Smokin' hot 32/327 bullet woes.....

[2 dogs]

Recieved my first RG4 design mold in the Smokin' Hot 32/327 design today which I was really pushing hard to get and despite the 105 heat index today I cranked up the casting pot and gave her a go. Boiled the mold on the stove in pot for a while to get any oil out of it and got it nice and hot by setting it on the RCBS casting pot while the lead got up to temp.

I immediately discovered the RG4 design wasnt compatable with my bottom pour RCBS pot as the mechanical parts on the bottom of the mold would just hang up on the mold guide bar. Then I tried to ladle pour into mold and while I got better results in neither case could I get a bullet to completely fill out. I tried for a good while until I got frustrated and decided I better set the thing down before I threw it down the driveway......

In my opinion, the HP pins are WAY TOO BIG!!! My alloy is 50% Linotype and 50 percent range lead and I have never seen a mold where I couldnt fill out the bullet! Even if the bullet was filled out just right, I doubt it would run thru my Star Sizer without collapsing the Hollow Point cavity.....

While Im very dissappointed, Im standing by to hear of your results......

[Hickory]

Try casting flat points in two cavities until you get good boolits.
After you have cast for several sessions the mould seems to settle down and starts to castem' like it's suppose to.
Running it hot is the order of the day when casting, and it takes (for me) about 12-15 minutes of casting to bring it up to tempeture.

[Dark Helmet]

Had to run my 429421 RG4 a while before i could get them to fall off the pins.
Try wrapping it in foil and put it in the kitchen stove burner on low, pins down to preheat it.

Give it another try 2 Dogs-it's your baby, don't give up quite yet.
Your bottom pour might be needed to get the lead in the little suckers, it made a difference on my 314-120 RF

[Lloyd Smale]

Personaly i think weve been getting carried away with hp size. Bigger isnt allways better and from what ive experimented with there not only to fragile but most of the time the bigger hp cavity makes the bullet a bit more finking when it comes to finding good loads. The new 429640 mold i have has pins so wide and deep that the walls by the nose are paper thin. I had my nieghbor make me new pins alot smaller. If you look at the original 640 the cavity isnt quite as wide and alot shallower. The real deap hp cavitys just dont maintain enough weight if the loose there noses to be effective penetrators. In my opinion a hp pin should never go deaper then the first driving band and even that is a bit to deep.

[2 dogs]

I agree with Lloyd wholeheartedly and believe me I love to argue with him as often as possible. Im curious to see if anyone else who has this mold runs into this problem.....

[Shooter6br]

Mine did not fill out The problem was with my Lee Drip O Matic. It wasnt flowing enough. I cleaned the nozzle and got a nice flow instead of a dripping flow. I also pre heat the mold. and run hot. The HP is a bit wide but i shoot as casted

[WARD O]

I am with Lloyd on this as well. The size of the HP is getting too carried away! The old HP from Lyman was a little on the small size but I too see problems from the too large cavities.

Push through sizing in the Star looks to become an issue.

Ward

[WARD O]

Dark Helmet
Try putting a little spru plate lube on the pins only - it will aid in release.

Ward

[Blammer]

turn the mould around on the handles so the pin holders are on the opposite side of your mould holder for the bottom pour. Should work well that way.

I'd very very lightly smoke JUST the pin tips, and see how that does for release, works pretty well for me.

[2 dogs]

I need to make a couple of quick points here.

First, we were all pretty high and dry for a mold maker when Al popped up and saved us. Independent businessmen like Al are the backbone of this country. He deserves our patronage and respect, I am in no way disparaging Al or his molds. It is important to remember when you are out on the cutting edge of design SOMETIMES you gotta take a couple of stabs at things to get them just right. Let it be known that AL Nelson is on it!

Just cuz Im spoiled and expect my molds to make perfect bullets all on their own with no effort on my part doesnt mean Im about to give up here. Do me the favor of keeping this thread on topic and so we can help ourselves and Al get this ironed out. Remember this one was my baby!

