Sloppy Molds

[rbwillnj]

I picked up a bunch of molds from a retired commercial caster. Most of the molds were in great condition, but some show their age.

On several of the molds, the holes that the alignment pins mate with are enlarged so that there is a lot of slop/play when the halves go together. The cavities are good, and the halves go together with no gaps. Is there a fix??? They are Lyman molds.

[theperfessor]

You can probably fix them by carefully driving out the pins a little bit until the play disappears. Might want to chamfer the mating holes a little bit to make the opening round and help guide the extended pin into the unworn part of the hole.

Patience is a virtue when doing this!

[Greg5278]

I would get someone to install hardened steel bushings. They will last longer, and keep the mold in alignment. If you keep tapping the pins deeper, it will eventually wallow out the holes even more. The other option would be to bore out the pins to a larger size.
Greg

[HeavyMetal]

You've had two good suggestions, the real question is just how bad are the pins and holes?

If it's just a "mild" bit of Damage to the pin / hole area Driving each pin out a little farther and adjusting any Ovaling on the matching hole will give you stability for many more years with careful use.

If it's more than that re drilling and adding bushings is required.

Be Aware this is not something to attempt with out a very good drill press and Vise, or better yet, a mill!

Any misalignment here will ruin the mold!


Several guys on the site should be able to fix these for you, Buckshot and Lathesmith are the first two to come to mind.

Good Luck.

[rbwillnj]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have two molds that may respond to a little adjustment of the pins, and two that I think are beyond that. They are two cavity Lyman Molds, and not rare ones, so its probably not worth the trouble to do hardened inserts. However, I do have a milling machine and could try it just for kicks if ever I find that I have nothing else to do.