Aluminum, Brass, Steel moulds

[GregLaROCHE]

What is your preference, experience and why with different materials.

I started with aluminum Lee molds because of the price. So far I haven’t seen any problems with them. I have a Pedersoli mold in steel that casts great round balls, but also a Lyman in steel that casts crap, mainly because the mold has tooling marks. I haven’t yet owned a brass mould, but MP molds in brass, are looking interesting.

[Targa]

MP molds are outstanding, well priced and will be at your door within the week. They are also priced lower than Lee molds right now.....goofy world isn't it. One of my MP molds below.

My favorite mold material is Aluminum. They are light weight, easy to maintain and quick to get to temperature.

[USSR]

My favorite mold material is brass. Have a bunch of Miha's hollowpoint molds. However, for non-HP molds, my favorites are the high quality brass molds by Tom at Accurate Molds.

Don

[country gent]

I dont normally give a direct recommendation here but a listing of each s properties and such letting the Op decide. So here goes

Aluminum: light weight, heats quickly, but cools quickly, softest material so needs more careful handling, No rust but will corrode in some conditions

Steel / cast iron: Heavier, heats slower but good transfer, Hardest of the 3 materials so can be handled rougher, also longest life, Will rust when not in use if not protected.

Brass: Heaviest of the materials: Heats very evenly and holds heat longest: mid way in hardness can be very long lasting. no rust but may stain under use,

[Petrol & Powder]

Country gent - Thank You, that was a concise summary of the material types used in molds.


I have molds constructed of all three of those materials and as stated, they each have pros and cons.
A good way to look at the choices (IMO) is to pick the traits you desire.

Aluminum is generally the least costly and always the lightest with all else being equal.
Brass is heavy, but like aluminum, it will not rust.
Iron is by far my favorite but the price you pay is the need to guard against rust and well....the actual price.

I'm willing to take the time to degrease iron molds before use but that's a personal choice.

Because I view molds as a "once in a lifetime" purchase, I make some additional sacrifices in time and effort to protect the molds from rust during storage. YMMV.

[monkey wrangler]

My personal choice is brass molds.

I have a couple aluminum molds and they loose the heat to fast for me. I have a hard time keeping them at that sweet spot for casting. They don't rust. They usually have 6-8 cavities.

I don't own any steel / cast molds. Most are single or double cavity at most I don't like the smaller mold as I cast a couple thousand boolits at a sitting.

Brass I have about a dozen molds so far. They retain the heat when I get to the sweet spot. When they get a little hot I set them down on the steel that I use for the casting table and they cool right down. I have never smoked a mold in my life and they still drop out easy. The weight makes my hands tingle a little bit when I start but I am able take a break with out loosing my heat. They don't rust. Finally the MP molds are just beautiful and most of mine are hollow point. I do own a couple NOE and they are beautiful as well just harder to get and not hollow point.

[PBaholic]

I have trouble with Aluminum 6 hole Lee molds. They gall at the sprue swing point, even when lubricated every time. Eventually they warp after about a year of use.

I've taken them apart, including removing the alignment pins, and wet sanded them to get a perfect fit again, but they don't last as long as new ones.

I make 3,000+ 45's a year, so maybe it's the number that I make.

[upnorthwis]

I used to be able to cast all day with a steel mold. Not any more. The wrist won't take it. It's all I can do to get a 10 lb. pot of 250 gr. 2 cav. cast before wrist start to hurt. Nothing but aluminum for me now.

[bangerjim]

I own probably every mold Lee has made because they were cheap back in the day. I bought, right up front every weight and design mold Lee sold for the 6 cal's I cast for at the time. Today that would take a small house improvement loan to buy that many, at the prices seen on-line! They are good molds but need TLC due to soft aluminum.

I only own two Fe/steel molds and those are 1 cavity and I hate them due to slow cumbersome way of casting one at a time.I have no problem with rust here in the desert but if you live in a humid/swampy area....BEWARE of RUST! I do not want to waste time greasing molds for storage and then having to clean the collected dust/dirt out of them due to the grease when I want to cast! Waste of my valuable time.

I now have a bunch of 4/5/6 cavity brass molds and I love them. Will never ever buy anything else. They LOVE heat but cast perfect boolits - especially the changeable HP pins ones! I cannot imagine casting HP boolits with a wooden knob thing sticking in a single cavity mold like in the olde days. These multi cavity removable/changeable pin molds are totally amazing. And PERFECT boolits rain out of them!!!!!

Brass molds are much heavier than Al, so if you have upper body problems, as many seem to comment on, you should be cautious.

Preheat ALL your molds on your electric hotplate to full casting temp (not just warm, as on the side of a pot!) B4 ever starting! And use that same plate to preheat all our feed ingots to 10-15°F below liquidous temp of your alloy to reduce/eliminate temp fluctuations in your pot while casting.

Good luck in your future mold choices!!!!!!!

banger

[Harter66]

I have 1-8 cav iron , 1-6 cav aluminum , and a lone brass mould from no less than 7 makers spread over 80 odd yr of manufacture .

The brass mould is a 5# tank that casts 380 or 417 gr plain or hollow base . It has a few tool marks , chatter mostly , but it casts well and allows me to do so at a leisurely pace . My gawd what a pain in the brass to get seasoned or patina or whatever , of course in the land of "what's rust" where exposed brass is more likely to be sand pitted than dull , it is self explanatory .

