Cold wrinkles.

[hansumtoad]

OK.... I dont get it. Lyman 457196 for .455 Webley. 290 grain HB. Lead is 60:1 up to 775 degrees. Mold was heated on hot plate. Threw almost 60 bullets and still a HUGE wrinkle on one side above the grease grooves.

Inside of mold looks great. Boolits are like they're crome plated and drop very easily out of the mold. Cannot get rid of a wribkle that looks like the Grand Canyon.

Letting mold cool and soaking it in Kroil overnight for lack aof anything else to try.

Anyone got any ideas?

[bowhunter]

For the last two day's i have been fighting the same issue with a new 30cal. hp. Mold. The first couple of casting sessions the boolits were great,then all of a sudden i started getting wrinkles. I never thought the mold was to cool,i tried everything from different alloy to scrubbing my mold with soap and mineral spirits. My bullets were nice and shiney like chrome to, i turned up the heat and they still had wrinkles and were still nice and chrome,that made me think the mold was still not hot enough,the boolits should have been frosting. I got the mold real hot and turned up the heat all the way and that did it. The boolits had a very lite frost on some but no more wrinkles, my mold must like it very hot. When i was having the problem i used another aluminum mold and no problem with it. So try more heat.

[captaint]

hansum - wrinkles come from two things. Oil in the mold or mold not hot enough. Sounds like maybe you overdid the Kroil thing. I apply mine with a Q tip when I put the mold away. I know, it doesn't prevent rust. I keep an eye on them. Other than that, more heat. Instead of looking at wrinkled boolits, keep pouring away to increase the heat in the mold. If your melt is hot enough, the wrinkles will go away. Some molds do like a lot of heat. Now, go make some nice frosty boolits!!! enjoy Mike

[462]

Clean the mould with Dawn dishsoap and hot water, to remove as much of the Kroil as possible. Another excellent cleaner is spray brake parts cleaner. Then, crank up the heat.

[Recluse]

Two additional things to try:

1. Check your vent lines. Any debris in them can sometimes cause poor fillout or wrinkles.

2. Try ladle pouring. I've found with larger/heavier/longer boolits, I get better and more consistent fillout using my ladle rather than the bottom pour spout.

:coffee:

[R.M.]

Your nozzle might be partially plugged. A slow pour rate will do that too. If you can get more lead in there quicker, it won't start to set up before the cavity is full.

[hansumtoad]

Well, mystery solved...sort of. The reason I Kroiled the mold last night is that i knew we were in for some serious heat to get the wrinkles out. I didn't want the boolits sticking and I wanted max drop rate,

Mold is a Ideal 457196, 290 gr Hollow Base for .45 Peabody or the .455 Webley at .4565. Alloy is 60:1.

775 wrinkles. 800 wrinkles. 825 wrinkles. 850 better but wrinkles.... really crisp grooves though. 875 no change. 900 no change and still no frost. 925 almost gone. 950 and voila! Nice shiny bullets ... no wrinkles or caverns but swirl marks appearing. 975 and all settled down.

975 degrees??? Anyone had this experience. Will try to post some pics later.

[jtaylor1960]

Sounds like your taking care of the cleaning.That only leaves the venting and the heat.Most of the problems I ever had with wrinkles were solved with more heat.Also some molds filled out better when pouring a little slower and not "pressure pouring". I guess that lets the air out which again is a venting issue.

[geargnasher]

975* to fillout sounds like you have zinc contamination.

Swirl marks are from the mould being too cold and the alloy being too hot, the alloy oxidizes at the speed of light when that hot, and the stream freezes where it falls in the mould.

It takes more heat with nearly pure lead, but shouldn't take THAT much heat. 750* should be plenty if your mould is hot enough. Your mould is probably too cold if it takes less than five seconds for the sprue puddle to freeze.

Gear

[JIMinPHX]

Chrome looking boolits = too cold. 60:1 is pretty close to pure lead. Pure needs a higher casting temperature than common alloys like wheel weights. I normally need to run pure up around 850F, but that can vary some from mold to mold. Have you tried pressure casting? have you tried tipping the mold sideways, start pouring, then turn it up straight as you continue pouring? Depending on the individual mold & it's venting, either of those techniques may make things better or worse.

If you clean the mold with break cleaner, make sure that all of the brake cleaner is gone before you put the heat to the mold. Break cleaner + heat = phosgene gas = very very bad.

[Dale53]

I'm going to suggest something else. Double your tin to the alloy. Cast 30/1 and you'll have better results. Like others here have said, 750 degrees is hot enough.

FWIW
Dale53

[pcw907]

May be a dumb question, but are you confident that your thermometer is accurate?

[XWrench3]

kroil made my molds work nasty. had wrinkles everywhere. maybe it works good in iron, but in aluminum it does not. i washed them in brake cleaner twice, then acetone, and finally ended up boiling them in dawn dishsoap and h2o then reboiled in straight h2o to get them casting good again. in my little world with lee molds, i have found that just a CLEAN mold with 40 or so casts under its belt casts the best. new molds, need a little casting to break in. i do not know what the casting itself does to the mold. but it does do something.

[Dale53]

XWrench3;
+1 to the above...

Dale53

[Ben]

I keep hearing about people putting KROIL inside the cavities of bullet molds and how wonderful it is.

Let's see now.....We don't need oil inside the cavities of a mold cavity, right ? When we buy a new mold , all of us go to great lengths ( with varying cleaning techniques ) to make certain they are oil free before we cast.

KROIL is an oil ! Why do we go to all these efforts to get our mold oil free and then put KROIL in them ? ?

I still don't understand this ?

None of that for me. KROIL is a fine penetrant , no doubt. However, I want my mold cavities 101% oil, wax, and grease free.

BTW....... 975 degrees seems awful high to me. Something isn't right ?

Ben

[sisiphunter]

I've never had luck with Kroil in my molds....Great in the bore though!!!! I always smoke my mold cavities with a grill lighter. They are soot black when I start pouring lead. Usually throw out the first batch or two until the mold is good and hot, then nothing but good looking boolits. I have no idea of my temp but I start my little lee pot at 7, then down to 6 once every thing is good and hot. I really believe the lighter burns out any contaminents (sp??) in my mold and adds a little heat just to get it started. Anyways thats my experience even with an almost pure lead alloy as well. Matt

[Recluse]

kroil made my molds work nasty. had wrinkles everywhere. maybe it works good in iron, but in aluminum it does not. i washed them in brake cleaner twice, then acetone, and finally ended up boiling them in dawn dishsoap and h2o then reboiled in straight h2o to get them casting good again. in my little world with lee molds, i have found that just a CLEAN mold with 40 or so casts under its belt casts the best. new molds, need a little casting to break in. i do not know what the casting itself does to the mold. but it does do something.

Another +1 for this post, plus the contention that 975F is awful warm.

:coffee: