I bought my first RCBS mold, new in the box. Based on what I had read here and at Shooter's I thought I was about to enter casting nirvana! Well, this mold had the roughest cavities I have ever laid eyes on. I thought if I got it hot it might work. Not so, you can't get the mold hot when it takes five minutes to beat each boolit out. It latched onto those boolits like a drowning man clutching a life preserver. I cast a dozen or so yesterday until two just flat refused to leave the cavities despite beating the hinge pin near to death. I quit there and ended up prying those out.
This morning I found a couple sorta decent ones in the batch and did the screw in the boolit base and lap routine. Tried jeweler's rouge first which shined up the high spots. Finally got out the "fine" valve lapping compound and had at it. After a polish I tried pouring some more. All it takes is one or two taps to free the boolits now. I was so delighted I cast up 5 lbs. or so.
Then I went to measuring. This is the 35-200-FN. The larger cavity casts at .358" on the bands and .350" on the nose. The other cavity is a half thou or so smaller. Not good! I need at least .359" on the bands to fill the grooves and probably .351" to fit the lands on my .356 Win. The sprue plate also does not lay flat and the sprue holes have a parallel section at the bottom which makes it hard to cut the sprue if it is a little to cool. Somebody tell me again why RCBS molds are so great!
I store my molds and such in an old steel desk out in the shed. To add insult to injury, when I went to get gas checks to see how they fit, I found the rats had been using one drawer for a toilet and had a nest in another drawer. Rat urine is highly corrosive! I have a bunch of smelly green 30-06 and 308 brass now and a badly corroded set of calipers. They chewed up boxes and a baggy of patches and various other plastic bags. What they didn't chew they peed on. Now where did I put those rat traps?
Marc, Hopefully they will take pity on you seeing how you modified the mould. With 40 RCBS moulds I've only had problems with one. One cavity wouldn't drop bullets easily and a very light buffing with rouge took care of it. RCBS has a good guaranty and will probably take care of you. Most my RCBS's drop .001-.002 larger than the nominal diameter. A 44 will usually drop .430-.431 ans a 308 will drop .309-.310 Orygun
Posts: 210 | Location: Willamette Valley | Registered: 11 March 2001
i have about 6 rcbs molds all work fine except 1 a 7mm 145 gr sillewet even cast of lino it still comes out at 284 1/2, and i want to size to 285 , iguess i might polish it out for the extra i need or i might send it back someday.
Posts: 10 | Location: western penna | Registered: 24 August 2003
Well, they are smaller than I thought. The mold needed a little extra squeeze to close all the way, so I got a few larger boolits when I wasn't paying attention. The run of the mill is .357" to .358" on the driving bands and .348" to .349" on the nose. Weights run about 207.5 gr. from the small cavity and 208 gr. from the larger cavity. I can tell which cavity they came from by the nick I put in the edge of one prying the boolits out. Boolits were cast from WW and some unknown amount of linotype. LT is less than 25%.
I will e-mail RCBS and see what they say. If they won't replace it I guess I will "Beagle" it. .002" seems like a lot to lap.
Blts- maybe I could send these rats up to you. Sounds like you are kindred spirits!
Marc, my experience with four of the five RCBS molds I have used has been similar to what you have had with yours. However, to some people in the cast bullet world, any negative comment about RCBS is akin to saying "my, but your baby sure is ugly". Sometimes, though, it's fun to tweak the lions tail.
Ernie
Posts: 52 | Location: Spring Creek, NV | Registered: 18 September 2002
Marc, My 35-200 RCBS mould, that I got about 1979, casts small just about like yours. I've had better luck with Lyman and that's what I have more of.-JDL
Posts: 61 | Location: Louisiana | Registered: 21 August 2003
