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I have an MP 8-cavity DEWC wadcutter that casts lots of nice .360 bullets.
That is when it gives them up.
There’s about 3 stubborn cavities and one in particular really sticks. It takes up to 10 seconds of tapping on the hinge pin to get it to drop. During a session today, the handle screws started backing out.
I finally decided the 8th bullet wasn’t worth it and quit filling the problem cavity.
Is there a release agent I could try?
Greetings,
Check the offending cavity for a possible burr.
You can spin a bullet lightly coated with fine lapping paste to remove it.
Cheers,
Dave
If you can do it without damaging the mold, I recommend working the burrs out of the cavities before you go too far with releasing agents that may never clean out properly. The intersection of the vent lines and mold parting line/plane is a common place for burrs to form. The corners around lube grooves have burrs, especially square lube grooves. A piece of leather works good on aluminum. I used knives from stackman biodegradable silverware purchased on Amazon to file out burrs - the knife material would shave off without damaging the mold.
Just be very careful when scraping on a parting line or you’ll start getting flash. It’s easy to remove but pretty much impossible to put back.
Agreed. If you work so hard that you lose the sharp edges of the parting line, you’ll be casting boolits with fins forever. It’s easy to damage a mold.Quote:
Originally Posted by HWooldridge
Try pouring from the offending bullet side . If the sticking bullet releases and the new 8th bullet sticks try increasing heat of pot
Check to see if you have tinning. I normally can’t see it till I take a pic with my phone and zoom up on the mess. If so remove all the spots. Tinning seems to weld my boolits to the mold. I just put a heavy patina on my mold to help from tinning with salt and vinegar fumes. Did a post on it last week. Still got a little tinning but no where near as bad as I usually do. Also it was really easy to clean off the “tin” with the heavy patina vs my oven cycled molds. I also had damage in my brand new mold causing alloy to leak around the HP pin. I polished the pins with mothers chrome polish and they dropped right out for the first 2/3’s of my second session until the tinning started again around the pin area. I like to run my molds hot and that Is where the tinning ( and sticking) comes from.
I’ve used Rockford Arsenal mold release. Works great on boolit release but the boolits all look crappy and dimpled from the spray texture.
If there are no burrs or other defects I'd lap those cavities. All of the troublesome cavities I've ever had were tamed by lapping.
Beat me to it, definitely worth a try (it works!).
Take a carpenters pencil and use the lead part to scrape the edges of the offending cavity. With pressure from the cavity towards the mold face, it will slightly roll the edge, and remove the small burrs. It won’t cause enough material to move to cause finning. Though it may make the parting line be visible where it otherwise was not.