NOE hollow point mold help!

[Brother_Love]

I am trying to cast with my first hollow point mold from NOE. Th bullets are hanging on the hp pins and are extremely hard to get off.

What am I doing wrong because I know it is not supposed to be this way. The bullets look great but I have strike the hinge pin a number of times to get them to fall free.

I have other hp molds but they are the old buckshot conversions.

Many thanks, Malcolm

 

[Brad]

Heat! Lots of heat. I would preheat the mould on a hot plate with the pins down.
Don't look at bullets, don't low down, just pour, cut, dump. The pins have to stay hot or you will be very frustrated.

If smoking or mould release ever had a place this would be it. Lightly smoke the pins if all else fails.

 

[KeithB]

Sometimes polishing the pins helps a little.

 

[358156 hp]

Sometimes polishing the pins helps a little.

I usually end up polishing the pins by spinning them with an electric drill while holding a piece of cloth with 320 lapping compound on it. Then I follow up with either 600 or 800 grit compound, and finish my cleanup with brake cleaner or other degreasing solvent to remove any oils that might be lingering. The ideal is to smooth the surface a mite, without any noticeable metal removal. Just polish it. Then give it a bit of smoke, and try casting again. You didn't mention how you open your mould blocks, but I always open the mould upside down, so the bullets are dangling from the pins. Then a slight smack with your whacking stick on the mould handle hinge should drop the bullets, if they haven't already given up the ghost by that time. Over time, it'll get easier and easier. And as Brad mentioned, those pins have to be HOT!

 

[Brother_Love]

Thanks!! I will give another try.

 

[Rick]

Brad is right. Well except for the smoke. Get and keep your pins HOT. As Glen likes to say . . . A hot hollow point spud is a happy hollow point spud. Bullets will stick on a too cool pin to where pliers are needed to twist them off. Play a torch on the pins if you have to but remember, too much of a good thing ain't necessarily a good thing.

 

[Brad]

Cold pins may not always stick but they are also good st creating cavities in bullets. Lead hardens fast against them and leaves voids inside the cavity.

Did anyone mention hot pins?

 

[KHornet]

HP pins must be hot! I always start casting HP's
after the mold is hot by dipping the pin in the melt
for a few seconds.

Paul

 

[fiver]

the other thing is the NOE molds take a break in period.
you have to heat cycle and clean them a few times to get them going.
once you get them oxidized and operating properly your gonna wonder what your gonna do with all those bullets, but they can be a bit frustrating getting them to that point.

 

[Brother_Love]

Thanks, all my other NOE molds knock those bullets out in a hurry. This was my first hp mold.

 

[yodogsandman]

I'm a slow caster and have to increase the cast rate, speeding up the cadence, to keep those pins HOT!

 

[358156 hp]

Some hollowpoint mould designs with captive pins seem to make it harder to keep the pins hot, NOE has that bracketry on the mould bottom that allow airflow under the mould, in the pin area if you set the mould down, like on a hotplate . The only real solution is to simply cast as fast as possible to keep the pins hot. Once you get going, it's not a bad system at all. I really like Eriks Inset Bar System, but it does add somewhat to the cost of a hollowpoint mould, about $50.00 per cavity. Honorable mention has to go to the Cramer style moulds & mould conversions.

 

[creosote]

I'm having the same problem. I got the RG-2 Brass. I figured brass to hold heat better, pins will be hotter. Done everything mentioned.
My question;
Can the pins be TOO polished?

I used 1500 wet and dry with water and soap. then spun with drill and flitz. I don't know any way to get them more polished.
The only other thing I was going to try would be change the angle of the point

The reason being: (change topic)
My lee de-primer was sticking primers to the pin. I put my close up cheaters on and noticed a square end with bit of a burr.
I looked at another pin out of a green box and it was a bit pointed/rounded.
second attempt with more rounding, and polish worked. No more stuck primers. and easier to find the hole.

 

[358156 hp]

Smoke your pins lightly. That should fix it. And if nobody has mentioned it before , the pins need to be really hot!

 

[Ian]

I figured brass to hold heat better

Nope.

A cursory look at a specific heat of metals chart reveals that yellow brass has a specific heat of .096 BTU per pound-°F while aluminum (elemental) is .220 and iron is .110. That means that brass takes less energy to warm up, but also will lose that heat just as easily (quickly).

I find that brass moulds have to be run at a much faster pace than aluminum or iron, for an equivalent mass, surface area, bullet volume, etc. The loss of heat to the air is much faster with brass, so pouring "heat" into it has to be a lot faster to compensate, and the heat loss is even greater when the blocks are separated as in when you're fiddling around trying to get the bullets to drop. Brass blocks are constantly trying to rob heat from the source away from the steel pins, so that's working against you too. The only solution is to flood the system with hot lead, and keep it flooded. Lightly-frosted ww alloy with sharp edges and no big voids at the tip of the HP pin takes at least 3.5 pours per minute (four is better) at 725°F pot temperature with most brass moulds to keep them happy.

Get a cheap analog wall clock with a second hand and put it on the wall behind your casting station and time your work. That will give you a frame of reference to this conversation, and a reference to yourself for future work with each mould and alloy combination. You may wish to keep a log for each mould, noting alloy, humidity, ambient temperature, alloy temperature, pour pace in pours per minute over at least a ten-minute period, and so forth.

 

[Brad]

Something I did find helped with my NOE 314640 HP mould is a large ladle. That mould with bottom pour was a nigmare. No way I could keep it hot enough. The ladle lets me pour molten lead over the mould. That means I am adding heat to the mould far beyond what a full cavity can do.

 

[creosote]

So............. I think what your trying to say is make sure the mold is up to temp.

Thanks everyone.

Now I know what to do tomorrow.
First make sure all the engine oil is off my hot plate. I used it to warm the engine when it was 20 below last winter. A magnetic one is in my future.

Also, Thank you Ian; I've worked around steel and aluminum since shep was a pup, but still find out I don't know everything.

 

[USSR]

Not a fan of aluminum moulds or NOE's jerry-rigged hollowpoint system. MP's brass hollowpoint moulds rock!!!

Don

 

[fiver]

something else that can help is simply flipping the mold over.
the heat raising away from the mold and sprue will help heat the steel pins on the bottom.

 

[Kevin Stenberg]

Brad how do you eliminate the excess lead that flows over the sides of the mold from sticking to the sides and bottom of the mold? And not being able to move any moveable parts. Sliders on Noe molds, Pins on Crames type molds.
On solid molds I turn the mold sideways and pour lead on the side of the mold to help get it to temp. But that all falls off when I use my mold persuader. An there are no sliders or pins to get stuck to.