first session with NOE .30 5 cavity mould

[BJK]

Here's the mould: https://noebulletmolds.com/site/shop...3-5-cavity-pb/

Understand that I'm a new bullet caster. Before starting I wiped Militec lube on the surfaces that wouldn't contact the lead. It took awhile to warm up the mould despite me heating it on the hotplate (1/4" steel) portion of the propane flame. Then once I got going the mould got too hot and some of my bullets clearly weren't fully solid when they came out of the mould and they smeared/dented. I guess I need to slow down a bit (hard for me to do) or is there a decent way to cool the mould off that isn't time consuming and allows me to keep my rhythm? There's a lot of lead and heat going into that mould with each ladleful. It's not my 9mm mould!

But all in all I would consider this session to be a success. I knew I was making culls since bullets are steered from the base and some of the bases clearly weren't good. OK, question... "creases" in the nose and curve of the bullet, how big of a deal are they? I'm casting for .300BLK subsonic and don't expect to use them much beyond 100 yds. The bases are sharp and defined. I culled bad bases but as long as the nose and curve of the bullet were sound I kept them. OK or garbage? It's not that many bullets in question and mistakes can be recast. But why if they are OK? Hence my question.

Other than slowing down I can't think of any other good way to allow the mould to cool. A 2nd mould and alternate? Learn patience and just slow down?

TIA!

[Dom]

One way to slow down is to cast with two different bullet molds. Pour one mold, set it down & pour another . Then pick up & open the first mold poured. Back & forth like this gives each mold a chance to cool good before cracking it open. Of course if you don't have two molds give your mold a chance to cool a bit. Say 30 sec's or so depending on hot your alloy is. If your alloy is to hot turn the temp down a bit till you find that sweet spot that works with your molding speed.

[Intel6]

I would also suggest using two moulds to give time for one filled mould to cool while emptying and filling the other. Also, I have found with NOE moulds (I have lots of them) that it takes a few casting sessions before they get "seasoned" and start working great. They work good from the start but I have found that after a few casting sessions they really kick in and just get better.

[BJK]

Thanks guys!

[Three44s]

I add a bit of tin to improve fill out.

Three44s

[BJK]

Once I got the mould hot and got myself up to speed with the ladle the bases improved. But for a time there I'd get maybe 1-2 with bad bases.

Today is a rainy day. It was a good day to spend some time in the shop coating them. That's done.

For now I also have only one mould. If I have to I think I came up with an interim solution to the heat problem... If I lay my hot mould on a heat sink that should help. I have a bar of aluminum to use if I need to.

[Wayne Smith]

A wet towel/sponge on your casting bench. When too hot simply cool the sprue plate on the wet towel. This will set up the base of the boolit as well. Strangely enough a rainy day is an excellent day to cast, for some reason it seems easier in low pressure situations than in high pressure situations.

[gwpercle]

The steel sprue plate holds the heat better / longer than the aluminum blocks ... the steel plate is where you want to cool . I've seen some casters put a large Sponge in a shallow dish with a little water , when a cool down is needed the top of the sprue plate is gently pressed onto the damp sponge . Be careful not to let any steam condensate inside cavity ... water and molten lead don't play well together .
Perfect bases are required ... wrinkle on nose is at your discretion ... how picky are you ?
If I'm going to cast em ... I want as perfect a boolit as I can make ... Any/all visual defects are rejected , bases must be perfect and complete 100% fill out ... I don't weigh them but that's just me and the way I do it .
At 100 yards those wrinkles will tell on you at 25 yards not so much .
I'm a Ladle caster also ...I believe you get your best with a ladle and pressure casting .

Keep on ... the only way to learn to cast boolits is to cast boolits !
Gary

[Thumbcocker]

One way to slow down is to cast with two different bullet molds. Pour one mold, set it down & pour another . Then pick up & open the first mold poured. Back & forth like this gives each mold a chance to cool good before cracking it open. Of course if you don't have two molds give your mold a chance to cool a bit. Say 30 sec's or so depending on hot your alloy is. If your alloy is to hot turn the temp down a bit till you find that sweet spot that works with your molding speed.

This. Works like a charm.

[popper]

Subsonic 'funny' noses shouldn't make much difference, usually caused by venting problems. With the huge bullet and 5x, casting is difficult getting a fast pour, sprue cooled properly but the other end is 'solid'. Try alternating start from one end to the other.

[BJK]

Thanks gents!

I was wondering if water would be OK. I'll be careful with it. I don't want a lead grenade. It'll be much faster than my heat sink idea. Yes, the sprue plate holding more heat than the Alum' mould makes perfect sense. We can handle alum' foil immediately after coming out of the oven because alum' doesn't hold much heat. It conducts it wonderfully but doesn't hold much. Iron on the other hand does hold LOTS of heat. I've noticed that lead holds lots of heat too when I want the bullets to cool off.

You know, after coating the bullets I don't even see the nose creases anymore. I hope the airflow doesn't either. Range time will tell. But bases, I want perfect bases. Anything less goes back into the melt and I cull a 2nd time before coating anything. Most bad bases I can catch before the bullets even cool off. Culling them also helped to slow me down. But with damp towel cooling I can pick up speed again. This is going to take some practice, I can see that. Maybe I should be making notes. I think I will.

