Wa chew talkin about "RIDGES"? That mold looks perfectly fine to me. If by "ridges" you mean that cross-hatch pattern on the face of the blocks, that's there to provide a path for air that's trapped by the incoming molten lead. Air channels are essential to making good boolits.
Taking a file to ANY part of a mold is a VERY bad idea. They're made to mate up just-so to be able to make round boolits.
Dipping from a pot or pan used for smelting lead is done with a ladle. No one I know even considers trying to pour from a pot. My smelting pot holds 150 pounds of hot lead full to 1 inch from the top. There's just no way in hades I would try to lift that thing to pour from it. Get yourself a big ladle to make ingots, like one of the Rowell ladles here;
http://www.rotometals.com/Ladles-for-Casting-s/8.htm
http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/casting_ladle_bottom3.htm
The #3 is what I use most, it's easy to "one-hand", and has enough capacity to fill a lyman ingot mold with one full dip.
Taking a file to ANY part of a mold is a VERY bad idea. They're made to mate up just-so to be able to make round boolits.
Dipping from a pot or pan used for smelting lead is done with a ladle. No one I know even considers trying to pour from a pot. My smelting pot holds 150 pounds of hot lead full to 1 inch from the top. There's just no way in hades I would try to lift that thing to pour from it. Get yourself a big ladle to make ingots, like one of the Rowell ladles here;
http://www.rotometals.com/Ladles-for-Casting-s/8.htm
http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/casting_ladle_bottom3.htm
The #3 is what I use most, it's easy to "one-hand", and has enough capacity to fill a lyman ingot mold with one full dip.