I bought a single cav. Lyman 358477.
From the " get go " , it was a troublesome mould.
The mould was out of round. ( I fixed that by spinning bullets with fine Clover's abrasive compound until I was closer to round )
The mould didn't want to cast a bullet with a base that was filled out.
I cleaned the mould about 1/2 dozen times, that didn't help a single thing.
So, ........I took a fine cut Swiss flat file and layed it on the edges of the top edge of the block at about 10 degrees and removed a bit of metal.
PRESTO ! ! Perfect bases on every pour.
Then I noticed that the sprue hole had burrs in it.
The sprue wanted to stick ( I just hate that ! ! )
Nothing to do but to re-cut the sprue hole.
All is well now.
A bit of work, but none the less, a fine casting mould.
Ben
Now I'm getting good base fill out with no whiskers.
( Please be very careful with this technique, you don't want to remove
too much metal. Keep the file on a very low angle. Stop after you've removed a VERY SMALL amount of metal and cast with the mold to see if bullet base fill out has improved )
The photo below makes it look like I've removed a lot of metal.
Not so ! The file is held on a very low angle. When the blocks are closed, the fine crack at the tops of the mold halves when the mould blocks are closed probably isn't as big as a vent line. However, it makes a tremendous difference in the way the mould cast. THAT AIR HAS GOT TO GO SOMEWHERE.
The end result is a fine casting mould.
Notice that you don't see " whiskers " on the bases of the bullets.
The air is venting well, but the file work has not been overdone.
From the " get go " , it was a troublesome mould.
The mould was out of round. ( I fixed that by spinning bullets with fine Clover's abrasive compound until I was closer to round )
The mould didn't want to cast a bullet with a base that was filled out.
I cleaned the mould about 1/2 dozen times, that didn't help a single thing.
So, ........I took a fine cut Swiss flat file and layed it on the edges of the top edge of the block at about 10 degrees and removed a bit of metal.
PRESTO ! ! Perfect bases on every pour.
Then I noticed that the sprue hole had burrs in it.
The sprue wanted to stick ( I just hate that ! ! )
Nothing to do but to re-cut the sprue hole.
All is well now.
A bit of work, but none the less, a fine casting mould.
Ben
Now I'm getting good base fill out with no whiskers.
( Please be very careful with this technique, you don't want to remove
too much metal. Keep the file on a very low angle. Stop after you've removed a VERY SMALL amount of metal and cast with the mold to see if bullet base fill out has improved )
The photo below makes it look like I've removed a lot of metal.
Not so ! The file is held on a very low angle. When the blocks are closed, the fine crack at the tops of the mold halves when the mould blocks are closed probably isn't as big as a vent line. However, it makes a tremendous difference in the way the mould cast. THAT AIR HAS GOT TO GO SOMEWHERE.
The end result is a fine casting mould.
Notice that you don't see " whiskers " on the bases of the bullets.
The air is venting well, but the file work has not been overdone.
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