NEI Molds
A warning for people that buy molds and cast. Do not buy a mold from NEI.
Purchased a .257-75gr 4 whole mold. Shows up so I try it out. Cast about 200 bullets and no matter what I did I couldn’t get them to come out usable. Base of bullet was egged shaped or out of round. I did notice that the pour holes were not in the center and on one the mold was sticking in to the hole. Then I weighed one and with pure lead it was 74.8 gr. I ordered a 75 to get a 80 something. Suppose to be 8% more for pure lead.
So I send it back and turns out he recut me a new mold and shipped it out. Shows up and first thing I notice is all 4 holes are showing mold in them. Wasn’t going to even waste my time and just send it back but I had to try it.
Same results as first time. But this time they weigh 81-82 gr.
So I put it back in the mail and ask for a refund.
Here is the response I got
I don’t think so dude I have made 2 blocks and spent on shipping
The mould are good but your just finding faults in them
I sold the other and had no problem with it
I’m not going to accept it back
Future business I will not accept either
Been in this business for years and when problems occur I am more than happy to address but don’t like to be taken advantage of
Good thing is you pay with paypal and I used a credit card with paypal.
All Replies
That does suck Doug.
Well, the thing that bothers me is that Doug is seeing the side of the bullet cavity wall through the closed sprue plate. That should not be happening. Right off the bat, that sprue plate is OFF CENTER. Especially if one hole is off and the others are closer to center.
Yes I know I haven’t been casting long.
I heat my molds up with a propane stove. The first mold I tried different lead temps and mold temps. I heated the mold up hot enough to where it took forever for it to harden.
I cast the Lyman .257 75 gr mold and they came out perfect out of the same pot.
If I was having problems getting good bullets out of my molds I would say it was me. I have cast Cedric’s 131 gr hollow point mold and they come out prefect. Cedric has seen what I have casted.
The spur plate was not in the center of the bullet. How much does that effect the bullet.
Do you have time to talk?
I know u r new to casting and i am in no way affiliated with nei and i own no of there products. R u sure u r getting that mold hot enough. If its steel and 4 hole it is gonna take a good bit longer to heat just a suggestion
X2
oddly shaped bullets are due to the mold not filling completely. That is due to a cold pour.
Doug,
I know u r new to casting and i am in no way affiliated with nei and i own no of there products. R u sure u r getting that mold hot enough. If its steel and 4 hole it is gonna take a good bit longer to heat just a suggestion
Yeah I showed Tof the slugs it produced.
I filled a claim with paypal and my credit card.
I just went to the NEI website. Wow! You would think that they have the best customer service in the world. Then you read that Walt, the man who started the company, died and that his daughter is running the business…into the ground. I’m sorry to hear that. Personally, I would call Patty and ask her if getting screwed is her last word on the subject.
I would then contact Tofaz and ask him who he gets his moulds from. He seem pretty happy with them.
Good Luck!
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X 3 on the differant temps and having to cast a while to get the mould to run properly, what works for one mould will not necessarily work for another. trial an ere will tell you what the mould wants to run right. too hot will be as bad as to cold sometimes,
sorry if i missed it ,you said your doing fine with the other molds, is it a 4 cavity also, a 2 cavity cast way differently than a 4 , more cavities are harder to get running properly, and what are your moulds made of steele or aluminum ,each material behaves much differently wile casting.
Rj and Votar are right on with the too cold temp, the base of the bullet is not filling out because the temp is not hot enought , lead or mold ?, on a 4 cavity it takes some heat to keep it hot enought to fill properly, just keep pouring untill the bullets fill out, when your starting to pour with a mold, you have to pour several times to get the mould to run right, jit may take a dozen pours to get the heat up , then you may have to lay the mould under a fan between casting pours to cool it off a bit, just discard the bad bullets back into the pot until you get it running.
Also make sure your molds are clean, and the sprue plate doest have oil or something on it, i start out with a good cleaning if the mold was put up for a while and oiled, carburetor cleaner works great for this , evaporates quickly,
YOu said your preheating the mold, so thats good , it will get you started quicker, i usually set the mould on the edge of the top of the lead pot and let both heat up together ,
if i’m running more than one mold at a time, i have an iron sitting up side down to set my 4 cavities on and a fan for the 2 cavities, to keep the 4 cavity running hotter and keep the 2 cavity running cooler , that way i can keep continuous casting going. also put your next ingot of lead on top of the pot to preheat before going into the molten lead to keep the pot temp from varying, especially with a 10 pound pot.
i have several NEI moulds and i have to say they are equal to Lyman or Sacco, which i have also,and Saeco’s are damn good, but all my molds are older, so cant say for the new stuff,
I have never seen a mold that didnt need a good working over to get it set up for casting. truing the surface with fine arkansas stone deburring, adjusting the mould pins, same for the sprue plate.
I don’t know about the sprue plate hole being off for sure , but i would think it should not matter, this is a 25 mold so you dont have much room to be off center, but the base is the most important thing for accuracy, but as long as it is a nice clean cut with the sprue and the bullet is filled comepletely it should be fine. but ideally it should be centered.
you can take the spru plate off and lay it on a nice hard flat surface to true it with some 120 grit sand paper or a stone, and on the tapered side of the hole take a stone bit and chuck in a drill or similar and turn it. to sharpen the cutting edge of the spru .
any way some of this might help you out.