First attempt with Aluminum.

B

Beagle333

New member
This is with a 2 cav NOE 358429 RG2 hollow point mold. I'll post a pic below if you didn't see the other thread.

Well... I think they turned out really nice. :)
It started off slowly. I think I didn't wait for the pot to get up to top temp before I started, because the mold was on the hot plate for 20 mins, so I know it was hot. :confused: I didn't do any mold prep other than take it out of the box, screw it to the handles, squirt some Dawn on a toothbrush and hold the mold under the sink by the handles and scrub the cavities out for a minute. Then I put it right on the hot plate to dry/heat up. Right before I started casting, I applied bullplate lube (comes with a NOE mold) to the bottom of the sprue plate, the sprue plate bolt, the alignment pins and the tips of the HP pins (using a Qtip). So it took about 20-25 pours to get everything hot enough for the wrinkles to go away, and then it was pretty smooth sailing after that. I think I made friends with it, once it was hot. I was going pour a whole pot, but my ol' leg reminded me that it wasn't 100% healed up yet, so I only poured 10#. I was using a Lee 20# pot and a Lyman ladle.

My friend who gave me the pot had said that the dial was really close on temp and so when I got to the perfect spot where the b̶o̶o̶l̶i̶ bullets were just falling out of the mold, I opened my box containing my trusty new Rotometals thermometer and it said I was at 820 degrees. Lots of folks will say that is too hot, but I always put the pot on 8-1/4 on the dial to start with, and ease it down to about 7 as the lead level falls, so I guess I always pour at 820 or thereabouts. I was using my usual isotope alloy of 95/2.5/2.5 for these.


And here are the results from my kinda short pouring session this morning.:D


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Nice boolits! Don't worry about the temp whatever it take to cast good boolits is what it take.

My NOE 360 160 gr. SWCHP gas check double crimp groove mold runs at about the same temp. That big chunk of Aluminum takes a good bit of heat to cast good boolits but once it gets going you can cast as long as you want to keep the pot going.

I heat my mold on Med-High on the hot plate only takes just a few cast to start throwing good boolits.

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Beagle,
Those remind me of wide mouth bass. Very nice bullets. I can tell you have fun when casting.

Res45,
I have the non hollow point version of that mold. Very accurate bullet.
 
I have the non hollow point version of that mold. Very accurate bullet.
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I got both the FN and HP pins with mine when I ordered it in the group buy so I can cast either,but since this is the only 38 cal. HP design I have I just leave them in all the time.
 
Today, I only got 114 keepers before the rain started showing up on radar as moving this way, and I stopped casting so the pot would be cool enough to move before the rain got here. Oh well. I didn't get to test out the MP mold this weekend, but I do have a nice pile of Keith's to play with. :)
 

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:eek: SEE what did I tell ya....shameless I say, :D


I shot some of the MP's I poured up, loaded in 38's and lubed with 45/45/10, they did OK but still had a bit of flaking.

The next batch I loaded in .357 and I dipped in Carnuba Red up to the crimp grooves before sizing. It left a little in the bottom groove when they popped out the top, but they had no leading what so ever. I crimped the 357's in the top groove and the 38's in the bottom.

I actually bought that particular mold to use with my Contender and the 10" barrel. I figured it would be a good one to get about all I was going to get out of those tiny little cases. ;)

Don't go pushing things with that leg, just take your time and ease back into things. You have a pond full of turtles to deal with, and your neighbors are counting on some stew meat.

On a side note: I just got confirmation that all of the sizing dies I have been waiting on to get back in stock, will arrive on Friday. So I guess I know what I will be dong this coming weekend,,,,,setting up and trying out my new 4500 to see what all of the hooplaaa is about.
 
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Those are nice and testimony to the superiority of AL over FE.

I sold or traded all of my steel moulds for aluminum. Got tired of long warm up times, grease, oil, smoke and rust.
There are several places that will custom make an aluminum mold for you for a few bucks more than a steel mold.
 
Good lookin casts , looks as if ya got the temp right !!

I lean to smaller HPs though.But those should open fast & even at 38 velocitys.
 
I lean to smaller HPs though.
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True, it's not the most effective HP at this bigmouth size, but it's just awesome!!!!:D

But for more practical HPs to use..... I also (in addition to the short blank pins to cast the original flat nose boolit) got 4 more long pins that I can turn down to any size HP that I want. I'm sending it to Erik to get a set of cup points and a set of penta pins for it. :)

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Nice looking bullets! I have a NOE mold that likes it running on the hotter side too. It seemed to get better fill out when running 750 and up. I have a hard time keeping the mold hot if I don't run my melt on the hot side. I have a 4 cav and the 2 middle bullets seem to always be filled out better. Its hard to keep the outside 2 hot enough.
 
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