Never found the need to oil a mould out my way, are you in a location where rust is a real concern?

JLouis

Well I must say you lost me on your responce. I do indeed maintain my rifles bore but oiling the interior of my moulds while not having any rust concerns is not something I do nor would I recommend it to others. In my case it would be like trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist but it would be interesting hearing from others on the matter.

JLouis

Thanks Bob, I keep mine in the safe with the rifles and all though the safe is some what exposed to the seasonal and daily temp. changes rust have never been an issue to date.

JLouis

When it comes to molds, I'm a clean freak. I never oil them. If I don't put anything in them, I don't have to take anything out of them to get them to cast.

When I get a new, or a new to me mold, I wash them with Borax and a toothe brush and then cast. After using them, I just keep then at room temp in the house (my loading room is in the house) and I live in Oregon so, there is some humidity.

Frank

mes wrote on Sep 28^th, 2014 at 7:06am:


What mes says. I use a fine mill file. When a mold will not fill out, the cavity is too air tight. Needs a place for the hot air to escape as the alloy fills the cavity. Best venting is done on the edge of the mold as mes points out. Works perfectly on base pour or nose pour molds. 

My molds get dirty from casting. Dross in the alloy builds up in sharp corners and at the burr at the edge of the cavity. Often causing bullets to stick. I use a small steel hand brush to clean the cavity. Seldom oil a mold, never leave a bullet in them when stored.  

           Joe. 

Hiwall55 wrote on Sep 29^th, 2014 at 4:07am:

Not sure why you are having the problem with your Hoch, as that pretty much duplicates my procedure & TC, etc. To be more specific, I place the mold on the lip of the pot while both are cold and then let the pot stay at full temp for about 20min to insure all is at temp before the first pour. It usually takes about 5 bullets to get all my molds to consistent weight except the Hoch, which takes 10-15. But, believe the real key with the Hoch is to cast as fast as you can to keep it hot.

Hiwall55 wrote on Sep 29^th, 2014 at 4:07am:


Has this one mould always had this issue? Or did it just start?
LG

Hochs are sometimes a little tricky.  Loosening the bolts on the top and bottom plate assembly slightly (don't forget to tighten nuts afterwards) sometimes does wonders for fillout.  There's a lot of mass there, so it needs to run hot, but of course when you are into the rhythm, it can also get too hot.  I keep my lead pot in a large square pan that I guess was used to catch grease drips and splashes in an oven, which does the same for most of the lead spatters.  I turn the sprue plate over after the sprue hardens and press it against the lip of the pan for a couple seconds to drain off the heat a little.  This seems to help the smears which might accrue from cutting half-hard sprues.