The Lee 6 Cavity Mold Lasted For A Week!

[sig2009]

Bought 2 Lee 6 cavity molds last week. After casting about 1,000 9mm the sprue plate lever will not allow the sprue plate to fully close because the stop on the lever has now worn a rounded edge in the corner of the sprue plate underneath. How's Lee's warranty with stuff like this. Appears to me it looks like Lee uses an aluminum sprue plate which we all know aluminum is very soft. Just when the mold started to drop some real nice bullets this happends.

[Bwana]

Bought 2 Lee 6 cavity molds last week. After casting about 1,000 9mm the sprue plate lever will not allow the sprue plate to fully close because the stop on the lever has now worn a rounded edge in the corner of the sprue plate underneath. How's Lee's warranty with stuff like this. Appears to me it looks like Lee uses an aluminum sprue plate which we all know aluminum is very soft. Just when the mold started to drop some real nice bullets this happends.

Is there a chance you got a soft sprue plate? Yes, I guess it's possible. All of mine are not soft. Do they wear over time? Yes they do and on occasion my improper care has not helped any. My suggestion would be for you to remove, file, sand, etc., the offending place and drive on. Of course it would help if you could determine just what interaction caused the "rounded edge" in the first place. That's my two cents.

[Suo Gan]

The ladies at Lee are pretty helpful.

[happy7]

to prevent this, which is too late now, but for next time, take a Q tip with some bull plate lube on it and roll it on either side of the sprue plate stop bolt just under the head.

[41mag]

Bought 2 Lee 6 cavity molds last week. After casting about 1,000 9mm the sprue plate lever will not allow the sprue plate to fully close because the stop on the lever has now worn a rounded edge in the corner of the sprue plate underneath. How's Lee's warranty with stuff like this. Appears to me it looks like Lee uses an aluminum sprue plate which we all know aluminum is very soft. Just when the mold started to drop some real nice bullets this happends.

Like has been mentioned, and I have done it myself, simply remove the plate and remove the spur.

I used a 6" bench stone with a very fine grit to it, you could also use a fine piece of emory laying on a piece of board. Either way your only wanting to remove the spur. Then use some lube when up to temp and ready to pour.

I am with the other poster as for looking into the root of this. I have a half dozen of them and have broken the sprue plate lever twice, but never rolled the edges of the plate over.

[sabrecross03]

Just call Lee and they will replace it for free.

[MT Gianni]

Sorry I could not help but think about the girl that ran her engine dry of lube and was mad that the engine failed. There is a few stickies on Leementing a mold to prevent this. It does take time, but a plate and lever of harder materials than the AL blocks will wear them away quickly if left unlubed. I sometimes wonder if Lee expects 1000 casts to be the life of a mold.

[390ish]

They last a long time with lube and attention to what is going on. I ruined on plate because I did not lube correctly

[garym1a2]

I have over 6000 on my Lee 9mm TC/6up mold and over 2000 on my 6up 45 acp SWC mold. I do use Bullplate. I like them well enough that I recently purchased another one in 40.

I don't worry about Lee return policy as I buy from Midway and return defective items to them.



Sorry I could not help but think about the girl that ran her engine dry of lube and was mad that the engine failed. There is a few stickies on Leementing a mold to prevent this. It does take time, but a plate and lever of harder materials than the AL blocks will wear them away quickly if left unlubed. I sometimes wonder if Lee expects 1000 casts to be the life of a mold.

[sig2009]

Just call Lee and they will replace it for free.

I just called Lee and they are replacing the sprue plates. Charge is $8.80 per plate. When I swap out the old plates with the new ones I send the old ones back and they issue a credit.

[Bret4207]

Very nice of them. Now, learn from this and lets get some lube on them. Even pencil lead will help. Just be careful not to let whatever you use run into the cavities. Lubed correctly and run with some care the 6 banger Lees will last indefinitely.

[sig2009]

Very nice of them. Now, learn from this and lets get some lube on them. Even pencil lead will help. Just be careful not to let whatever you use run into the cavities. Lubed correctly and run with some care the 6 banger Lees will last indefinitely.

Thanks. I have plenty of 2 stroke oil and chainsaw lube on hand for lube.

[Bret4207]

I'm told 2 cycle works pretty good, never tried it myself. Just keep it away from the cavities. I wouldn't use bar oil.

[41mag]

Thanks. I have plenty of 2 stroke oil and chainsaw lube on hand for lube.

You will want to get your plates up to temp, then using a q-tip VARY sparingly apply just enough that you can actually see the color change. Somewhat form dry to wet looking, but nothing overly rambunctious.

[sig2009]

Very nice of them. Now, learn from this and lets get some lube on them. Even pencil lead will help. Just be careful not to let whatever you use run into the cavities. Lubed correctly and run with some care the 6 banger Lees will last indefinitely.

