Alloy for hollow points

O

Old 454

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I bought a NOE brass 4 gang mold 452 230 mold. I am having alot of problems with mold fill out and just wonkey looking bullets.
Bullets come out not filled good on the base and the hollow point is off center and one of the mold just does not want to fill out leaving an unfilled base.

I am casting at 700 degrees. I am going to up that by 25 degrees.

I think my alloy is a problem also, its 50/50 lino/lead and i think it has way to much antimony. So i want to remelt all these 50/50 1 lb. Bars ... how much pure lead do i need to add to get these down to say a 13/14 bhn.

Also bullets stick bad in the pins. I scrubed out the mold and seasoned the mold according to what Al told me to do on a hot plate before i did any casting.

Any tips you can offer to get this mold working like it should would be greatly appreciated.
 
I'd try 75% Lead 25% Lino and add a little extra tin to help with fill out.

For the sticky pins i'm not sure what to tell you. Have you tried smoking them? Do you have any Filtz paste, Bronze wool, or maybe 0000 steel wool? Maybe something to slick up the surface would help.

As for the off center hollow point that's not good. You might need to contact Al for help on that assuming it's actually off center.
 
Oh they are off center.

I uped the temp on my alloy and that has helped the sticking issue. Casting at 730 deg. Base fill out is better but not what i think it should be. Slighly rounded edges on the base.

Yes i had smoked the mold before but i have since scrubbed it out and did three cycles on the hot plate to make sure it was reseasoned. And the higher casting temp has really helped that.

I also took out the pins and just buffed them up with 1200 grit emery cloth and then used a pencil to coat them with graphite.

So its getting better. But have to figure things out as far as how fast a pour temp etc
 
Well i buffed the pins with 1200 grit emery cloth and then coated them with pencil graphite.

I rescrubbed the mold and then put it through 3 heating cycles on my hot plate to reseason the mold.

Up'ed my casting temp to 730 deg.
Base fill out is better, and the hollow point cavitys are better centered.

I still need to figure out how much lead to add to these 1 lb. Bars of lead/lino 50/50 to get the antimony content down and prolly add some tin.

And i am still getting some bad sticking to the mold on the cavity closest to the handles and its causing the lead to rip on the lub rings.

But all in all its getting better... i really dont want to smoke the mold. I belive you should not have to.
 
Got that same one. To drop the bullets I found opening the mould upside down and tapping the hinge bolt hard as you open the mould with one hand helps alot to drop them. Oh the pencil helps alot to.
 
Yes the graphite from tge pencil helped a whole lot.

Yes i turn the mold upside down and tap the hinge bolt. But i still am getting sticky bullets to the mold.

I am thinking of puting that pencil graphite in the cavitys
 
I take a Q Tip and just lightly coat the tips of my HP pin on my NOE HP moulds with sprue plate lube and the bullets drop right off when the mould is inverted.
 
Tooth brush the mold clean. Pins and all with hot water and Dawn detergent soap. Dry. Then heat the mold to near cast temp.

Outside in the yard or driveway. Never in a garage or home.

Dip the entire heated mold carefully into a pint wide mouth canning jar filled 1/2 way with new unused Lacquer Thinner.((NO SMOKING i.e. >Easily ignitable FUMES))

Allow mold to fully dry. Ever so lightly and sparingly lube its cutter plate with the Plate Lube that came with the NOE mold. Reheat the mold or get to casting like a mad man. Make sure the melt has been fluxed prior and have that pots temp up to where your casting all frosted nicely filled out bullets. Then flux a second time turn the pot down to your preferred casting temp. In time as the fluxed mix cools you will see those nice bullets you're wanting.
 
I like the idea of going up to 725°. You must get the mold and the pins hot. Do the preheating routine, but once you get to casting, go fast. Cast like your arm was on fire. Don't stop to admire them or sort them or put the sprues back, just cast as fast as you can without galling the top. Wait for the sprue to solidify and when you drop them, pour that thing full again and make a nice sprue puddle. After you get the mold to temp and you get the bullets dropping off nicely and/or get a little bit of frosting on the bullets, then you can slow down and adjust your rhythm to find your perfect cadence. You'll have time then to look at them and move the sprues around or put back or whatever your cycle looks like, but you gotta get it hot first and that means to cast fast. Then your rhythm will look a lot more like LAH in his video clip, (this clip) but since you are doing hollow points, you will have to get those pins hot before you can slow down and enjoy a good long run of beautiful bullets. Have fun and happy casting!! :)
 
I find that if I set my PID on around 740-745 to start with I get good pours from the get go. I set my hot plate to around 350-375'ish or on the first red mark for the larger cavity molds. (I had an infared thermometer but after I dropped it the attempted catch was actually it's doing in. I think if it had just hit the ground all would have been well, but slamming against the floor while trying to catch it was not good.)

Once things get going you might start to get some frosty cast after 5-10 dumps and then you can back the heat down just a touch. Like mentioned though, with pins, really in any of these type molds, heat is your friend. The larger cavity molds do heat up and hold it better, but you have to get it there first. Those 4C brass 9mm molds will almost make you pull your hair out....
 
How fast are you casting ?,
I had problems with my bullets sticking on the pins ( my mold is a Ideal 452- 374 I sent away to get hollow pointed,) , my normal casting speed for the mold wasn't fast enough for the bullets to drop off the pins so I sped up my casts and it went a lot better.
Apparently the pins cool down faster than the mold blocks resulting in stuck bullets,,,, keep your pins hot .
Worked for me, ymmv,,,
 
Brass needs to be HOT. I pour my 45-185 MP hollow point mold at 800° or the pins stick. That seems high to a lot of people but they don't come out frosty. As a comparison I run my NOE aluminum hollow points at 730°.
 
Ok i raised temp till i started getting frosted bases on my bullets and just casted as soon as i droped my last cast. Did not stop to look at rhem. Casted till my sprue cut cup was full. Then put mold back on hot plate and dumped my sprue cuttings back in pot and waited for them to heat up and then fluxed the pot. I use d a small piece of red carnuba to flux with then stir it in with old wooden spoon.

Let me see if i can get a few pics of what i casted.
 
Not to bad... still getting bullet stick in the mold. The graphite that i put on the pins cured them from sticking in rhe bullet cavitys.
 
I have the same 452 230gr RG mold, but in aluminum, so it heats and dissipates heat faster than the brass.
They stick to the pins until the steel pins are very hot, and they take longer to heat up than the aluminum blocks. Likely holds true for brass, too, though to a lesser degree. Once the mold is broken in, this problem abates somewhat.
I always have to rap the handle pivot to get the boolits to drop on mine, unless the pins and blocks are very, very hot.
Get it hot, then start pouring, and keep going at a frenetic pace to keep the pins hot.
Also,FWIW, my alloy is basically straight wheel weights or even amended with 98/2-very low alloy content since I powder coat and don't care about boolit hardness as much anymore.
 
I "bit the bullet" and purchased pure lead and pure tin to make hollow points with. I usually run a 16:1 lead/tin alloy and absolutely nothing else in the alloy. It makes well expanding HPs that do not fragment, my HP molds are all GC molds.

I cast with the led temp about 730-750, and a hot plate with a chunk of 1/4" steel on it on Medium. The 1/4" steel block is to set the mold on for preheat and to keep the mold hot while I work on the alloy. The steel plate evens out the heat from the coil heating element.
 
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