Casting with an RG4 mold

[waco]

I have an AL 4 cavity NOEH&G68 mold on the way. I have limited experience casting with HP molds much less a four cavity.
I need advice on how to keep everything running good.
Do I preheat the pins with a torch?
I have a hotplate with a cover. Should I run the alloy hotter? Keep the mold hotter? I'm just not sure how to keep those tilting pins hot!
What say you???

 

[fiver]

you have to be very, very careful with a torch around an aluminum mold.
you can heat the steel parts okay.
but I would be more inclined to lay the mold top side down in a hot plate oven and get the whole thing up to temp.

 

[gman]

Follow Al's directions in cleaning and preheating the mold and allowing to cool 3 times before actually casting. It helps. I preheat mine while the alloy melts. I do run my alloy around 725 or so. Cast a little faster than with other molds. Once everything is right bullets won't stick to the pins. At most a light tap they will fall. To me starting with a well preheated mold is the ticket. You will like it.

 

[Ian]

First, degrease everything and make sure the little slotted pin guide holes, hp pins, and mould blocks are all aligned and the mould opens smoothly. You may need to sand the tips of the mould block alignment pins to help that. Preheat it in your fancy new mould oven and let it soak for a half hour, then pull it out and re-torque every screw on the mould while hot. Torque the pin guides with the blocks FIRMLY held closed with the handles.

Run it a cycle or three before casting. Lube the pin guide slots. Lube the alignment pins lightly, and lube the sprue plate and pivot as you normally would.

Heat soak it good before casting, run your alloy a bit hotter than normal, and cast fast. Keep a mallet handy, you'll need it. Invert the mould to drop the bullets off the pins. The rest is a learning curve you'll have to work out on your own, just be patient. You will find out just how much patience you have when learning to run one of these.

 

[waco]

Awesome advice! Thanks guys!

 

[Rally Hess]

What Ian said. In addition to that, I use a real fine piece of steel wool and buff the pins a little. If you don't, you'll find out in a hurry which pins, if any, have small burrs on them. A hotplate is your friend. I just got the 452-230 RG4 in aluminum today myself. I set my rg4's on the pins when they are on the hotplate. Seems to me like they heat up better that way. I have the 311-165-rg4 in brass and start heating that one on the top for about 10 minutes and then set it on the pins for another 10 minutes or so. I had some trouble getting the brass up to temp, so cast alot of wrinkled noses at first. The mould was so pretty I was afraid I'd overheat it or something.

 

[Rick]

All good advice so far. I do run my pot temp a little hotter with HP's, I run it up to 720 degrees. The biggest problem people have with HP's is the spud's being too cool. Quoting Glen Fryxell - A hot HP pin is a happy HP pin. Bullets sticking on the pins and incomplete fill-out of the nose around the spud is a cool spud problem. The spud's do not have the mass the mold blocks do and they can cool quickly so picking up the pace and not inspecting your new creations while casting is important. As was mentioned, it's a learning curve but you have seen pictures of excellent HP bullets so you know it's doable.

 

[Brad]

The RG4 moulds aren't too bad to cast with. Well, if they are a reasonable sized bullet. I have a 311640 RG4 and it is miserable to get good fillout on the nose with. Bottom pour I can't get 10% keepers. A big ladle made a huge difference because I can keep the mould temp up.
Don't mess around looking at bullets. Run it a bit faster than normal because the mould cools a bit while you are frogging around dumping bullets off pins and such.
Takes a little getting used to the need to rotate the mould when dumping bullets off the pins too.

 

[waco]

I hope to receive a tracking number soon and have the mold within a few days. Looking forward to trying it out!

 

[Winelover]

I've had pretty good luck, using "Drop Out", on HP pins.....finally found a use for it. Not crazy about Al's RG design, when bottom pouring. Lack of a flat mould bottom, is a PITA, if using the mould guide rod on a RCBS Pro-Melt. Better, if your a ladle caster.

