Got my first NOE and already problems....

Boolit Bub Join DateMar 2013Posts22

The mold itself is fantastic! It's a 65 grain GC .225 4cav mold. 95.80 shipped to my door and it arrived in under 3 days. The issue I have is after following instructions on peeping the mold it doesn't cast well at all. I preheat the mold and when I pour my melt into the mold it just cools instantly and only fills the nose of the mold. It has done this about 400 times since I tried it and I only got 5 bullets out of it and they are not even serviceable.

Please help. I feel like I wasted $100 on a paperweight at this moment.

Alloy: WW and Linotype where needed
Mold: .225 65gr 4cav NOE
Lee furnace

Its not hot enough...alloy or mold. I have a double 92 gr. mold and it takes a lot of heat and fast casting speed to keep it running. You have even less lead with 65 gr. bullets. preheat more and try running your alloy at 700-725 degrees.

NOE molds like it HOT !!!

That big mold will definitely need preheating & with that small a boolit will probably cool as you cast .

I have a 5C 358429 & I have to go as fast as I can to keep it to temp.
I run my alloy at 745f for the 5C ,I also have a 360-180 rnfp design & if I make HPs with it alloy is at 810f.

I don`t understand as I can get a 6C Lee to the point of wait to cool ,but the NOE 5C I can`t ??

It`s gotta be the type of aluminum alloy they use because the NOE aluminum is harder than Lees.

Turn up the heat !!!!

Oh yeah if ya got a thermometer to check the mold with shoot for 350-400f & I use an old iron frying pan on the burner , never the mold or ingot directly on the burner!

That big a mould with that small a bullet is going require preheating. If it was a 250 gr bullet it wpuld heat up by just casting but the little guys just don't transfer enough heat.

Use the stove or a hotplate to get it hot, I want mine to enough to instantly boil off a drop of water. Then start casting. No messing around either, cast with a quick tempo or the mould won't stay hot enough.

All the guys above are telling you right. I have a NOE 225107 10 cavity that was lent to me by a member here. You think you're makin' little boolits? Try castin' 33 grainers!

This mold is double sided and has two sprue cutters. In order to make the mold sit flat on the hot plate and absorb enough heat, I had to take one sprue cutter off and cast into the five cavities on one side.

I put the mold on a solid top hot plate and cover it with the bottom of a no. 10 food can that's been cut to fit the handles so the can sits flat on the hot plate. This (I think) helps to trap the heat. I fire the pot and the hot plate and give them both 20 minutes to heat up before I even think about starting.

The hot plate runs at wide open. I have to run my alloy for this mold at an incredible 850 to get it to flow and fill out in those little tiny cavities.

I cast with the mold sitting on the hot plate. I pick up the mold to dump the boolits and it goes right back on the hot plate. I'm guessing over 99% of the heat in the mold blocks comes from the hot plate as I'm only using one side of the mold. Those little tiny boolits don't carry any heat to speak of and they're so small, they cool in less than a minute.

So, all that blather to verify what everybody else said.

Jim, that is proof that sometime should just have to do what a mould requires. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Anyone mentioned heat yet?

Aluminum looses heat very quickly. Don't look at it as pouring alloy into your mold, look at it as pouring heat and even though your pouring 4 of them you are pouring very little heat. You definitely need a hot plate to pre-heat the mold to casting temp and then DO NOT inspect your boolits while your casting because the mold is shedding heat fast, keep the blocks closed and full as much as possible and keep pouring heat.

If your new to casting you picked a tough way to learn. Don't give up though, it can be done and the rewards will be worth the learning curve.

Rick

"The people never give up their freedom . . . Except under some delusion." Edmund Burke

"Let us remember that if we suffer tamely a lawless attack on our liberty, we encourage it." Samuel Adams

One side is for Liberty and the Constitution and they are called domestic terrorist, anti-American, nazi's and mobsters. Just what is the side using these terms for?

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I run my NOE mold's at 800+Deg.

