Lee mould seasoning

[donovansn585]

Well I have tried everything to season some new lee moulds so they don't pour wrinkly book it's and I think I finally found the correct method so I thought I would share. This method is messy but seems to work so first you need to dunk your mould in lead for thirty seconds then immediately cool off on wet towel. Next cast three out four moulds and cool again with towel do this for thirty of forty boolits and you should be casting perfect boolits. My only issue with this process is the amount of leftover lead on your mould after dunking but I'm sure it will come off in time.

[ShooterAZ]

Sounds to me like a recipe to meet the tinsel fairy. Be careful dunking a damp or wet mold! A better way is to just preheat your mold on a hotplate and just start casting.

[Dusty Bannister]

I would not recommend just dunking a mold in molten lead. Any moisture and the fairy will crawl right up your arm and into your face.

Sorry, I just would not recommend that method. I like the hot plate to give the oil or other residue time to off gas and gently bring the mold up to temp a few times before casting.

[Socal147]

I seasoned mine with a little salt and pepper. No just kidding. They cast fine after heating and running a few bad ones to get the bad stuff out. Then it is perfect bullets from then on.

[ShooterAZ]

+1, for a new mold give it a good scrubbing with some Dawn dish soap and a toothbrush. Lately I have been using NOE's recommendation and heating the mold to temp, then letting it cool to room temp a couple of cycles. Then just preheat and cast.

[bhn22]

Wash it with Dawn, hot water, and an old toothbrush. Let dry thoroughly. Preheat by dipping the front lower portion of the mold in molten lead. Touch the sprue plate pivot with a light touch of wax. If it melts instantly, try casting with it. Wrinkles are usually caused by contamination by the cutting oils used to cut the cavities, and will come off fairly easily. The other common cause is the mold and or alloy not being hot enough. I've had to get molds smoking hot at times to burn off contaminants. None have ever been harmed by this in the least.

[462]

Not only is immersing a wet mould an invitation to disaster, but now you've lead on the mould faces that cause their own set of problems.

A thoroughly cleaned and properly pre-heated mould (hot plate and "mould oven") will produce first cast keepers.

[singleshot]

If you want the boolits to drop a little smaller the Frankford Arsenal mold drop works well. It's really just graphite. The reason it works is it protects the lead from contacting the oils in the cavity from machining. The "preferred" method is simply to clean that out of the cavities before casting and preheat your mold to operating temperature. Your first boolits out should be perfectly formed or most likely, your mold is too cool.

[donovansn585]

On another note when I cast with almost pure lead from cable sheath the boolits come out a little dis colored without the nice shiny finish is this normal?

[44man]

On another note when I cast with almost pure lead from cable sheath the boolits come out a little dis colored without the nice shiny finish is this normal?
What are you shooting pure from? ML yes, nothing else. Everything else needs tin or tin and antimony.
Pure oxidizes fast so to store my ML stuff, I spray balls with Sheath (Barricade) to keep oxygen away.
No such thing as seasoning a mold. Wash it good, pre heat it and cast.

[donovansn585]

Well I'm powder coating the pure so I'm not to concerned with hardness I was just wondering why the pure does not come out of the mold nice and shiny like ww

[ShooterAZ]

Pure generally comes out VERY bright & shiny, but may not stay that way for long.

[armexman]

Donovan, turn into a "sticky reader".
Even I, that has been casting for twenty-five tears love reading stickies, I usually learn something that is new!
Clean any mold with dawn, really hot tap water and a old toothbrush and you will cast nice boolits.
Placing the corner or front edge for one song, and you will have a nice, hot casting mold. Much more so if you like 80's music!;)
If your signature is a sign of your age; then I am glad that youngsters are at the leading edge of developing cast boolit technology.

[donovansn585]

Haha that's funny my signature is not my age but very close I am fairly young been casting for a while but just with straight ww only for 40 s&w and tumble lubing now I've got all this close to pure lead and want to shoot my 300 AAC using lead but really don't have anything to mix with it so I figured in order to use this pure lead I better start powder coating and learn to gas check.

So here's a scenario for everyone say I decided I didn't want to powder coat all my boolits I wanted to shoot some thru my 300 with only gc and tumble lube using my close to pure lead, water quenched what velocity would you all say it would be ok to push them to possibly 2k f.p.s or should just not even try with the pure stuff.

[R.M.]

Water quenching pure lead will do nothing to harden it. You need antimony in your mix, like wheel weights or printers alloy.
2K is pretty aggressive for a beginner. I'd start much slower and learn along the way.
Good luck on your travels.

[ShooterAZ]

Quenching pure lead will do nothing for hardness. You will need some antimony in your alloy for this to happen. Powder coating pure lead is really not the answer either. Check out roto metals (sponser) at the top of the page for alloys containing antimony. Linotype can be mixed with pure lead in various ratios to increase boolit hardness.

RM beat me to it!

[Shiloh]

Treated the last couple of molds this way. Cleaned with dish soap and a paste of Comet cleanser. Rinsed and boiled in a pan of water. Then re-cleaned with the soap/Comet paste. Be sure to take the mold out of the boiling water immediately otherwise it will dis color. Re boiling removed the
discoloration.

