Lube groove removal

[Krh1326]

Hi all!
Does anyone remove their lube grooves, in aluminum molds, if they strictly powder coat?

Asking for a friend,lol.

[megasupermagnum]

No, that would be a lot of work for no benefit, and make your mold essentially worthless to sell.

[Fitz]

I removed some for a mould I have for a 38-55 that i wanted to paper patch but I had two moulds for the same bullet , removing the grooves did increase the weight it did nothing for the accuracy .

[Geezer in NH]

I do not ever see myself powder coating boolits. I see no advantage over lubing in my lube-sizer in fact the time of PC and aggravation it looks like it sucks to me.

[GregLaROCHE]

I don’t think it would be that hard if you had some experience in that kind of work. I’ve often thought of doing the same thing to change a gas check mold to a plain base.

[hermans]

Hi all!
Does anyone remove their lube grooves, in aluminum molds, if they strictly powder coat?

Asking for a friend,lol.

Hi Krh1326

Tell your friend...ha ha....he should leave the mold as is, this way you have the best of both worlds since grooved boolits powder coat and shoot just as well as those without. And if you decide not to powder coat for some reason, you can still lube them and shoot them as usual.
I have both types of molds for the same boolit, and and in hind sight I would next time just buy a grooved mold.

[oley55]

Keep the grooves.

Besides the points already mentioned, there may be a point in our future when reliable electrical service may become hit or miss. One can lube bullets without an oven, cooking PC'd bullets not so much.

No I am not a prepper, but I keep thinking I maybe should be. lol

[Soundguy]

that last one is a good point!

[stubshaft]

No, but I have bought molds designed with no lube grooves specifically designed to PC. I have to say that without the lube grooves the bullets fall out of the mold much faster and have much fewer flaws.

[Krh1326]

I was thinking along the lines of cleaning up particular boolits that were meant for one thing, but used in another …. Ex : 170FPs and 180 rn .308s, going into a blackout case. Nice to not see the exposed grove, and have the extra space to play with col and crimp.

[rintinglen]

Make sure you save the lube grooves if you do, so you can resell them to the lube groove dealers.:kidding:

[atfsux]

I recently bought out a commercial caster and now possess all 3 of his Magma Bullet Masters and the 45 sets of molds. He was old school and never bothered trying the coated bullet thing, probably considering it a fad, not a trend or movement. He also marketed almost exclusively to SASS competitors, who until recently also shied away from poly-coated projectiles. That is changing, however.

So I intend to focus on offering primarily poly-coated projectiles, although we will also keep doing plain wax-lubed cast for those who still desire it. All of the molds that came with this purchase were of course all grooved. Nothing wrong with that. Plenty of other suppliers offer their Hi-Tek or powder-coated projectiles with the lube groove. But there is a small subset of customers out there who feel (whether right or wrong) that having a completely smooth-sided boolit without a lube groove means more engagement with the rifling, which they interpret to mean a more accurate boolit. That's what they want,...and the customer is always right.

But rather than going to Magma and buying new sets of molds, I wondered how hard it would be to simply modify some of the ones I already have in my newly acquired stockpile. For instance, with some of these designs, like the 9mm 125grn. RN and the .38 158grn. SWC, I have 2 full sets of each. I could choose to modify the spare 8 mold set for each caliber. And would that be cheaper?

I looked online to see if anyone had done this, and in fact I found a YouTube video from a handloader in Germany who had simply taken his Dremel tool and, with nothing more than his steady hand and naked eye, had VERY carefully ground out the protruding ridge in the molds that create the lube groove. He insisted that even if he had accidentally gone a little too deep or removed just a smidge too much material, that was OK because it would all be corrected in the sizing process. In fact, he also insists that being too careful and conservative when removing the ridges was worse than removing too much for the very same reason. Too much material removed from the molds can be compensated for, but not removing enough cannot.

But I don't know if I trust myself to do that kind of micromachining surgery. Maybe I'll just take them to a machinist. But will that actually be any cheaper than buying new molds? I don't know.

Perhaps I'll experiment on one of the lesser popular molds that I have an extra of, just to see if I can do it and how well it turns out.

[schutzen-jager]

I do not ever see myself powder coating boolits. I see no advantage over lubing in my lube-sizer in fact the time of PC and aggravation it looks like it sucks to me.

totally + completely agree - complicated, time consuming, + expensive process that provides no actual benefits over long time proven, effective methods -

[poppy42]

Because fire won't exist without electricity ? lol

Really? So all those campfires I started out in the woods, with no electricity, Were not really a fire? In that case I guess neither was my charcoal grill! I’m sure glad ya told me. Next time I go camping I’ll make sure I bring 50 miles worth of extension cords with me. Hey I just thought of something! Can ya light a candle without electricity? ��

[Winger Ed.]

I wouldn't bother.

If you're into that fad of powder coating, the grooves don't affect it.
If you don't grind the grooves out just right, you may have a problem of boolits not wanting to release from the mold.

[Dom]

I have found that those molds made by Lee for their tumble lube work quite well for PC. After 60 yrs of traditional lubing, I have switched to PC. It has worked great for me. Shinny clean bores , shot after shot. Mold makers like Accurate & NOE make the slab sided molds for PC. I have had perfect success with the grooved molds I have , so haven't tried hem.

[1eyedjack]

OK I'm going to fess up..... I bought a lee 6 banger tumble lube 9mm modified nose mold from their closeout section. I powder coat my boolits. Tried some of them coated and sized , was not happy ,keyholing and pattern groups. Carefully took a .360 reamer to the mold, yeah I know Bubba strikes again! Remember a closeout mold with flawed noses ( cheap) no big loss if it doesn't work. Mold rains boolits at .360 PC and size to .356 for my 9mm decent accuracy and no keyhole. Winner winner chicken dinner in my book.

[ioon44]

Make sure you save the lube grooves if you do, so you can resell them to the lube groove dealers.:kidding:

Yep, that is what I do with mine.

[JSnover]

It wouldn't be that tough but I wouldn't bother; been down too many rabbit holes already. If I had more spare time and a 'beater' aluminum mold I might play with it but as a serious project, it's a lot easier to just buy the mold you're looking for.

[GONRA]

GONRA thinks ATFSUX is just gonna ruin his mould! !!

[MT Gianni]

I have an accurate brand 9mm mold that is groove less. Bullets fall like rain. You could drill out a lee mold if you wanted, they are cheap enough. For the cost of a good mold, I would get a NOE or Accurate mold.

[475AR]

Yes, Erik at Hollow Point Bullet Molds https://www.hollowpointmold.com/ can remove the lube grooves. I had him do it to a mold that had a damaged groove and his work was great and now the bullets fall out and are much more accurate now. When I bout the mold online it looked like someone tried to remove a bullet from the mold with a pick of some sort and damaged the bottom groove of a 2 groove 44 mag 320gr mold. I had Erik remove both grooves as I had planned to powder coat the bullets.

[firefly1957]

I have not had any issues with grooves on powder coated bullets so I would not bother .

[popper]

If you try, don't remove all the groove - leave some for alloy 'collection'. My pistol molds are all normal grooves, even PCd. Never used grease/wax lube on any bullets.