Pressure Casting Bullets

Pressure Casting Bullets, Do not do it with a Noe Mold

Well I no not know if this topic has come up Before, But here is my tale of Last night
Backstory
I Got from the Mail Box a Brand new NOE copy of the 311299 (311-206)

i did not use brake cleaner/ soap and water and a tooth brush to clean it, for a first time i used a mild soap in a ultrsonic cleaner
and then a bout 4 cycles on a hotplate. then later that night plugged in the 20lb pot, In the garage wearing a winter coat, part of problem,
it was cold out.when I cast, leave the dial where it is and just unplug it for next time .... its set for the alloy Im using


When Mold was up to temp and casting hot enough to cut the sprune with a gloved hand (WW), increasing the temp on the pot slowly

I was getting a very few good bullets, just looking when I open the haves and water dropping, increase temp, add more tin.repeat

then I tried Pressure casting .... casting pot touching spruns plate........DO NOT DO THIS to a NOE MOULD

the tiny VENT lines plugged up and even casting back the reg way 2-3 of every 5 bullets were dropping out bad, (bad fill out)

of the 4-500 I cast I might have only got 250 ok bullets , enough to do some 100 yard work up load,
only did a quick visual sort, will do better sort before sizing

Make sure you have the right temp and enough tin to do the job.

:) Good thing, rejects are recyclable,... for next time

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More info
did some more casting today ... Alloy problem # 1 dirt coming out of lead, using a different mould casting some 44 cal for powder coat

good fill out but not nice and shiney

Noe Molds are first Class

the only Molds I own that are better is a couple of H&G Molds, 2 45 x4 cav just rain bullets

I pressure cast with the NOE 311-179-I5. Works fine for me. It's hard to get all those tiny little bands perfect without it.

Aluminum is fairly porous, and it likely still has oil in the metal. Also aluminum molds shed heat very quickly, sometimes when casting and the ambient air is cooler than usual, you will need to increase the temperature of the melt in order to compensate for the faster rate the mold is cooling. Both oil contamination and too cool mold/alloy will lead to wrinkled bullets or poor fillout. Perhaps next time instead of the ultrasonic cleaner, boil in distilled water with a drop or two of dawn for 20 mins, or soak in distilled alcohol for 2-3 days. The distilled alcohol is my method of choice with vintage lyman molds that have been slathered in some type of oil for 30-40 years, 3-5 days submerged in a mason jar and they come out dry as a bone.

Casting with the mold will eventually burn off oil and lead to decent bullets dropping, but it is very frustrating and leads to much wasted effort.

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Make sure you have the right temp and enough tin to do the job.

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I agree with this!

"getting a very few good bullets"

two things that you may already know.
1. Long skinny boolits are the most challenging to cast.
2. Sometimes, a brand new mold needs 3 or 4 casting sessions to break-in start functioning correctly...no matter how you cleaned it initially.

I've never had an aluminum mold that even after cleaning and soaking in XYZ solvent that didn't take a few good casting sessions full of heat to leech out the rest of the fluid from the machining process. That likely had more to do with it than the brand or quality of the mold, which is a high quality one at that.

I have never had problems pressure pouring with any mold except a few that I have that are pretty much junk and I don't think any NOE molds are junk.

Maybe alloy dependent, but I have pressure cast with my NOE molds with no issue.

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Originally Posted by JonB_in_Glencoe

"getting a very few good bullets"

two things that you may already know.
1. Long skinny boolits are the most challenging to cast.
2. Sometimes, a brand new mold needs 3 or 4 casting sessions to break-in start functioning correctly...no matter how you cleaned it initially.

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Exactly this. I average 4 sessions of heat and complete cool down, and increase the casting time on each cycle.
Tony

I have pressure cast with over 20 NOE molds. I am fairly sure that nothing has changed in his manufacturing process.

I pressure cast with all my NOE molds. No problem.

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Originally Posted by Thumbcocker

I pressure cast with all my NOE molds. No problem.

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Same Here !
I even pressure cast with a Ladle ... don't blame the mould !
Gary

Make sure you have a fast enough flow rate.

I have been casting boolits for over 50 years. When I first started I was cleaning new molds with solvent. It took several casting sessions to get the mold to make keepers. I started trying different cleaning methods, I finally came on a method that works great, after using this method my boolits drop from the mold all most perfect from the first cast.. Usually within a few drops they come out very perfect. I wash my new molds with any powder cleanser and dish soap using a toothbrush and very hot water, then clean all soap off with hot water and then blow dry with air hose. I set the mold on a hot plate set on medium while my pot is coming up to temperature. By doing the hot plate it is ready to mold with when the pot is ready.