Help with 7mm Soupcan

[280Ackley]

I got my first gang mold last week and went out to try it tonight. It is a Lee 6 cavity 7mm soupcan. Cleaned it with brake cleaner and then went to casting. The mold seemed much slower to come up to temp than my DC moulds. I didn't start getting decent boolits until the melt got up to around 700 and had started to frost. And by the time I started to get good fill out and no wrinkles my little lee 10 lb pot was already getting low. Other than get a bigger pot any suggestions? Do these gang molds require hotter melt?:?:

[35remington]

Get the mould quite hot before casting.

I have no problems with mine, as I have the same bullet design in six cavity from the original group buy. It's not surprising it takes the mould a while to warm up; there's a lot more aluminum and a lot more radiating surface than a double cavity mould.

Place the mould on your home range, with the burner on medium heat. When good and hot, dash to your already molten lead and have at it.

[lathesmith]

+1 to what 35remington said; I keep a small hotplate in the garage for pre-heating my molds. You can set them on the top of the pot and cover them with foil, but the hotplate works better. 6-bangers like to run HOT!
lathesmith

[mooman76]

You really have to have your stuff together with the Lee 6x moulds. You have to move at a good pace and have everything ready so nothing will slow you down. Yes they take more heat. You have to preheat the mould well and that includes the sprue cutter. You could if you have a big pot for ingots use that instead or make up some smaller ingots to add to the pot so he temp doesn't go down as much as you add and put your hot lead from the sprue plate back in while it's still hot.

[wildwes]

I cast over a coleman stove, and when I'm using lyman 6 cavities, or any other mold for that matter I just set the mold on the stove beside of the pot, the burner heats it up and I have no problems.