tricks i've learned with lee equipment

[budman46]

lee equipment casting tricks

from casting forums i picked up pointers using lee equipment that have worked well for me and thought others might benefit…here goes.

lee pro 4-20 pot

any tendency to drip can be almost totally eliminated by wiring the dispenser rod with the wire engaging its goove to the lifting mechanism adjustment screw and adding a weight (typically a pair of needle-nosed vise grips) to the dispenser rod…

lee mold improvements

1. carefully peen over a bit of the mold block material to prevent the attachment pins from backing out.
2. bring the mold to casting temperature, then carefully loosen the sprue plate screw until the plate just opens easily with thumb pressure…it’s a one-way deal…loosened too much and you’ll need to drill a hole in the side of the block, tap it and add a setscrew to re-tighten the sprue plate screw…so careful!

casting with lee molds

1. smoke the molds with a butane lighter.
2. bring the mold to casting temperature, then use a q-tip to apply Bull Shop sprue plate lube (http://bullshop.gunloads.com/prices.html) to the sprue plate chamfers, underside, mold locator pins and v-ribs.
3. reapply when sprues stick to the plate. Bull Shop advertises that, using their product, you can open the sprue plate with the sprue partially molten without any smearing …i find this to be accurate…their product is excellent and works equally well with iron molds.

lubing and sizing

i’ve used lyman and rcbs equipment and lubes to size, lube and set gas checks for years…lee’s concept of coating the bullets with a thin film of liquid alox and using their inexpensive push-thru sizing dies is brilliant; i dribble some liquid alox onto my cast bullets, swirl to coat, set them on a waxpaper clad cookie sheet, fan them to hasten drying, size…applying gaschecks (if applicable), lube a second time and re-dry; if gas checks are not required/desired, bullets need no further treatment and can be loaded as-is.

performance

for me, liquid alox performs well at velocities exceding 1800 fps, accuracy is 1” or better at 100 yard ranges for such cartidges as 7mm-08.

budman46

[Urny]

Except for smoking the mould, your experiences mirror mine pretty closely. Smoking mould cavities has never been useful for me. I must be doing something wrong with that, but results are terrible when it is tried. The liquid alox has been very successful and if not for the Lyman 4500, 450, 45 and RCBS lube machines already here, I wouldn't buy one.

[454PB]

Since spray resizing lube is easier to find and cheaper than LLA, that's a good way to "pre-lube" boolits before sizing. I use boot waterproofing for both case sizing and lubing large boolits before sizing, and apply it to every other boolit or so.

I quit smoking and lubing my Lee moulds many years ago. All I do is a thorough cleaning with Gun Scrubber and a tooth brush when new and begin casting. About every 2000 to 4000 boolits, I do another cleaning. Lubing Lee moulds is what coats them with carbon and crud, and it's only purpose is to maintain alignment when they are closed. I do that manually using my sprue knocker placed under the mould halves.

[mike in co]

the best thing i learned about lee is to not buy thier moulds,,,,stick with group buys....


mike in co

[budman46]

i don't overly smoke my molds, just a tad when i first get a mold and never again...to be honest it may just be a habit i acquired 20+ years ago with my steel molds, but my bullets drop with few rejects after the second or third cast.

i neglected to mention the sprue plate lube allows me run to a single mold almost as fast as i can...no alternating between two molds to keep the blocks from overheating. whatever the lube is, it hasn't burned on or built up on any of the surfaces...it will even get rid of any lead that may start to streak on hot sprue plate surfaces after 50 or 60 casts...just wipe the surfaces with lube soaked q-tip and watch the lead disappear.

i have an rcbs sizer-luber that sits idle these days...for me, it's more work and lots slower than the lee push thru dies. i don't mind using the liquid alox twice on gas-checked bullets, i get mine from http://www.LsStuff.com/lube for lots less than lee charges.

i'd be dishonest if i said i prefered lee molds to to an rcbs or lyman, but with a little care and some tuning, they do a very good job for me. the bullet designs may not look too sexy, but i have no complaint about their performance in any of the rifle calibers i shoot.

[Ricochet]

I've spray lubed bullets with Pam before sizing, and they go through the die slick as a whistle. The stuff smokes to high heaven, stinks and leaves a brown varnish on the bullets when they're heat treated afterward, though.

Soapy water or liquid soap is better. Rinses right off. If it's not completely rinsed off, for some reason it turns gas checks a gold color.

If not putting on gas checks or heat treating after sizing, it's really better to prelube with LLA and repeat it afterward, just as Lee suggests.

[Newtire]

lee mold improvements

set (http://set) them on a waxpaper clad cookie sheet,
budman46

Most of the Lee stuff does take a bit of tweaking but just yesterday, I had to drive one of the pins back a bit on a brand new RCBS 130 gr. mold as it wouldn't close all the way. Works like a champ now and we learn something each time we solve a problem. Sometimes it can be frustrating. I found that I had to boil the mold in soapy water to get the coolant or whatever migrated into the pores of the aluminum out in order to cast good bullets with my Lee molds.

I have one suggestion over what you are doin. Try putting the boolits out onto a plastic bag instead of waxed paper. they don't get stuck to the sheet that way. Lee makes it possible for alot of people to get started.

[budman46]

newtire,
i hate waiting for the lube to dry on it's own, so after swirling bullets in a margarine tub with lube, spreading them on waxpaper (or aluminum foil) covered cookie sheet allows me to set them under a fan in the garage...they generally dry within an hour or so.

i agree with your assessment of lee's place in the reloading world...lots of folks would never have started with the huge outlays of cash needed to get running with other equipment. with care lee's products will provide lots of good service; i think their hand-held auto-prime is superior to rcbs or hornady's copy, just wish it were made of steel.

budman46