Then I dried and heated up with a propane torch and treated the top and bottom of the sprueplate with Bullplate.

After a few casts I got perfect boolits that dropped with a light rap with a mallet if that.

Shiloh

[Leadmelter]

Has anybody tried Bartender's Friend Cleaner? Come in a liquid form.
I wash mine out with water and Dawn . Clean with acetone X2. Look for burrs with a 2X lope.
I head the mold to about casting temp and let it cool down x5.
Check the cavities, make sure things are lubed as Lee says. Put it in the lead, listen to half a song, pull it out and get to it.
Leadmelter
MI

[bangerjim]

I was just wondering why the pure does not come out of the mold nice and shiny like ww

One word...........TIN.

banger

[bangerjim]

I know everybody does the scrub & clean....clean & scrub time-reported routine on new molds. Several new molds ago I tried NOT cleaning it - right out of the box - just to try something new. Just smoked it, preheated, and the 1st drop was perfect! Since then I have tried that on 3 more molds with the same results. Perfect boolits every time.

Cleaning---------not really required. Preheating------REQUIRED!

Sticking a damp/wet mold in molten lead is asking for a quick trip to the ER. Bad news! Just preheat and you will be fine.


Works for me.


bangerjim

[35remington]

I don't drop wing of bat and eye of newt on my moulds either. Just cast with two new Lee 58 caliber moulds this weekend.

Step one......hose off liberally with a good carb or brake cleaner.

Step two....preheat thoroughly. Lube all contact points to prevent galling of the aluminum.

First cast was a good one.

That's all there is to it. Don't need anything else.

[dragon813gt]

I fixed all the problems I had w/ Lee molds by selling them off and buying custom ones. Best decision I ever made when it comes to casting. I actually produce bullets when I sit down to cast now.

[35remington]

dragon, I actually produce bullets when I sit down to cast as well......and guess what? A lot of the time that is accomplished with a Lee mould!

My ability to do so is nothing special.

[btroj]

Lee moulds aren't any different from other moulds.

Get it clean of oil and get it hot. Mo big secret here.

[dragon813gt]

dragon, I actually produce bullets when I sit down to cast as well......and guess what? A lot of the time that is accomplished with a Lee mould!

My ability to do so is nothing special.

Yay, good for you :beer:

Almost all of my reloading tools are Lee. I got fed up w/ subpar molds. Go read the thread discussing lead pots that's going on right now. I feel the same way about Lee molds as people do about their pots.

[dromia]

When I get a new mould I just sit it on top of the cast iron stove, its on every day this time of year, and leave it there for a week or so.

The heating up and the cooling down seasons the mould just nicely and removes over time any oils and contaminants left over from the manufacturing process.

[gtgeorge]

As many have said here already...Dawn and a tooth brush and preheat on a hot plate. No need to smoke them or other fancy tricks. Wrinkles are from oils or not hot enough.

[44man]

Molds cut without lube need nothing but most are cut with a lube. I used WD-40 on my cherry and just one washing with any dish soap was enough.
The worst leading I ever had was with coated pure lead in my revolvers. I had to hire the gnomes that chisel out Spanish barrels to clean it. NEVER AGAIN!
Pure does not belong with smokeless and you forget about slump and skid, no lube on earth will prevent it.
Too many think a light load of fast powder is better but understand it reaches peak pressure before the boolit gets out of the cylinder. Pure can squirt out of the gap. Silly putty!

[Old School Big Bore]

Hey Dragon, sometimes I feel like "adjusting" my many Lee molds with an eight pound sledge...
I've had good results with just blasting/scrubbing with carb cleaner, and with cleaning followed by smoking. My gripe with most of the Lee designs is the dinky little front shoulder - it's just too blasted little to fill out unless you set the pot thermostat on 'nuclear' which I don't like to do because of accelerated oxidation of my alloy, or spend way too much on high-tin metal...
I'm thinkin' about sending some of my Lee molds to hollowpointmolds to get the front bands thickened/widened but I'm torn between spending more money on something that's unsat to start with vs just biting the boolit and buying high-dollar molds.

[Dancing Bear]

I just followed the suggested pre cleaning, light deburring and match smoking procedures posted here and cast mostly good bullets with my new 6 cavity Bator mold. Any rejects were due to mistakes on my part. So am I one of the lucky ones?

[tazman]

Used my mapp gas torch to heat up the molds and burn off any residue. If you watch closely you can see the stuff burn off/evaporate. It also serves to preheat the mold the first time.
No problem with poor castings from the first pour. On succeeding runs, I let the mold sit on top of the furnace for a few minutes to warm up. Very successful this way for me.

[JohnH]

I've a couple of Lee molds that have cast 4-5000 boolits each. Every once in a while thye will begin to throw wrinkled boolits (yes, right in the middle of a casting session) I keep a box of matches at hand and when this happens just re-smoke the mold and the wrinkling stops. Have no clue as to why this occurs, but the solution is simple enough. I've also found that the long stem matches made for lighting fireplaces/woodstoves work great for this task.