Possible out of round mold...help please

Boolit Bub Join DateOct 2011LocationMississippi, USAPosts37

I could use some words of wisdom here. I recently purhcased a used Lyman 457406 mold that apprears to be in really nice shape and got around to casting with it this morning. The mold looks good but the boolits I cast this morning seem to be out of round. I tried a search for "out of round" and didn't find anything to help me out.

I used a fairly soft alloy just trying out the mold becasuse that is what I had in the pot (my alloy for my 45 caliber range boolits). The boolits mike out at .447 on the shy side and .459 on the fat side. I thought if it was merely an alloy problem the whole thing would be small, not one side. Has anyone heard of this happening? Do I have a bad mold or is this just a case of needing to try a hard alloy?

I tried sizing a few in a .458 die in my Lyman 450 sizer and the boolit didn't look like it touched the die much and the hornady gas check remained in the sizing die and did not attach to the boolit.

If it is indeed out of round, is there a fix.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

375:
Which way is the boolit out of round? If you open the mould blocks, and measure across the cavity from edge to edge, is it the proper dimension? If it is, that is good. All you have to do is "beagle" the blocks. No, I don't mean throw the dog in there. Get some "thin" aluminum tape, and stick some strips inbetween the blocks to make the blocks stay open just a few .000. My tape measures .004.
I just had the same problem with a set of Lachmiller moulds. They are the 454190 cavities, and the narrow way was about .003-.004 small. I beagled the mould, and all is fine now. The boolits drop at .454+. I size to .452 and they are nice and round.
If the cavity/cavities are small the other direction, you will need to polish/hone them out, with a cast boolit and some compound.
If you need some beagling tape, I can send you some.
Reguards
Jack

Last edited by littlejack; Today at 02:27 PM.

Boolit Bub Join DateOct 2011LocationMississippi, USAPosts37

Thanks, littlejack. My mold casts with the widest part of the boolit being the edge to edge that you describe. It sounds like Beageling might just be the way to go. Measuring the top of the blocks that forms the gas check shank, the distance from one half of the block to the other is .415 inch and side to side is .425 inch. This shows .010 out of round. The cast boolit has a .012 difference out of round. It looks like I would need between a .010 and .012 shim of aluminum tape? Is the tape applied to the entire surface of the mold or to just enough surface to make a gap? Also, would this allow lead to get between the blocks and make fins on the boolit?

That is a lot of out of round. I have a suspision, that that IS the reason the moulds were for sale. Your boolits will have finning, lots of it. They will have frog hair, lots of it from the vent grooves. I guess it didn't register with me when I read how much out of round the moulds were. If you need .010 -.012 gap, this may be too much to be able to use your moulds succesfully. You would need to stack at least 3, and maybe 4 pieces of tape to get the correct size.
Lets wait untill a few of the other fellas reply, and see what the more expierienced have to say.
Jack

Boolit Bub Join DateOct 2011LocationMississippi, USAPosts37

littlejack, I too suspect that this was the reason the mold was for sale in the first place. It is an out of production design and I have been shooting some examples that I inherited from a friend. I like the boolit and wanted to be able to make them myself. Hopefully someone will have a way to rebore it or possibly Lyman might be able to do something like run a cherry back through it.....I don't know. Hopefully someone will be able to help.

Give Eric a try at Hollow Point Bullet Mold Service. I pretty sure he will bore that mold - and
do it well. Mike

I saw Elvis at 1000 feet. John Force

Boolit Bub Join DateOct 2011LocationMississippi, USAPosts37

Thanks Mike. I will contact him and see what he says. I would like to get it casting right.

you definatly will have to have it re-cut.
erik might be able to only "help" the mold.

it's all an educated guess,,,, till the trigger is pulled.

the more i find out about shootin boolits, the more it contradicts everything i ever learned about shooting jaxketed.

There you go.
Get a price quote, and then you will know if the mould will be worth the payout for the rebore job. It may be a lot cheaper to just buy another mould.
Jack

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