I'll try the damp towel idea or my heatsink idea before spending another $100. Cash is tight and I need more "stuff" otherwise I'd get another mould in a heartbeat.

[charlie b]

I use the wet towel method. I use it differently depending on which mold I am using (ie length of bullet).

I cast a lot of 210gn bullets for my .308. Had a heck of a time with heat. Nose and base cooled at different rates. I tried many, many combinations before I settled on this one. I finally found that the long bullet was heating the bottom of the mold too much.

Pre-heat the mold on a hot plate if you can. Makes start up so much easier. Yes, you can put the corner of the mold in the melt or leave it on the top of the pot, but, those do not work as well.

Wet towel. If you solder much you have a little tray of water with a sponge in it. This is the same idea. Small tray with water and a short stack of paper towel folded up to about 1/2" thick (when soaked).

Cast the lead into the mold. Wait for sprue to harden, about 5sec. Then put bottom of mold on towel for 3 sec. Then dump.

Keep going and watch the bullets. At some point the sprue may take longer to harder. If so, then touch the top of the mold to the towel for 3 sec as well. If the noses of the bullets start to look 'frosty' then increase time on the bottom of the towel. If they wrinkle, then less time.

Every mold is different. I have some pistol molds that I can run as fast as I want and they do not overheat. Some need to have the sprue plate cooled, some the bottom of the mold, some need both.

During all this you may find you need to increase or decrease your pot temperature as well.

Lots of variables to work out.

[BJK]

Yeah Charly, that's what threw me with the rifle mould. 225gr .308s . I'm not an experienced caster. My 8 bullet 9mm mould I just cast and cast and it didn't seem to overheat in 1-1.5 hours. But the long bullet mould definitely did. I'll need to keep an eye on it and play with it to see what works. Thanks for taking the time to write that out.

[Bigslug]

How hot are you running your pot?

I usually run in the high 700F range with a bottom pour pot. Most of my molds are 4-cavity brass and aluminum. When I get going, the cadence usually consists of fill, wait maybe 10-15 seconds for the sprue to show that it's frozen, followed by another few seconds before cutting the sprue. After that, it's a straight dump and re-fill.

When I was helping my Dad cast for his .54 Sharps and .52 Maynard (both 3-cavity brass at almost 500 and almost 400 grains, respectively) I was able to get the mold hot enough to where I needed to reduce my pace. With molds smaller than this, I almost never get them heated to the point where I'm waiting more than 20-25 seconds between pour and cut. With aluminum, the greater challenge is keeping them hot.

If you're getting wrinkles, you may have lube vaporizing into the cavities preventing a complete fill. I will cautiously add LBT sprue plate & pin lube (beeswax mixed with either moly or graphite IIRC) in the middle of a long session, and will frequently lose the next several pours to wrinkles until the wax burns off completely.

Good bases are a must. Part of getting that for me is that little bit of extra wait to cut the sprue. If it looks like it's being dragged/smeared, it needs to harden a few seconds more. Another thing I've taken to doing is squeezing the sprue plate downward against the mold blocks as I cut. This keeps the cut flat by preventing the sprue plate from climbing away from the blocks as it swings clear of it's closed-side anchor pin.

[BJK]

I'm getting there bigslug. I had another run of 9mm and learned a lot and put what I was told to use. I think the next time I cast I'll use the NOE mould discussed here and put what I learned with the 9mm to use and see if it's better. Regarding pot temp, I use a propane burner and you'd think I'd take the temp of the lead but I just don't. I go by what the bullets look like and how the lead melts and they're looking good. If I put sprue cutoffs into the melt and they melt quickly and my bullets aren't frosted I call the lead temp good. I need to check the temp' but I just forget to. Will they shoot? That I don't know yet. I haven't loaded any. But the bases are good; I cull anything that I don't like and I'm very particular about what a good bullet is. If it's not 100% it gets melted. I had a friend who meant well but he couldn't produce a good bullet to save his life. After a trial run I didn't give him anymore lead. I melted down the last of his bullets the other day.

I did show one of mine to a bullet caster I know and he pronounced it to be "a nice bullet". It was chosen randomly and wasn't cherry picked. Maybe I should have shown him a cull first. But most of my culls are while the mould is getting up to temp. After that culls are rare and I grade hard. It's either right or it's melted.

[Bigslug]

You're running "full analog" then. Nothing wrong with that, but it might be good to start reading the pot temp to get a feel for how hot to run the burner and how your temperature changes as you run low or add sprues. The impression I get is that you're running rocket hot, and could easily bring things down some. Probably worth your time to "waste" a casting session on watching the probe to find the lines between good bullets and bad; reasonable cool times and too hot.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I have no trouble getting production from my 4 cavity 30 cal. molds. I preheat them good and hot and run my pot at 700 degrees. I know the mold is getting too hot when the boolits do not want to fall out easily. I just pause for a couple minutes then. I have heard of guys running a small fan over where they crack the mold too. Never tried that but I'll bet it works well.