Casting with/caring for steel molds??

[Flatlander.54]

 A friend of mine gave me a steel Lyman RB mold today. They had been in his attic for probably 15 years but are in suprisingly good shape, no major rust on the mold faces or in the dual cavities. What little rust there was mostly wiped away with a cloth.
 I have never used steel mold until today, we cast a few dozen ball with them and they seemed to do pretty good. I smoked the cavities with a candle a few time during the casting process, but other than that Im not real sure how to care for them or if any break-in procedure is needed. Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

[Cuts Crooked]

  I smoked the cavities with a candle a few time during the casting process, but other than that Im not real sure how to care for them or if any break-in procedure is needed. Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

The best suggestion I can make is to clean the heck out of that mold and smoke it again...with a butane lighter or a hardwood splinter. That candle will have deposited some oil/wax on the mold faces and you won't get the best it can do.

[Flatlander.54]

Well , that would explain the dimpled balls.  Thanks for the tip Cuts.

[Flatlander.54]

Well, I just got done runnin some more balls. With heat setting on 7 I get wrinkled balls. On 8 the balls are nice and shiny, but have rough textured spots on them. On 9 I get frosted balls with purple bottoms. (hot spot in mold?)
And, I have really ugly sprues, even though the sprue plate is tightened down as far as I can go and still get the sprue plate open. Always had that problem with the Lee molds too. I did figure out it's best to hold the sprue plate about 1/8" under the bottom pour spout though, any farther and the lead seems to want to cool down too much before the cavity fills and I get badly wrinkled balls. Guess Ill try again later.