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[Sweetpea]

No, I am not looking for money, Just some quality information. I am quite new to casting, and seem to have a problem. I am alternating between two molds, one a RCBS 41-210-swc, and the other a Lee 41-240-swc. The boolits fall right out of the Lee, which is nice, but I start getting serious flash. The RCBS gives perfect boolits but they seem to stick... maybe I need to kroil it?

My real question is with the Lee mold. Does the aluminum just get too hot and warp? It seems that if I cast 1 set in the Lee to 2 sets in the RCBS, I do not have this problem.

I am pretty sure I am right, but I have been pretty sure about things before... Thanks for any help!

[Stick_man]

Sweetpea, first off, welcome to the forum. You came to the right place for getting all your casting questions answered. There is a wealth of knowledge on this board that cannot be matched anywhere else, and it is freely shared with others. There are a lot of answers already posted to questions you may not have even thought of yet.

Sounds like your Lee mold is definitely getting too hot. Depending on your alloy, you may be able to turn your pot temp down a little to help some. Also, you may be trying to cast too quickly.

The RCBS mold may not be hot enough. It takes a while longer for the iron and brass molds to get up to proper casting temp. Once they do, the boolits are likely to fall easier from the cavities.

[Chicken Thief]

Boolits will "stick" more or less with low mould temp.
Alu will absorb heat way faster than iron, ie. heat up faster.
If your Lee starts finning it is getting good and hot or you are "forcing" lead into it. I see it when i put the sprout directly onto a good hot mould and pour. Colder lead has higher surface tension and will not fin, same with a cooler mould.

Generally if you can warp an alu mould you are super careless.
It is rarely heard of at all!
Iron yes but alu almost never.

Maybe theres some residue from mashining or a small dollup of lead between the parenting surfaces?
Have you measured roundness of the cast boolits?

Remember as temp goes up lead will flow better/easier and surface tension will drop = finning in an improper closed mould.

[Old Caster]

What Chicken Thief is talking about is putting your mold up to the spout and pressure pouring. If you do this, you have to turn your pour speed amount way down until it takes about 1/2 to one second to fill a cavity. Even doing this, some molds are not quality enough to use this method and you have to just pour the lead in without touching the spout. With a real quality mold, pressue is the best because it fills everything well whereas if the mold is not quality you will have fins, or possibly a large flat area above the base of your bullet. You will have to decide for yourself which is the best and for which individual mold. -- Bill --

[Sweetpea]

I think I found the solution! No, I have not been "pressure pouring", but it seems that with the Lee mold, it requires a little "love rub" as it is closed to make sure everything aligns properly. Not a big deal with a gloved hand.

It seems I remember seeing something about using loctite on the molds to keep them aligned... will have to look into that.

[Ole]

Put a drop of synthetic, 2 cycle oil on a Qtip and rub it on the alignment pins on your Lee mold. You don't need very much and its very easy to use more than you need!

Also, after you fill the molds and cut the sprue, take that same Qtip and rub some oil on the top of your blocks and the bottom of your sprue-cutting plate.

[runfiverun]

do the same thing to your rcbs ^^^^.
use just one mold at a time,and pick up a cadence for just that mold.
use the other mold on it's own and see the difference in how fast you can go between them.
i use mostly steel/iron/mehanite molds and have a rythm i can cruise along at.
i have a few others that i have to remind myself to keep a move on or i will lose the tempo needed to make good boolits.

[Bob Krack]

I think I found the solution! No, I have not been "pressure pouring", but it seems that with the Lee mold, it requires a little "love rub" as it is closed to make sure everything aligns properly. Not a big deal with a gloved hand.

Welcome, and seems like you arrived at the proper solution.

Lee molds are as sensitive to mis-alignment and obstructions between the blocks as any and more than most.

If ya warp a Lee mold, you are a klutz :bigsmyl2: or just don't have any idea or care about how to use them :bigsmyl2:.

Good luck and - carefully - have lots of fun.

Bob

[44man]

I have only seen two warped molds and I bought them at a sale.
The handle pins were screwed in super tight and when the molds got hot, the blocks bent. I made a special tool to fix them.
Lee has loose pins so they are not a problem.
Just close any mold gently and hold handles tight.