Iron , well now I live in the green hell where rain and sunshine run a close race for annual days I've picked up a few tricks and I can keep most of the rust at bay most of the time .
Singles and doubles regardless of bullet weight are probably the easiest to cast with for me . I can cast almost as fast as I can pour , they warm up pretty quickly and they are pretty easy to "get in a groove" with and just flow until the pot is ready to fill again .
A 4 cav 25 cal is a PITA to keep hot , I just can't pour fast enough without ladling over the pot or another heat source and stay in the groove .
The 8 Cav has a 1/4" steel sprue plate adding to it's 10# and the fact that it takes nearly a half lb of alloy to fill the sprue plate and 8 , 200 gr cavities , makes me very happy to only need/want to pour it 2-3 times a year 2-3 pots each time .

Aluminum . No rust , no wrestling for patina , and knock on wood I haven't had the backing out screws , face galling , warping , and general premature wear out . Yes they are easy to ding , net tool quality varies widely . They are generally , for the 2-3000 rn/yr caster , the best bang for the buck . The weight factor makes casting 500+ per set easy and you can pour just about as fast as you need or want . These are the most fussy about keeping the sprue plate hot . Larger calibers are easier to keep hot and actually run slower than smaller calibers . The ability to run 4,5,6 cavity moulds that are about the same weight as a 2 cavity iron and lighter than the brass behemoth is something I really like . Down to about 25 cal they're easy to set pace and run long sets in all counts the 4 cav 25-120 is a little bit particular about air movement and delays . The 5 c 22 62 gr and 37 gr I had were preheat pour 10 as fast as you can put it back in the oven for 5 min and repeat .

[beagle]

I have an old bronze Yankee for the .30 169 grain "Squib" design bullet. Casts the best of many moulds that I have. Don't care for aluminum and probably the meehanite moulds are the best casting available IMO./beagle

[GregLaROCHE]

For storing molds, I spray them down with Ballistol and keep them in a Tupperware type box in a humid basement. Never any corrosion issues. I don’t store my many Lee molds in their boxes. They are all together in a couple of large Tupperware boxes.

[Gtrubicon]

I have aluminum, brass and steel molds, I love the brass map molds, they are great but my old ideal molds are probably my favorite. They produce excellent boolits that I shoot the most.

[Mal Paso]

I have an old bronze Yankee for the .30 169 grain "Squib" design bullet. Casts the best of many moulds that I have. Don't care for aluminum and probably the meehanite moulds are the best casting available IMO./beagle

I think you have the 2 best materials for molds but the rarest. Bronze takes a much better patina than brass and meehanite is the best of the iron molds.

[gwpercle]

NOE Aluminum
Lee aluminum blocks 2 cavity have become too lean ... they loose heat too fast .
Noe overcame that problem by using much larger blocks .
My first mould was a 4 cavity and I was amazed at how heavy it was ... there is ample block material to hold decent heat . My favorite are NOE's 3 cavity moulds ...just right weight for us old dogs .
Gary

[todd2]

always had trouble with al wrinkles[smilie=b:why is that

[dh2]

Country gent - Thank You, that was a concise summary of the material types used in molds.


I have molds constructed of all three of those materials and as stated, they each have pros and cons.
A good way to look at the choices (IMO) is to pick the traits you desire.

Aluminum is generally the least costly and always the lightest with all else being equal.
Brass is heavy, but like aluminum, it will not rust.
Iron is by far my favorite but the price you pay is the need to guard against rust and well....the actual price.

I'm willing to take the time to degrease iron molds before use but that's a personal choice.

Because I view molds as a "once in a lifetime" purchase, I make some additional sacrifices in time and effort to protect the molds from rust during storage. YMMV.

I have come to prefer Brass molds just don't over heat them and they will do fine. Aluminum is also very good, I have no issue producing good bullets with is.
Steel to me it no problem to prevent rust I leave the last cast in my mold spur and all, no place for air and moister in them.
my issue with them is I find that most PCBS and Lyman molds cast small for my likings , this causes most of my Molds to be NOE,MP, and Accurate and to me Lee molds are the cheapest but you get what you pay for.

[bangerjim]

always had trouble with al wrinkles[smilie=b:why is that

Low temps on your alloy and molds! Preheat all your molds on an electric hotplate to FULL casting temp, not just warm as on the side of the pot in the old days.

I get perfect drops from the 1st pour on ALL my molds by preheating and making sure the alloy is at a good pouring temp (experience and guesstimates!)

That should solve most of your problems. Don't worry about oil. The old school method of cleaning and scrubbing and scrubbing and cleaning molds due to wrinkles has been proven wrong. Everything revolves around two things - TEMP and YOUR POURING CADENCE.

Good luck.

bangerjim

[lightman]

I have only ever owned aluminum and steel. Grandpa started off with a 2 cavity Lee mold, mostly due to the cheap price. It was a disaster and Grandpa tossed it pretty quick and bought a few steel Lyman molds. The cost was a lot more but the difference was like night and day. As I became an adult and started buying my own stuff I left Lyman and went to RCBS. They made and still make a great mold. The only problem is 2 cavities is the biggest they make.

My bad experience with Lee's aluminum mold kept me from buying aluminum until just recently when I bought my first Accurate mold. I have been tempted to order a brass mold, they sure look good.

This is not intended to bash Lee but their first molds just did not compare to what they make today.

[Targa]

I found just the opposite, I started with Lee molds and to this day they have been the most user friendly, forgiving molds I have cast with. I like my MP's, Arsenals and H&G molds, they are certainly better quality but for actual use my Lee's have not been beat.

[DocSavage]

Majority of my molds are aluminium from either NOE or Accurate the rest are either RCBS or Saeco. Had a brass mold from MP but sold it as the weight was agrivatong my carpel tunnel. I don't understand the aluminium is soft comments molds are precision items not meant to be knocked about.
You wouldn't abuse cast iron or brass molds so why do the same to aluminum.

[USSR]

I don't understand the aluminium is soft comments molds are precision items not meant to be knocked about.

DocSavage,

What they're talking about is the steel sprue plate scraping the top of the mold blocks.

Don