I just finished building a Temp Controlled hot plate for pre-heating my boolit molds. I'm using Lee 6 bangers, Lyman 4,2 and 1 cavity molds. My hot plate has a Temp controller attached using a thermocouple. What would be a good temp to set it at? I tryed 475 and 500 F, the molds seemed to cast very well, in the past it would take many mold fillings to be able to produce defect free boolits. It looks like most of my boolits using the pre-heated molds look good. Does it matter what the mold blocks are made of?
On another subject, I have a 45 year old Lyman 311359 single cavity. After many thousands of boolits from it, the wood handles now want to slip off the metal handle tangs, I tried "staking" with a center punch the metal ferrules, this helped keep the handles on for a while, but now they are slipping off again. Anyone have any suggestions on how to cure this problem?
Thanks, Big Daddy Bruce