I have the same mold and when used the way it want to be used casts great. It needs HOT alloy and to be run fast enough to maintane temp once it gets hot enough.
Step one, I run an RCBS pot full tilt at the highest setting. That gets you a hot alloy.
Step two, I pre heat the mold until water will instantly sizzle and boil away in about 2 seconds when a drop is put on the sprue plate.
Step three, This is where dexterity and experiance comes into play. I try to work as smoothly and quickly as possible to set a rythem that yealds 4 cycles per minute. This will maintane the heat in the mold. Any interuptions to this rythem will quickly drop temp to a criticle point.
I moniter my rythem by hanging a large clock with sweeping second hand that is easy to see "AND TO HEAR" at eye level at my casting station.
Follow these three steps and you will make quality 22 cal boolits. BTW you have much to look forward to. This boolit design has proven wonderfully accurate for me from all rifles I have tried it in with twists ranging from 1/14" to 1/9".
Making good 22s is like making good music, you have to stay with the rythem. Now go make some sweet casting music.

OK, WOW...yes the mold needs to "up to temp" but from all the comments so far, it sounds like you need to be in Hades casting next to the river styx.

I have several 22 molds, including a NOE 5-cav 22-055 RCBS clone. I cast with the alloy at the same temp as most other molds, that is typically 100? above liquidus of that alloy or about 650? for my rifle alloy (94-3-3).

I use a hotplate to preheat the mold. I keep the hotplate on the whole casting session. Regarding the setting, that needs to be learned with your individual hotplate. My old hotplate, with exposed coil topped with a circle saw blade and notched coffeecan to create a mold oven...works well at the "low" setting. In the begining of the session, the mold should be dropping good bullets right away. If you can't keep up the pace, and I generally can't with a couple of my 22 molds, I put the mold back into the hotplate oven and inspect some boolits or whatever for a minute, that's all the longer it takes, then start casting again. The boolits should be dropping perfect again, right away !

Keep trying, you'll develop a technique that works for you.
Good Luck,
Jon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will be offering the GC seater plate for the lyman 45.
Also I have replacement springs for the Lyman 45 lubesizer, If your's is weak or missing, let me know

Don't feel bad. I have the same mold and had the same problems the first time I used it. Yesterday I cast about 500 with zero problems. The good members here gave me some excellent advice. Cut the sprue immediately, do not even look at the boolits and keep up that rhythm. As one of the members said above try to keep the cycle at 4 per minute. I was casting at 735* with a preheated mold. I did not try to put the sprues back in the pot. When the pot became half empty I placed the mold back on the hot plate, refiled the pot and took a break. Speed and heat. Also it takes molds more than one casting session to cast their best bullets.

Courage is being scared to death-but saddling up anyway. John Wayne

A man has to do what a man has to do. John Wayne

It took me a few boolits but I found where it likes to run, and yes its hot.

I agree that around 725-735 is plenty hot for the melt. Get your mold up to temp FIRST and then keep it there by casting fast enough. If 735 degree melt won't keep your mold at 400-425 (casting temp) your doing something wrong. Past 750 degrees tin cannot do what you put it in there to do and at that temp & hotter the tin oxidizes really fast and so does antimony. Tin reduces the surface tension of the alloy permitting good fill-out, it can't do that past 750.

Rick

"The people never give up their freedom . . . Except under some delusion." Edmund Burke

"Let us remember that if we suffer tamely a lawless attack on our liberty, we encourage it." Samuel Adams

One side is for Liberty and the Constitution and they are called domestic terrorist, anti-American, nazi's and mobsters. Just what is the side using these terms for?

NRA Benefactor Life Member
CRPA Life Member

Boolit Bub Join DateMar 2013Posts22

Well that was remarkably simple to fix. It was nothing wrong with the heat. It was just a ventilation issue. The sprue plate was too tight to the top.

I have a NOE 225107 10 cavity that was lent to me by a member here. . .This mold is double sided and has two sprue cutters. In order to make the mold sit flat on the hot plate and absorb enough heat, I had to take one sprue cutter off and cast into the five cavities on one side.Say WHAAAAAAT?

First time I've heard of THIS approach. I take it the idea is to fill one side, let the sprue sort of solidify, then flip 180 degrees and repeat - with the intention being to keep enough heat going into the mold?

Glad I read this thread before I started casting mouse boolits.

WWJMBD?

I like my science WEIRD.

I have two NOE .22 cal moulds and I had the same trouble learning to cast with them. I settled on running my pot wide open and preheating the mould by resting it on top of the pot while the lead comes up to temp. When the mould is uncomfortable to touch, I open the sprue plate and leave it that way. Fill the cavities, dump them as soon as they flash over, and repeat until it is screaming hot. Then I close the plate and cast normally. When I start getting finning on the nose, I drop the lead temp and slow down casting speed.

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