Did another STUPID!!!!!

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  • Last Post 22 October 2017
BigMan54 posted this 21 October 2017

I think the older I get the dumber I get.

Got a new mold a couple of months ago.  A "gift" from my Chiropractor buddy so "we" would always have a goodly supply of bullets for his Cowboy  Shooting.  A LYMAN #429667 in the newly discontinued 4cavity. It's the cal/wt he shoots.  Between being sick & the Santa Ana's/heat/firesmoke I ain't been able to cast until last Monday.  Started to prep the mold by boiling it in real soapy water, rinsed heck out it in HOTTEST water I could stand then set it on the diffuser plate on the stove tops warmer burner. FACE UP,. Ten minutes later I came back to find the cavities & mold faces covered in RUST!

Spent 15min cleaning the Rust off with Ballistol, bronze brush & quad ought steel wool. I was so disgusted with myself that I stopped right there. Figured my luck was bad for the day & I shouldn't touch anything else related to guns, reloading or casting. And now the next free day I have it'll be 90+degrees. 

And I got another new mold coming this week. I'm praying I just had the bad juju that day. 

Long time Caster/Reloader, Getting back into it after almost 10yrs. Life Member NRA 40+yrs, Life S.A.S.S. #375. Does this mean a description of me as a fumble-fingered knuckle-draggin' baboon. I also drool in my sleep. I firmly believe that true happiness is a warm gun. Did I mention how much I HATE auto-correct on this blasted tablet.

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Brodie posted this 22 October 2017

Well, look at it this way, at least you know that you got all the grease off.  Soft iron will always form "flash" surface rust when you dry it by heating. 

You might as well of gone on and cast with it.  You didn't really hurt the mould to speak of.  Store it in a sealed container (ammo can, tupper ware, or something similar) with some vapor phase inhibiting powder or paper (V.P.I.) and chalk it up as a lesson learned. 

Good Luck

Brodie

B.E.Brickey

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358156hp posted this 22 October 2017

You did nothing wrong. I've had surface rust on supposed new moulds under the oil before. If it happens again, consider using something like Evaporust to clean the rust (& bluing) off without a lot of scrubbing. You could either cold blue the mould after the first use, or simply get it hot and spray it with something like WD40, which will give it a blue finish anyway. I've even blued hot moulds with the current variant of Eds Red I use. It's less durable than hot blue, but I feel it's much more visually appealing. Even if it flash rusted as a result of your cleaning, the mould had to be cleaned before you used it anyway.

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