Just keep your 3/32 Allen key handy and when the mold is hot, loosen and retighten the set screw a few times. This will get you to the correct tightness for the hot mold.RCBS. I saw the impression on the insert and it's facing the right way.
Tried last time l was casting but not letting the plate fall on its own a lightly tighten. I’ll give it a whirl while it’s hot.Just keep your 3/32 Allen key handy and when the mold is hot, loosen and retighten the set screw a few times. This will get you to the correct tightness for the hot mold.
Huh? If the mould got hot enough to melt the piece of shot it would also be hot enough to not let the lead in the cavities harden.shot is lead... that would melt, bad idea.
Ok.. so I used #4 buck shot and cut them down to fit the hole where the allen set screw is.Many years. More likely a few decades.
I don’t get my moulds up to 700 degrees. I bet they don’t get to 400.
I bet I am not the only one here who owes a piece of shot under the set screw on moulds.
oh my bad, the melt gets 750 ish, just saw that... I don't know what my moulds are.The mould was at 750 or the lead in the pot was?
I cast with the pot at 700 and I can assure you the mould gets nowhere near that hot. If it did my bullets would take forever to set up so I could dump them from the mould.
I have old cast iron moulds RCBS and Lyman Ideal. And if you go on RCBS website they say thier moulds now are cast iron.I do not think that the usual commercial bullet mold makers use cast iron. I believe it is Mehenite which is probably spelled wrong, but is generally called an iron mold or a steel mold. Another material is brass with aluminum also being used to make bullet molds. Aluminum tends to need more heat and often that is accomplished by casting at a faster tempo than with the other two mold materials.
Ok.. so I used #4 buck shot and cut them down to fit the hole where the allen set screw is.
My mould casted wrinkled rounded casts with melt below 700. I used the Lyman temp gauge where it recommends WW between 500 and 600... no good, too cool. Up'ed the temp, and settled at 725 ish 750 melt in the pot. Do cast Iron moulds need more heat than steel ? Or vice versa ?
I sanded the plate with 150 200 and 400 on a piece of 1/2 plywood. I used a straight edge SS ruler to check it. As I tighten the bolt down ever so slightly it begins to tip. I need friction washers. Tommarow I will go to the hardware store and see what I can find. The Lyman Ideal needs a relatively thick one from the lock washer that's on it now. The Rcbs has a beveled washer that's really thin. That one works better, than the Lyman Ideal. There's not burr on the plate hole or bolt, no.Don’t let that Lyman dial type temp probe fool you, I have to run my melt at 900 on that thermometer to make good projectiles.
I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to heat I just keep the probe in the melt to make sure I’m staying somewhat stable, the mold will tell you when it’s at the right temp, every mold has its sweet spot, and quirks for the matter.
I have several RCBS molds and have never had an issue with the plate loosening after it was set. Is there a burr inside the sprue plate hole, or on the screw? I use a piece of glass and sandpaper to wet sand a sprue plate back flat, if ot is slightly warped, that may help.
as a guideline.
375 for steel mold temp.
400-415 for aluminum
brass gets a titch hotter than mehanite but stays heat soaked once you get it there.
just set your pot temp to 725 for the first few [20-25] pours then back it down to about 700-715.
after that it's all cadence to keep the mold in the temp zone.
3 pours is cruising.
4 is to bring the mold temp up when necessary.
if your bullets come out shiny then turn to a galvanized color as they cool your pretty much in the zone.
unless your running 4-5% tin then they don't dull off.
gonna guess it has to be adjusted every time you return to a new cast session ?Just keep your 3/32 Allen key handy and when the mold is hot, loosen and retighten the set screw a few times. This will get you to the correct tightness for the hot mold.
Same here. The only one I ever owned is a conical for the ROA. Back then, there weren't any custom mold makers. RCBS didn't offer anything. Always preferred iron molds.Bought my last LEE mold 25-30 years ago. Never again.