 

[Will]

My 360-200 rg4 has been a nightmare. I have it in the loading room now for some polishing. My problem is the little burs on the sliding portion of the hp pin.
When those pins hang up bullets don't want to drop out. That in turn cools the mold down quickly. I personally started just buying 2 cavity molds if I want hp's
Dad and I just ordered the 460-425 rg2 and this one cast pretty good the first session. Pretty easy to keep the 2 cavity hot pouring 425gr bullets.

 

[Winelover]

The only RG mold I have is a 4 cavity brass 359-115-RF designed for 9mm.

http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/produc...cts_id=2204&osCsid=7p862snmp7e6o5mhfurfrer1e5


Bullets wont chamber in either the Browning HP or the Beretta Nano that I purchased it for......with out deep seating them. Something, I refuse to do. Besides running up pressures, unnecessarily. Corbon factory 125 JHP wouldn't run in my HP......cause the OAL was too short. Every other brand of factory ammo would......most were in the neighborhood of 1.10" OAL.

I have since, relegated this mould for use in my 357 Lever for small game/pest loads or the Ruger 357 LCR for lower recoil practice. Either, taper crimping or roll crimping over the front band.

 

[Ian]

I made a good friend over an RG-2 that was about to drive the owner out of his mind. Turns out he lived not far from a relative, halfway across the state, so I arranged to stop by and see if I could help him with his woes. We took that mould apart and spent several hours de-burring, polishing, aligning, cleaning off FA spray that he'd finally resorted to using, picking vent lines, polishing cavities, etc. and finally on the third go got it casting smoothly. We used a ladle and he had a nice setup with a big pot of alloy outside over a wind-shielded burner and got some great bullets that afternoon, but DANG it took some effort to get that mould going. Count me out on ever buying one of those RG designs on my own.

 

[yodogsandman]

I run a few RG-2's but, I'd never order an RG-4! Two cavities with pins is all I ever want to deal with. I have good luck, though. I pre-heat the molds, pin side down to 400*F and cast away a bit fast with the pot set at 725*F. I lubricate the mold top, sprue plate, alignment pins, the pin slider rig and the pin cavity well. When the pins start to stick, I set the mold on the hot plate again and get those pins reheated.

 

[Rick]

I made a good friend over an RG-2 that was about to drive the owner out of his mind. Turns out he lived not far from a relative, halfway across the state, so I arranged to stop by and see if I could help him with his woes. We took that mould apart and spent several hours de-burring, polishing, aligning, cleaning off FA spray that he'd finally resorted to using, picking vent lines, polishing cavities, etc. and finally on the third go got it casting smoothly. We used a ladle and he had a nice setup with a big pot of alloy outside over a wind-shielded burner and got some great bullets that afternoon, but DANG it took some effort to get that mould going. Count me out on ever buying one of those RG designs on my own.

Hhmmm . . . And yet so many people rave about the quality of these molds.

I've several NOE molds and not a one of them needed anything beyond cleaning and pre-heating and lubing and they run flawlessly and to spec.
.

 

[Winelover]

Two or four cavity.....pins aren't the problem for me.....it's the protuberances out the bottom. Much prefer MiHa's design.

 

[Winelover]

I have several NOE's moulds and all were without manufacturing or tuning issues.....this RG-4 was my first and last HP purchase.
I purchased a 2 cavity, 30 cal 150 grain 115 SP, for testing in my AR-10.....that was a mistake. My casting technique didn't lend itself to 2 cavity aluminum moulds. I cut my teeth with 2 cavity iron ones. So I gave that one to Rick, for his M1A, and bought a 4 cavity when it became available.

 

[S Mac]

What does the RG designation stand for? Curious mind wants to know.

 

[Winelover]

NOE's hollow point designation.

 

[358156 hp]

"Rube Goldberg"

Seriously. Google it for the best definition.