bad at this but i'll get it eventually. Also returning the hot plate because it just doesn't get my mold hot enough. I just remembered i have a hot air station i can hover the mold to directly head the inside as opposed to heating from the outside with a hot plate.

http://i65.tinypic.com/14ce150.jpg

[Bent Ramrod]

As my old Department Head used to say:

“Experience is gained in direct proportion to the amount of equipment ruined.”

There’s always a “lab fee” for getting up and running. You will get there eventually.

I am surprised the boolits were sticking that badly. Haven’t had the problem on even Lee moulds. I find with aluminum moulds that it does help to smoke the cavities, faces and top with a BIC lighter before use. Or get some Mould Prep and spray that on.

[MT Gianni]

If a stubborn bullet will not extract with a gloved finger the mold is too cool. I suggest you stay away from the pot for a few days and spend a few hours in the "stickies". Get the mold warm, especially with a 6 cavity pour one cavity then empty it adding another after the third pour. Go over your mold with a magnifier and get rid of all the burrs. Get some sprue plate lube. Never hit a mold anywhere other than when cutting the sprue, with a lee 6 use their handle. If the bullets stick, hit the handles at the joint.

[ascast]

Wow !

[Traffer]

Yes +2 on studying the stickies. I am going to give some very basic advise here: HEAT UP YOUR MOLD. KEEP IT HOT. IT WOULD NOT BE A BAD IDEA TO SMOKE THE MOLD. When I first started, until I got better at it, I smoked the mold. It helps a lot to release the boolits. Once you get the process down you will not need to do it anymore.

[longbow]

And another vote for get the mould hotter!

I pre-heat the mould until the sprue plate lube just starts to smoke which is a bit too hot. The mould should (in my opinion) be almost at the melting point of lead when you start to cast. The first few casts take a while to harden then the mould settles in and I can cast a a steady rate and that's another pointer, don't keep stopping to inspect boolits, Get casting at a good and steady rate then after you have a pile put the mould on a hot plate and take a look at the boolits. If wrinkled turn up the heat some and cast faster. If good then carry on.

If you keep stopping to inspect you will not keep the mould hot enough.

Also, don't bash on the mould blocks. If you have to persuade boolits to leave the cavities tap the mould handles at the pivot screw. That will shake the mould blocks without harming them and boolits should drop out fairly easily. If they don't the mould is too cold or there are burrs. If there are burrs read about "Leementing" or lapping in the stickies to solve that.

[country gent]

Tap the hinge pin in the handles to release bullets. A hammer handle ( no head) held backwards works well. A piece of dowel rod 1"-1'1/4" works good also, if you want to get real fancy with it a piece of tygon tubing that fits snug over each end provides good grip and added cushioning. A 8onze dead blow hammer works really nice also. For really sticky bullets a ice pich with a chisel point 1/8" - 3/16 wide flat and an edge can be used to push them out by the base only. Put the edge in the sprue cut out and lightly push

[Gaseous Maximus]

I've used a propane torch to heat my molds, have other times left the sprue plate open and poured directly into the cavity, and let it set for a few seconds before opening. true the sprue plate doesn't get heated this way, but I haven't found it to be an issue. I use 2 and 6 cav. lee moulds.

[skeet1]

I had a new mold that looked just like that. I tried several things without success, then as a last ditch effort I used a burnzomatic torch and heated up the blocks and when hot, wiped them with a clean rag. The mold has been working ever since.

Ken

[LAKEMASTER]

This situation constantly happens to me with my RD NOE mold.

An old credit card pops everything out.

I had this happen to me with my 6 cavity lee mold during the first use.

Same remedy.

[Al_Bundy]

Both new molds arrived and i prepped them and the six cavity drops all very easily, once it got hot enough there were no wrinkles. the new 45-70 dropped them easily at first but they were wrinkled. once it settled in, i had to vigorously shake the handles but they released without any hitting and they were clean looking. First casting session that wasn't frustrating.

[AmandaThompson01]

Looking for Such Info Since Long time. Thanks

[john.k]

I dont normally give warnings.............If you vaporize mercury you will have a situation...to put it mildly.

[John Boy]

Welp i've done goofed up my 2nd mold in the same month. Starting to feel bad for abusing Amazon's return policy and the free shipping included.Did the vendor send you a citation for the condition of the mold stating: Assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder? :holysheep

[Traffer]

Looking for Such Info Since Long time. Thanks

I take it you are a foosball person. I was into foosball in the 70's. We played on Garlando tables. Don't even know if they make them anymore. I never did get used to the other brands. Garlandos had the all same color men. No multicolored paint.