Got the new sprue plates today and lubed them up correctly. Thanks.

[JIMinPHX]

The aluminum sprue plates on the 6-bangers do tend to wear around the stop pin a little bit, but you should not be having any problems after only 1,000 boolits. If properly lubed, those things should last a long time. I have made steel replacement sprue plates for people in the past, but I still use the aluminum plates myself. They work fine for me.

[45pro]

That sucks man, I'm about to buy the lee 6 mould. Hopefully I don't have any problems with it.

Lee has always been there for me when I needed some warranty work, even if it was my fault, they sent a new part out for free.

[prs]

18 posts in the thread and no has yet told him what went wrong to damage the spru plate. Get the mould HOT. Cut the spru as soon as the the alloy freezes and when doing so little to almost NO resistance should be felt. You don't have to open the mold that soon, actually you should not; but do get the spru cut as soon as possible. It is ok to tear a little dimple in the center of the boolit bottom. Air cooled 2 cycle oil works OK, TCW type not so good. I get good results with no damage when using NRA Allox like Lee suggests. Remember, cut'm quick and keep up a good pace.

prs

[blikseme300]

18 posts in the thread and no has yet told him what went wrong to damage the spru plate. Get the mould HOT. Cut the spru as soon as the the alloy freezes and when doing so little to almost NO resistance should be felt. You don't have to open the mold that soon, actually you should not; but do get the spru cut as soon as possible. It is ok to tear a little dimple in the center of the boolit bottom. Air cooled 2 cycle oil works OK, TCW type not so good. I get good results with no damage when using NRA Allox like Lee suggests. Remember, cut'm quick and keep up a good pace.

prs

+1

Get the mold hot and cut the sprue sooner. My 6-bangers have cast 1000's and still going strong.

Bliksem

[zuke]

Get you some Bullplate lube

[blikseme300]

Get you some Bullplate lube

I have never used Bullplate and won't knock it as many have reported success with it. What I have been using for quite some time is Klotz KL-350 synthetic 2-stroke oil. (My other passion is R/C aircraft and these burn gasoline and 2-stroke oil. So I have pints of this at my disposal.)

I use a syringe filled with oil and the needle is blunted on my grinder. A small drop at each hinge, index points and a very light smear on the sprue plate do wonders.

I have cast 1000's of 9mm and 40S&W boolits and the molds are better than new. Sizes are correct and I can keep going without stopping to fiddle with anything.

No offence meant, my 2c is that if Lee molds don't work for you or last then you are probably doing something wrong.

Bliksem

[evan price]

I've been using a high-temperature synthetic ball-screw lubricant on my molds. We get it in at work with certain replacement parts, there's a syringe of it packed with the new part. Since you only need a couple dabs on the parts, we tend to get lots of these new syringes laying around unwanted. Works great on slide rails for semi-auto handguns too.

[Recluse]

I'm just guessing that the OP read Lee's "instructions for use" rather than the myriad of stickies on Lee-menting and how to get the most and best out of Lee molds.

The way they "write" instructions, directions and whatnot at Lee makes me wonder. . .

:coffee:

[canebreaker]

I don't know. How many .357 158 gr. swc boolits could you get in a old 3 lb coffee can? I've never counted that high. I've filled 11 cans and still pouring. Still have the original sprue plate. Some of the boolits look funky with the flare on the end. But that is folded down or breaks off when sizing.

[citizenal]

Hi everyone!

I will be using a Lee cast in .45 for my first time making boolits. Where exactly do I need lube up? I am really concerned I will break this thing making 1,000 boolits. [smilie=1:

Thanks for the info guys

[MT Gianni]

Hi everyone!

I will be using a Lee cast in .45 for my first time making boolits. Where exactly do I need lube up? I am really concerned I will break this thing making 1,000 boolits. [smilie=1:

Thanks for the info guys

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=139815&highlight=Bullplate
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=141102&highlight=Bullplate
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=141220&highlight=Bullplate
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=139421&highlight=Bullplate
A Search for Bullplate found 1042 posts related to lubing molds. This should help you get started.

[citizenal]

Thanks MT Gianni! Will read up.

[MikeS]

To answer the question of HOW to lube a mould, and WHERE to apply the lube (BullPlate, 2T oil, eBay mould lube, etc.) checkout this thread where I posted an image of the instructions included with the eBay mould lube:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=137982
While it shows a Lee 2 cavity mould, it's basically the same with their 6 cavity moulds with the addition of lubing the sprue plate cam lever bolts as well.

Personally I thought that thread should be a sticky, but I guess nobody else agrees with that idea, as it's now back on the second page of the lube forum. :(