I appreciate all the help everyone has given. I've been casting for maybe 40 years, on and off, 60 years if you count me helping my daddy. I'm not an expert but I've used maybe 6 or 7 molds and I've never seen one as stubborn as this. I'm going to try the Comet trick again tomorrow with a bullet from later in the cast and a thicker mix of the slurry.
Help With Sticky Mold
- Thread starter us920669
- Start date
Jim Watson
New member
Paul Jones' method worked best for me, even with a Lyman mold.
Pour lead
Let solidify
Push sprue plate around. If you can't swing it with a gloved hand you let it get too cold.
Still holding mold closed, rap the hinge with your mallet.
Put the mallet against the lower right rear corner of the right half and press in and away as you let the mold open.
The bullet should fall out or drop with only a little rapping.
One I read of but didn't not have to try.
If you think the cavity is "toothy" get some cold blue and rust remover.
Degrease the cavity and blue. Then strip the blue with rust remover.
Clean and repeat several times.
Pour lead
Let solidify
Push sprue plate around. If you can't swing it with a gloved hand you let it get too cold.
Still holding mold closed, rap the hinge with your mallet.
Put the mallet against the lower right rear corner of the right half and press in and away as you let the mold open.
The bullet should fall out or drop with only a little rapping.
One I read of but didn't not have to try.
If you think the cavity is "toothy" get some cold blue and rust remover.
Degrease the cavity and blue. Then strip the blue with rust remover.
Clean and repeat several times.
I've noticed something a few times, may not mean anything. Close inspection sometimes shows little bumps along the edge of one or both grease grooves. They are not nicks, they look like bubbles. There is nothing in the mold corresponding to them and they are not on most boolits, although most boolits certainly are stickers. I couldn't get a better picture, the macro feature doesn't work well with bright objects. I probably wont cast today, it's gotten much colder.
Attachments
That one has problems.I sent RCBS an email, I prefer email to telephone these days, and they wrote back to send the mold in for evaluation. But I had become impatient and went ahead with the Comet scrub-out, with a thicker mix than before and several bullets, as they spin freely quite quickly. I did it by hand and not power. I think I did remove an area of roughness inside one of the grooves and the mold is working fine. Chances are the roughness was some kind of compound of theirs and not roughness in the actual metal. I tried to clean it earlier, including a full blast-out with non-filming brake parts cleaner.