A small rant

Kevin Stenberg

Kevin Stenberg

Well-Known Member
I sure wish anyone that uses a spray release agent on a mold had to clean the mold themselves. I recently got a Lee 6 cav. in 45 caliber. The prior owner must have used some kind of chemical mold release every time he used the mold. I tried the mold one just the way it came to me. An it cast .003 under sized.
I have now spent an hour using a toothbrush and soap and have only taken off about 2/3 of the black gunk. And every inside corner still has traces of the stuff. At this time the mold halves are in a boiling pot of soap water hoping more gunk will come off.
If the boiling doesn't work I mite have to resort to spinning a bullet in each cavity to try to get more gunk out.
 
D

david s

Well-Known Member
I ruined a Lee 429-310-RF two cavity mould using Midway mould release. It was an aerosol spray that I think it was graphite suspended in some sort of evaporant. My best luck cleaning it was with acetone and a tooth brush but this still left a awful lot to be desired.
 
Brad

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
The Midway release is good on the bottom of a sprue plate.
 
CWLONGSHOT

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
My 44 260 Ranch dog was like this.
I cast with it after "normal" clean and lube and it cast a nice bullet.

I was tempted to leave it bothered me enough to do as your doing. Man that stuff was hard to get off!! Repeated washings and finally acetone and coleman fuel. Its still not perfect. But casts a nice bullet plenty if diameter and fairly round.

29B9E9E8-1176-4FC0-BB7A-3FAB62A82AFE.jpeg
 
Ben

Ben

Moderator
Staff member
Kevin Stenberg said:
I sure wish anyone that uses a spray release agent on a mold had to clean the mold themselves. I recently got a Lee 6 cav. in 45 caliber. The prior owner must have used some kind of chemical mold release every time he used the mold. I tried the mold one just the way it came to me. An it cast .003 under sized.
I have now spent an hour using a toothbrush and soap and have only taken off about 2/3 of the black gunk. And every inside corner still has traces of the stuff. At this time the mold halves are in a boiling pot of soap water hoping more gunk will come off.
If the boiling doesn't work I mite have to resort to spinning a bullet in each cavity to try to get more gunk out.
Click to expand...
Kevin,

I could not have said it better.
I totally 101% detest the stuff.

Ben
 
358156 hp

358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
Brad said:
The Midway release is good on the bottom of a sprue plate.
Click to expand...
And on ladles. It really keeps the "beards" at bay.

To remove "mold prep", consider an acetone bath, followed by a brushing with a nylon brush. I generally avoid buying any mould that is sprayed with graphite because it's often used to hide flaws in the moulds like rust pits, and scratches.
 
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RBHarter

RBHarter

West Central AR
CW
I'm in new glasses so after 5 yr w/o a new update or new lenses . So it's probably just me but the shadow effect took me a long time to convince myself it wasn't a cross thread .......which it was obvious that it couldn't be , but still it seemed ......
 
Kevin Stenberg

Kevin Stenberg

Well-Known Member
The soap boil did very little on the CRUD. Its still not up to speed. I will try the brake cleaner if i can find any.
If I can't I will try the mold the way it is.
Atleast now I can read the mold # on the top of the mold. The sprue plate was so covered it was black rather than the normal almondish/ copper color.
 
fiver

fiver

Well-Known Member
i loaned a mold to a buddy once.
i had spent the better part of a week lapping it out so all the cavities were exactly where i wanted them.
he sprayed it with some crap used it and brought it back.
i was so mad i couldn't even talk for about a half an hour.
he didn't know better being new, and he is a good friend, but i can guarantee he won't ever use the stuff again.
i think it shocked him.
 
Bret4207

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
fiver said:
i loaned a mold to a buddy once.
i had spent the better part of a week lapping it out so all the cavities were exactly where i wanted them.
he sprayed it with some crap used it and brought it back.
i was so mad i couldn't even talk for about a half an hour.
he didn't know better being new, and he is a good friend, but i can guarantee he won't ever use the stuff again.
i think it shocked him.
Click to expand...
The older I get, the more the old "Neither a borrower nor a lender be" thing makes really good sense.
 
Missionary

Missionary

Well-Known Member
Sad people do not consider giving it back in better condition than when picking it up.
But precision instruments do require instruction and a learning curve.
Another reason I keep well used Lee molds around.
 
J

Jeff H

NW Ohio
Ian said:
Chlorinated brake cleaner and a toothbrush takes it right off.
Click to expand...

I hate using the stuff, but sometimes it's the only way.

Considering @Kevin Stenberg 's comment "If I can find some," I have found it, but have had to look hard, and it's not as cheap as it once was.

@Ian , a question for YOU, being the resident auto-guru, will carb-cleaner work, or is there something in it we should keep away from our moulds. I can still find that easily and it does a good (fast) job removing black deposits from the inside of my aluminum throttle-bodies, with no APPARENT ill effect.

Just haven't had the guts to try it on an aluminum mould.
 
CZ93X62

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
My feelings about those spray-on graphite mould release graphite concoctions are not suitable for site traffic. I do strive to keep the lives of moderators unvexed, having been one in the past (for about 18 minutes).

I think the object of these coatings is to slow down heat transference from the poured alloy inside the cavities to the mould body, esp. aluminum mould bodies. Those things are heat suckers of the first rank. A light smoking of the mould cavities with a wooden kitchen match provides enough of an ablative coating to slow heat transfer without obnoxious build-up that causes under-sized castings.

Interestingly, my NOE and Accurate aluminum moulds don't require this treatment. I need to bump up the alloy temps about 25* and cast a bit faster, but they produce great castings. Two NEI aluminum 25 caliber moulds needed a light smoking to produce good outcomes, my supposition was that small-diameter bullets even at 850* couldn't hold enough heat for long enough to form good castings. I resorted to light smoking, and both moulds dropped perfect bullets @ .260".

Heat is our friend in this game, as Mark Twain said in Huck Finn--"It covers a power of sins". While aluminum blocks are lighter in weight and less fatiguing over a session's length, iron moulds have a lot fewer "moving parts" (they are less cantankerous).
 
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