a problem that won't stop (lava effect in mold)

[ENFIELD303]

i am having one hell of a time pouring lead into my lyman 303 mold no matter how hot i get the mold or how watery my lead is it always produces a lava effect (layers) wth?

my .40 s&w mold produces some of the nicest boolits i've seen but my .303 mold just ticks me off, am i doing something wrong?

[oneokie]

Your mould is contaminated. Clean it again. Use brake cleaner, boil it with Dawn™ dish soap, scrub it with toothpaste, boil it again.

[Buckshot]

.............I take it that the '.303' boolit is the Lyman 314299? Pouring a short fat peestol boolit (40) is a lot more forgiving then a long skinny rifle boolit. And if by 'watery' you mean really hot alloy then my first thought of too cool blocks is maybe not right. If so I concur with oneokie that your blocks aren't clean. Follow his instructions, and then clean them again.

................Buckshot

[legend]

sure sounds like it needs a good cleaning.

if that dosent work well lightly carbon,bet it clears up.

[missionary5155]

Good morning Clean and HOT HOT HOT.
If that does not work you will have to resort to 3 eagle feathers, a smoky fire....
Mike in Peru

[Recluse]

Once you get the mould cleaned up, you might also consider ladle-pouring those boolits.

As Buckshot pointed out, big difference between casting short, squatty boolits and long, skinny boolits.

I ladle pour all of my long, skinny boolits. Bottom pour (most) of my short, squatty boolits.

:coffee:

[Ben]

Ditto.........to Recluse's comments ! !

If the mold is 101% super. squeaky. clean and you ladle pour and don't get good bullets, I'd be suspect of contaminated alloy.

Can you pour any other long rifle bullet with that alloy and the bullets look OK with that particular alloy. If so, it is the mold that isn't clean yet.

Traces of oil can get into the pores of the steel on molds and take many casting sessions and MANY cleaning sessions before they are every clean and cast a decent bullet.

Some are worse about this than others ?

You might want to look at this link on cleaning molds:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=32213



Ben

[1Shirt]

Like Ben, I suspect contaminated alloy. However, if it is the mold, clean per inst. from the others and then start again.
1Shirt!:coffee: