I'm really frustrated.
I started out this evening ensuring my Lee mold was clean and neat, and sprayed it with what was probably a little too much Frankford Arsenal mold release. After it dried and the mold was heated, i rubbed my leather gloves across the faces of the mold halves to try to ensure I hadn't filled the airways, etc.
So I pounded out about 250-300 bullets or so, and things were going just okay. Still having problems with all cavities filling, and assumed this was because I oversprayed. But, no consistency in which cavities wouldn't fill, so I decided mold release wasn't the problem.
By the time I got to 300 or so bullets, I had basically no mold release on the bottom of the sprue plate, the bullets weren't looking that great near the base so I took a wire bore brush to the cavities to ensure they were clean. Plus, I saw a minute amount of lead beginning to build up in one small spot on the top surface of the mold--where the sprue plate would contact it.
I felt compelled to respray the mold, which was hot of course, and put a good layer on. I poured 3 or 4 molds' worth, and decided to shut down for the night. Looked like I'd gummed things up by spraying a hot mold, the bullets looked awful, and I saw no hope of having a clean mold.
Where did I go wrong, and how do I clean the molds and start over?
What's so frustrating is spending so much time to get the lead and mold up to temp where I'm getting nice bullets, only to have to do mold management at 300 bullets. I can't be doing 300 bullets then have to shut down...it's a waste of time.