My hats off to Al and DJ for thier help and for ALWAYS being there.

[WARD O]

I think that this is going to be a great boolit - Lets give it a little time to get some testing done.

I'm still looking forward to the next 32 mould I have ordered with Swede - the SWC Keith that is scheduled to run in February.

Ward

[Shooter6br]

I learned something about casting hollow points. With small bullets (32 cal in my case) the HP pins need to be HOT. I had trouble with the 100g HP NOE. It is not the mold( very nice ) It is the nature of the beast. thanks Swede for a great mold! Rick

[WARD O]

OK - I got up this morning and decided to give this mould a test run.

I plugged in the pot. I set the temp to 700. The alloy I am using is 50/50 lead to traditional wheel weights. I added a small amount of tin.

I looked the mould over closely. I cleaned it with brake cleaner. I boiled it for 20 minutes. I dried it off. I applied a little of the lube Swede sent with it to the top and bottom of the spru plate and to the tips of the HP pins and to the tips of the alignment pins. I attached a set of Lee handles and placed the mould on my hot plate with the base ends of the pins touching the plate. The hot plate was set to its highest setting.

After the melt came up to temp, I checked it with a Lyman thermometer. I started casting with a different mould and ran through 50-60 bullets in my Miha 432640 (its third session) making a few hollow points. The 32 mould sat on the hot plate for 30-45 minutes.

I refilled and again tested my melt and it was just over 700 and I started ladel pouring 32 HP's. I then applied lube to the top of the mould while it was filled. I was getting good base fillout right from the get go. Some of the first bullets were wrinkled but there was no point fill out! The mould would drop the bullets quite freely - no banging on the handles was necessary.

I never could get good fill out of the nose/point. I cast as fast as I could to bring the temp of the pins up. I was having bullets break apart after dropping from the mould onto four layers of towels set on a old piece of carpet. I did not get many frosted bullets but there were a few. I slowed only enough to give the bullets a few more seconds to solidify so they wouldn't break apart.

I took a very short break to refill the pot with rejects and sprus and got right back at it. I think I roughly made 150-200 bullets and out of all of these I doubt I have ten that have a well filled out nose. From the crimp groove back almost all of these bullets were acceptable.

This did not work today! So tell me guys, what should I be changing?????

(I won't be back on the computer until Monday sometime.)

Ward

[Blammer]

can you try to pressure pour with the ladle?

[SwedeNelson]

Like Blammer said.
And try to work the heat up a little more.
Mine likes 760 to start then I work it down as I go.

Swede Nelson

[crabo]

I've used Kroil and Bullplate on my pins. I like to let the boolit sit a bit longer in the mold, after I open it, and before I dump them out. It helps on some molds by keeping the nose from deforming.

[2 dogs]

Al, Im thinking that pin needs to be reduced by 50 percent at least.

[SwedeNelson]

2 dogs

Got the shop working on the following.



Will have more problems with a smaller (diameter) pin releasing in the RG's
so we can only go so small. Ideally we should have never offered this bullet in a RG.
To small - but I had to try.

Will keep you posted on the pins.

Swede Nelson

[Ramslammer]

G'Day Swede
No compaints from me except it hasn't arrived. I reckon your a good bloke just for making these things. I'd be interseted in more pins (#2) if they are made but otherwise I'll use the ones I'll get with the mold. It's just nice for someone to make us what we wanted THANKS.
On another note, How did you send my mold as you only wanted $20 post and I'd like to enter other group buys, and be able to get reasonable shipping?
Juddy

[Lloyd Smale]

Al that #2 pin looks like the best compromise. It is about as radical of a hp pin as a guy would want. Where your really run into trouble is when the pin is as deep as a crimp grove or first driving band. That middle one is going to give good expansion with about any alloy and still leave enough bullet if the nose shears off.