Cantankerous Mold?

[JDL]

The most disagreeable mold in my collection is an Orange and Black box Lyman 31141, a double cavity that is possessed. Smoked, unsmoked, hot, cold, night, day, fair, raining, or moon phase....... nothing will make the front cavity drop a good boolit. Everything looks good, until the crimp groove on the left side is inspected and it will be noticed that the band is slighty rounded at the front. Not just randomly but, every one consistantly. The right side is perfect. It has been cleaned with hot, soapy water and even break cleaner to no avail. The rear cavity will sometimes display this same trait but, mostly drops good boolits. I cast some today and only had a 30% success rate. :-( I'd be more than intrested if someone had a solution to my delimma. Thanks
JDL

[SWIAFB]

JDL, SEND IT TO ME , I'll see if I can make it run. SWIAFB

[Doc Highwall]

I have a solution, ship it to me I will make it work.

[felix]

Joe, assume the metallurgy is screwed up there giving various unknown characteristics. The mold is trash. So, knowing that, I would try and salvage it by spinning boolits in it with simichrome, flitz, etc. Use typical rotating technique by having a screw screwed into the center of the boolit that came out of that cavity. ... felix

[Cap'n Morgan]

I'll take a wild guess, and say you're laddle casting and trapping air while canting the mold.

[Bullshop]

I think if you vent the side that is causing the problem it will go away. I use an exacto knife to clean out the vent lines. I am betting that venting or rather lack of it is the problem.
BIC/BS

[Pat I.]

I'd size some and shoot em against the cavity that throws the good bullet to see if there's a difference.

[JDL]

Cap'n Morgan,
You are correct about laddle casting and that was my first thought also, so I scraped the vent lines so all were clear and deep. Nevertheless, I will fire up my bottom pour furnace and see if it helps.

Felix,
Good to hear from you! I will give the polishing a try if the bottom pour doesn't show improvement.

Bullshop,
I gave that a whirl too.

Pat I.,
I'm going to do just that when they cure for a week or two.

Thanks for all the replies fellows.
JDL

[madcaster]

JDL, SEND IT TO ME , I'll see if I can make it run. SWIAFB

Is this what you call REPOSSING?[smilie=1::bigsmyl2:[smilie=w:

[IcerUSA]

Once you get that mould up to temp I would take a couple nuts , 1/4-20 , and pour the lead thru the nut , put the nuts on the mould top , sprue plate off to the side , then once the mould has cooled you can apply what ever you are going to use for polish and rotate the boolits in the cavities , I would also switch them too keep the cavities close to each other for dims and weight .

Keith

[Steyr47]

"Cantankerous Mold"---I don't know enough to make a suggestion on how to fix it, but "Cantankerous Mold" would sure make a good name for someone on this site!
Steyr47

[Bret4207]

Cap'n Morgan,
You are correct about laddle casting and that was my first thought also, so I scraped the vent lines so all were clear and deep. Nevertheless, I will fire up my bottom pour furnace and see if it helps.


JDL


I don't know if this will help, but I'm a confirmed ladle man, this far at least, and you can pour without the ladle in contact with the sprue hole. I've been doing this for years with some moulds. Just aim for the hole and pour or if your ladle is shaped right you can rest it on the mould top and tip it so it pours into the hole nicely. I know all the books show the ladle in contact with the sprue, but you don't HAVE to do it that way.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Felix has a GOOD solution...
I just "Polished out" a .427 mold that just would not release with out serious wraps... all sorts of mixes.. temps.. all the way to 900F... Smoked.. checked under 10x magnification...
So I cast a Boolit of the hardest mix I have here. Plate removed and hex nut centered over hole. Permitted boolit and mold to cool. Added watered valve grinding counpound and spun boolit adding drops of water. Cleaned mold with water. Took just at 1 hour for the whole process.
Now if drops all mixes as easily as opening the mold. Bases are perfect and boolits look as nice as I have ever cast.
I also did a 41 Colt mold but to "Open up the nose area to be a bore rider". That one really casts a beautiful flat base smooth boolit.
God Bless you