My long awaited purchase.
- Thread starter Mitty38
- Start date
Mitty38
Well-Known Member
Kinda like I used to clean my black powder stuff like 30 years ago before I discovered cva products.
Rally
NC Minnesota
I use a toothbrush and Mr. Coffee hot water, and like Fiver mentioned in and out of the water. I then wash them in alcohol. A new mould I run them through at least two heat cycles then wash again. I do the same thing after having a mould in storage, because I coat them in synthetic 2 cycle oil or any metal part will rust here. IMO Lee moulds take the least amount of cleaning, but again, you never know what is on a used mould, so it will not hurt to give it a good cleaning.
PS: Use the wifes toothbrush, Dawn tastes terrible:
PS: Use the wifes toothbrush, Dawn tastes terrible:
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Bret4207
At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Mitty, one caution I'll mention. Do NOT use any of the "mould release" type products, especially the stuff from Midway. It's basically graphite in a liquid spray form. Nasty stuff. Might be okay for things like lubing metal drawer slides in a damp garage, but it sucks as a release agent. I have a 12 or 15 year old can that's about 95% full and a couple moulds that I'm still trying to clean the vent lines out on!
Wash your moulds however you want. I tend to finish with the best degreaser I've found- ether starting fluid. People tell me brake cleaner does a better job, but my experience is that ether is better. Regardless, you will have to burn whatever remains out of the pores of the mould, hence, the 2 or 3 heating/cooling cycles we mention.
Wash your moulds however you want. I tend to finish with the best degreaser I've found- ether starting fluid. People tell me brake cleaner does a better job, but my experience is that ether is better. Regardless, you will have to burn whatever remains out of the pores of the mould, hence, the 2 or 3 heating/cooling cycles we mention.
Ian
Notorious member
Starting fluid used to be the best degreaser out there, and still is IF you can get it without upper cylinder lubricant added. The last brand I know of to not have the lubricant was Prestone but they've probably caved as well, so caveat emptor.
If you want to know how effective your degreaser is at degreasing, put some on a piece of clean glass and let it evaporate. If you can see ANY residue after it flashes off, choose another product.
If you want to know how effective your degreaser is at degreasing, put some on a piece of clean glass and let it evaporate. If you can see ANY residue after it flashes off, choose another product.
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Mitty38
Well-Known Member
Decided to combine your suggestions ,Lees instructions ,and what I know from my experience with aluminum, into a Used Mold Preparation plan.
Since this is a used mold, and I do not know where it has been. I am going to try and take it back to square one and then re season.
I plan on first boiling it in some distilled water with dawn. Then boiling in clean, distilled water. This will float out any oils or organic contamination.
Then heat to remove all water from the pores.
Then I am going to treat it the same as the aluminum samples for analysis that get contaminated at work.. Going to clean it with 99.9% pure alcohol and wipe with\ contamination free wipe all about 4 times.
Read the lee instructions and I noticed they mentioned White Gas aka as "Naphtha". I remember getting samples to test at work, of aluminum fuel tanks that held white gas in them at one time, the carbon level was so high on that side of the sheet in contact with the Naphtha, would not test accurately. Bad thing for testing but Good thing for casting as pure carbon and hydro carbons act as a releasing agents. Plus carbon has a tendency to "push away" any other contaminants.
So... going to wipe it down with white gas and burn it off in the about 5 times.
From there I am just going to go buy the lee new mold break in instructions wit the candle smoke and all.
This is my game plan, will let you know how that works for me.
Since this is a used mold, and I do not know where it has been. I am going to try and take it back to square one and then re season.
I plan on first boiling it in some distilled water with dawn. Then boiling in clean, distilled water. This will float out any oils or organic contamination.
Then heat to remove all water from the pores.
Then I am going to treat it the same as the aluminum samples for analysis that get contaminated at work.. Going to clean it with 99.9% pure alcohol and wipe with\ contamination free wipe all about 4 times.
Read the lee instructions and I noticed they mentioned White Gas aka as "Naphtha". I remember getting samples to test at work, of aluminum fuel tanks that held white gas in them at one time, the carbon level was so high on that side of the sheet in contact with the Naphtha, would not test accurately. Bad thing for testing but Good thing for casting as pure carbon and hydro carbons act as a releasing agents. Plus carbon has a tendency to "push away" any other contaminants.
So... going to wipe it down with white gas and burn it off in the about 5 times.
From there I am just going to go buy the lee new mold break in instructions wit the candle smoke and all.
This is my game plan, will let you know how that works for me.
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Bret4207
At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
No candles, no smoke, just get it hot and try casting. Most moulds don't need anything other than hot lead in the hot cavity. All the mould release tricks are for troublesome moulds and you don't even know if yours falls into that category yet. Out of 80ish moulds I don't have a single one that needs any smoke or magic dust in the cavity. I do have a couple that needed a little fine tuning to get rid of burrs, but smoke isn't going to help if you have burrs. Besides, if you put enough stuff in the cavity, even enough smoke, it makes your bullets skinny. Pretty fair chance your Lee is gonna be on the slender side to start with, don't add to it.
fiver
Well-Known Member
ohhh,, your leaving that one wide open...LOL
I have one side of one cavity in one mold that runs better if I hit it with a lighter about every 30 pours or so.
believe it or not it's a Walt Melander NEI mold.
slight smoke, open and shake,,,, no smoke,, open and watch the other 3 fall out and whack,,,whack for the fourth.
I could probably track it down and fix it [shrug] or just make 500 bullets when I need them with minimal fuss.
I have one side of one cavity in one mold that runs better if I hit it with a lighter about every 30 pours or so.
believe it or not it's a Walt Melander NEI mold.
slight smoke, open and shake,,,, no smoke,, open and watch the other 3 fall out and whack,,,whack for the fourth.
I could probably track it down and fix it [shrug] or just make 500 bullets when I need them with minimal fuss.