proper temp for Steel mold
- Thread starter glassparman
- Start date
Rally
NC Minnesota
I’m wearing deer skin gloves on both hands and use a piece of a wood splitting maul handle for a striking tool. Tried using my hand to open moulds , just not my thing. Burned the bottom of my hand when I was a kid casting sinkers I sold to bait shops, made quite an impression on me!
Hardest Mould I’ve found to cast with/ get up to temp, is a four cavity Hp Rg4 in brass. I called that mould things that would make a Boilermaker blush! Wasn’t the mould just me not getting the pins hot enough. Now it sits on a hot plate for at least as long as the lead pots take to get up to temp, and the last five minutes or so on the pin side/bottom. Once it’s up to temp it cast as pretty a bullet as can be made, and some tin doesn’t hurt anything either. I’ve never been too concerned about frosted bullets. Sharp clean bases and bands are what trip my trigger.
Hardest Mould I’ve found to cast with/ get up to temp, is a four cavity Hp Rg4 in brass. I called that mould things that would make a Boilermaker blush! Wasn’t the mould just me not getting the pins hot enough. Now it sits on a hot plate for at least as long as the lead pots take to get up to temp, and the last five minutes or so on the pin side/bottom. Once it’s up to temp it cast as pretty a bullet as can be made, and some tin doesn’t hurt anything either. I’ve never been too concerned about frosted bullets. Sharp clean bases and bands are what trip my trigger.
RBHarter
West Central AR
I struggled with a brass MP HB mould but only until the mould started to settle down and get enough patina to not stick to itself .
454613 Minie' never gave me a minutes trouble .
There's a 350 gr 50 cal Lee Minie' too .
All of these of course are hollow base not hollow point . I'm sure a pin that matches bullet dia stays closer mould temperature and is easier to cast .
454613 Minie' never gave me a minutes trouble .
There's a 350 gr 50 cal Lee Minie' too .
All of these of course are hollow base not hollow point . I'm sure a pin that matches bullet dia stays closer mould temperature and is easier to cast .
I turned the sprue plate finger toward the handle and open it (4x & 2x) with thumb of gloved hand. Just have Al moulds, they loose heat faster. Mould still needs to be ~ 400F no matter what material. I don't use HP moulds. Most of my culls are bad pours. Flood the plate, dribble pour, etc. Easy to cull.
HP pins - have NO practical venting! The volume of alloy around the pin is relatively SMALL and cools quickly. The surface area of the pin is quite large relative to the outside nose area. Thermally, both halves of the HP mould will NEVER be the same, different mass. Unless you have the 'insert' pin into the bottom hole old style. Those pins would be very hard to keep hot.
HP pins - have NO practical venting! The volume of alloy around the pin is relatively SMALL and cools quickly. The surface area of the pin is quite large relative to the outside nose area. Thermally, both halves of the HP mould will NEVER be the same, different mass. Unless you have the 'insert' pin into the bottom hole old style. Those pins would be very hard to keep hot.
Bret4207
At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I think our different setups, moulds, alloys, methods and personal habits allow for a variety of "fixes" to the issue.