Bad mold

[shotman]

Most of you know by now Iam the guy that likes the Kroil on molds.
My shooting buddy called Sunday morning and He just got into casting about 2 years ago but dont do alot of it. He had a Lee 6 cav and said it would not cast any good boolits.[ it was a 45cav 255gr]. He said it had holes and wrinkles and not filled out . I run the questions by him , and said bring it out. He had the mold and can of the mold release spray with him. I looked at the mold and said I FIX. Got my Kroil and a old tooth brush and cleaned it up. I should have took pics but didnt have camera. Cleaned up great. I had the Lee pot on so it was ready to cast. I set the mold on the top for a while . He said he knew I liked the Kroil but He had not tried it. It took about 10 drops to get mold right and I cast 20lbs in about 30min. Didnt have to respray and most fell out. He left with a cottage cheese container full of boolits and a good mold . Said he was stopping by NAPA to get a can.

[Marlin Hunter]

Kroil doesn't cause contamination?

You put it in the mold cavities?

[shotman]

Yes and just wipe the wet off. He had so much mold release on the mold it was black all over

[Bret4207]

I've had zero luck with the spray on mould release garbage. It does make a fair spray lube though.

[cabezaverde]

I've had zero luck with the spray on mould release garbage. It does make a fair spray lube though.

Tell me about where and how you are using it. I have a couple of cans from my beginner days.

[cajun shooter]

Kroil should be in every man's work shop. If you have a gun that has any lead fouling at all just soak the barrel with it and let stand over night. Next day you will have a clean and shiney one. I put it in all my guns when they are first brought home to clean out all the stuff left my the maker. A new gun's barrell will produce a dirty brown patch when the Kroil is added.

[462]

A while back this topic was discussed, and I gave it a try on a Lyman 358311 that required several whacks with a rubber mallet before the boolits would drop -- even after lapping. What a difference the Kroil made! The boolits fairly dropped by themselves, and those that didn't would either shake out or required an ever-so-slight mallet tap.

Then, till a few days ago, I forgot about it. Then, prior to casting a few Lee 452-255s, I Kroiled the cavities with a Q-Tip and wiped off the excess with a clean cloth. The first two casts had slightly wrinkled boolits. After that, they were perfect and dropped either by themselves or with a slight tap.

Kroil works with both steel and aluminum moulds. I'm sold.

[mooman76]

I'll have to give it a try. I tried spray molly for a mould release years ago. It helped some but it's expensive and builds up after awhile and flakes off uneven. Not much fun to clean off either. I don't use any release now and don't really need it but like to try it for the cleaning factor.

[anachronism]

I've only found one good used for mold release. I spray it on cast bullets before running them through the sizer. The stuff sticks well & seems to help if I have to size the bullets more than just minimally. It's great for oversize bullets. I also didn't get any leading with those bullets either, but everything else was done right, so I didn't expect any issues.

[roadwarrior307]

I have a Lee 6 cavity .45 mold, and I like the bullets that come out of it, but the handle broke. I will send it back to Lee to have them repair it, but I wanted to know if anyone else had these kinds of problems with Lee molds, or if this was just one bad mold in the thousands Lee has made?

[mooman76]

Welcome to the board road warrior307. Are you talking the mould handle or the handle on the sprue plate?

[geargnasher]

Kroil? In the cavities? Really? Dang, Shotman, I'm sorry I didn't know you sooner as the man who likes Kroil on moulds, because I have one very stubborn mould that just won't drop boolits without beating it into submission, even after hours of work to the cavity. No burrs, no rough edges, no other problems at all, sticks to either block (cavity is centered), I have enlarged it and polished it, even went so far as to reblue the cavities, all to no avail. If your trick works I'll be one happy camper!

Gear

[Bret4207]

Tell me about where and how you are using it. I have a couple of cans from my beginner days.

I have a can of the Franklin Armory garbage from Midway. I use it on sliding surfaces, it's supposedly graphite after all. Stuff like that seems to work okay. It has no penetrating qualities. Don't use it where it'll show as it makes an ugly mess. Works decent on rusty surfaces as it fills the pits.

[462]

geargnasher,

Did the full treatment, same as you, on the 358311 with no reduction in the amount of beating required to drop the boolits. Kroil cured everything.