How to Break in Accurate Aluminum Mold

[Taterhead]

I received my first Accurate mold. Nice looking! I searched tha FAQs on Tom's site and searched here. Turned up nothing. Does anyone know Accurate's recommendation for breaking in a new aluminum mold? If I didn't turn up anything, I was going to follow the heat cycle procedure like NOE recommends.

[John Boy]

Heat to 400 degrees - hold for 5 minutes - cool to room temperature - repeat 2 -3 times

[ShooterAZ]

Same procedure as Noe molds for any aluminum mold. I use a hot plate.

[Taterhead]

Perfect. Thanks guys.

[Outpost75]

What I do is to take the new blocks out of the box and brush the cavities and entire surface of the blocks with Palmolive dishwashing detergent, then put in a coffee can, enough tap water to cover, then boil for 20 minutes. With whatever is in our municipal water the combination colors the blocks a nice uniform gray color all over, and upon pre-heating the mold on a Proctor Silex electric hotplate, at medium calibrated with 350 degree Tempilstik crayon mark on the blocks, no smoking necessary and I get good castings from nearly the first pour, no further break-in needed. YMMV.
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[bosterr]

The most I do is scrub with dishwashing detergent and a tooth brush. After preheating on a hotplate, Tom's molds make perfect boolits right from the start.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Scrub new mold in Dawn dish soap then rinse in hot water. Assemble and pre heat on hot plate and cool, do this twice then start casting.Robert

[waco]

Tom said he cleans his molds in an ultra sonic cleaner IIRC. He said just open the package and start casting.

[Bohica793]

I clean mine with brake cleaner, air dry them, heat them up and start pouring. As soon as the mold hits the right temp, the boolits drop perfectly.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

Tom said he cleans his molds in an ultra sonic cleaner IIRC. He said just open the package and start casting.

Thats all i did I had no issues

[longbow]

What boster and waco said! And luckydawg!

I don't ever do much of anything except pre-heat the mould then start casting. Never had a problem with iron, aluminum or brass moulds.

My Accurate mould is right up there with Mihec and NOE. Beautiful quality and casts right to spec. No mould prep, no problems. Mind you my Accurate mould is brass but I treat aluminum the same way... wipe of any obvious oil, pre-heat then cast.

YMMV but it works for me.

Longbow

[Beau Cassidy]

Am I doing something wrong? I just fire up the the pot and start pouring. I let the molten lead burn off any residual oil as it heats up the cavities.. Within just a few minutes I am rolling like normal. Never a problem doing it this way and that's with all molds I buy.

[TomAM]

I received my first Accurate mold. Nice looking! I searched tha FAQs on Tom's site and searched here. Turned up nothing. Does anyone know Accurate's recommendation for breaking in a new aluminum mold? If I didn't turn up anything, I was going to follow the heat cycle procedure like NOE recommends.

When ordering from my website, mold maintenance instructions appear just before you configure and price the mold.
You would not have seen that, having bought a "lost" mold.

The instructions mention only the occasional drop of lube, especially for the sprue plate.

Baking the mold is never needed, and I don't advise it. Cleaning the mold is virtually never needed.

Just cast with it.

Thanks!

[Dan Cash]

I do what Tom said. Works for me but then I am not into VODOO.

[Taterhead]

When ordering from my website, mold maintenance instructions appear just before you configure and price the mold.
You would not have seen that, having bought a "lost" mold.

The instructions mention only the occasional drop of lube, especially for the sprue plate.

Baking the mold is never needed, and I don't advise it. Cleaning the mold is virtually never needed.

Just cast with it.

Thanks!

This is great. Well, I'll remember this for next time. I did a couple of heat cycles on this one before I saw this post. Very nice looking mold. Likely won't be my last Accurate mold.

Thanks Tom.

[Cue]

All I have ever done with my NOE molds is just heat them up and start casting, once up to temp the bullets were perfect.

[Shepherd2]

All I've ever done with my new Accurate Molds is scrub them wish dish soap and a tooth brush and start casting. Now that I know that Tom cleans the moulds with an ultrasonic cleaner I'll eliminate that step.

[flint45]

I have six Accurate molds all I have ever done is just bring up to temp. and start casting they are great molds.

[Grmps]

The "fine print" on NOE molds wants you to heat cycle the mold, not for castability but to set/seat their alignment pins in the aluminum blocks

[badgeredd]

I do what Tom said. Works for me but then I am not into VODOO.

Clean it and cast. Done.