Matt
Active Member
Had an old set of Lyman handles break when I was trying to cut the sprue. I was extremely surprised. I probably shouldn’t be. I’ve been fighting the Lyman mold that’s been attached to the handles for three weeks, but I never considered handles breakable. I had just started to get good bullets when the handle let go.
It is a single cavity 245496 that I purchased from the internet. It was new in the box, but it became clear that one of the blocks had been dropped on a hard surface. The sprue plate was bent and two corners of the block had metal pushed up that prevented the mold from closing completely . The initial bullets fell out of the mold at .251” . After a little careful peening and stoning the blocks closed but the bent sprue plate left flashing on the base of the bullet because it was not flat on the top of the mold. Flattening the plate and cleaning it up with some 600 grit wet/dry paper on my soap stone “surface plate” cured that problem. After that there has been a long process of figuring out flow rate from my bottom pour furnaces and even trying ladle casting. I learned that a strong flow is needed with the mold close to the spout. The mold needs to be kept hot and with the small cavity I found that I can barely cast too fast with it. It requires a large sprue too. I can’t use two molds at a time.
I switched the mold to a set of Lee handles. I still end up with 20-30% rejects, but have accumulated enough good ones to gas check, lubricate, and try in .243 Winchester and 6mm PPC.
It is a single cavity 245496 that I purchased from the internet. It was new in the box, but it became clear that one of the blocks had been dropped on a hard surface. The sprue plate was bent and two corners of the block had metal pushed up that prevented the mold from closing completely . The initial bullets fell out of the mold at .251” . After a little careful peening and stoning the blocks closed but the bent sprue plate left flashing on the base of the bullet because it was not flat on the top of the mold. Flattening the plate and cleaning it up with some 600 grit wet/dry paper on my soap stone “surface plate” cured that problem. After that there has been a long process of figuring out flow rate from my bottom pour furnaces and even trying ladle casting. I learned that a strong flow is needed with the mold close to the spout. The mold needs to be kept hot and with the small cavity I found that I can barely cast too fast with it. It requires a large sprue too. I can’t use two molds at a time.
I switched the mold to a set of Lee handles. I still end up with 20-30% rejects, but have accumulated enough good ones to gas check, lubricate, and try in .243 Winchester and 6mm PPC.