1st Cast!!! Help, Please!!! Problem With Out-Of-Round

[TurkeyHuntsman]

Guys:

First off...I'M HOOKED! Casting lead is the coolest thing going!

My mold is a 6-cavity LEE .44 mag with GC..model C429-240-SWC. Brought it to a friend's house whom is a very experienced caster to give it an initial try. Cleaned the mold and lubed the sprue. One thing we did NOT do is "smoke" the cavities per Lee's instructions. We cast with ~ 14 BHN lead/tin that he smelted and has been using successfully in many different molds.

At first, we got incomplete fill (wrinkling) but as the mold heated they filled out and we got to the point where the boolits were coming out a slight bit frosty, but looked rather well-defined. They dropped out of the mold very easily, without even tapping it.

Measured them with a micrometer and found that in all cases, measurement across the mold part line was just .4275 -.428" or a tad less, while measuring from one mold half to the other yielded .432" or so. This dropped egg shape of .004" differential seems like a lot to me...or is this common? When I sized them in the Lee push-through rig (its a .430"), the sizing shaved off the high spots to .430" but of course didn't touch the low spots across the part line. I now have GC boolits that are .428" smallest dia, and .430" large. My bores measure just .4295" so .430" - .431" are good finished sizes for my needs.

My questions are this: Is .004" out-of-round before sizing, and .002" after sizing an excessive amount for a .44 hunting boolit? Should I even bother loading these, or just remelt them?

Why might the mold be dropping so small in one axis? Could the fact we didn't smoke the cavities have something to do with this? I read that smoking has nothing to do with boolits sticking, but rather that the smoke is a micro-insulator that prevents the aluminum from sucking heat out of the pour before it has a chance to fill out completely. Might smoking the mold solve this problem?

"Beagling" won't help me as that would only increase size across the mold halves...and this dimension is already OK.

Or...do I just have a bad mold that needs to be sent back?

Thanks for all advice!

Regards,

Dennis
"Turkey Huntsman"
San Diego

[Sgtonory]

I would say you have a bad mold. I have a TL version of that mold and it drops .4315 to .433 depending on cavity and are within .001 of being round.

[Wolfer]

My lee 2 cavity 452-255-RF drops 452 x 457 and my throats are 452, bore 4515. I size to 452 but sized or unsized these are the most accurate boolits I have. I'm not sure how many 45 molds I have but I have a good selection. All the others cast pretty close to round and I find it odd that this is my most accurate. Woody

[Dan Cash]

You are experiencing ther high quality of Lee products. Send that piece of frustration back to Lee for a refund and buy a quality mould from Accurate Molds, NOE, Mountain Mould or about any one else who makes moulds that are round. The cost may limit you to a 2 cavity mould but the mould you get will give you 2 bullets you can use each time you open them.
Dan

[mikeym1a]

I wonder why some bash Lee so badly. I have a few nits with some of my lee molds, but on the whole, they do very well. You just can't beat their prices, if you are a beginner. When starting out, I bought 2 molds, a .45 & a .32, 2 cav molds. Liked them so well that I ordered the 6 cav model of each, when I could afford it. They have their quirks, but over the years, these two molds have made me thousands of GOOD boolits. Occasionally, you get a bad one. I got one recently, and didn't check it for roundness before I started 'Lee-menting' it. When I found it was out of round, I was stuck, but that was my fault for not checking it first. That is one out of a dozen. AND, I may salvage it yet. Working on it now. I have a few molds made by NOE, and JTKNIVES, really good stuff, far higher quality than Lee, and far higher priced. When Lee can't fulfill my needs, then I look elsewhere. Just my 2(inflated)cents. :-D

[ShooterAZ]

I have that exact mold. Mine sizes smaller than I'd like(<.430) and out of round too, but not as dramatically as yours. The gas checks fit very tight though in a 430 sizer, and the boolits shoot surprisingly well with no leading at all. I would give them a try first, and then give LEE or whoever you bought from it a call if things don't work out.

[MtGun44]

Run it thru a sizer, then measure.

Bill

[243winxb]

bad mold

[Larry Gibson]

What alloy?

What alloy casting temp?

What casting method?

Larry Gibson

[TurkeyHuntsman]

Thanks to all for your responses. Bill, I mentioned that did run it through a .430 sizer. Ended up with .430 on some parts, and .428 or a tad less on other. The sizer will obviously not touch the low spots.

Larry, the alloy was a lead/tin mix that my friend put together and it tested at 13.8 BHN. He uses it successfully in all of his casting with no issues. I believe the lead temp was about 750 and we were pouring from a bottom-pour RCBS holding the mold sprue maybe 1" under the spout. Does this give you any clues?

-Dennis

[Larry Gibson]

Back the alloy temp off to 700 - 725 and slow the casting tempo so the bullets do not get frosted from the mould and/or alloy being too hot.

Larry Gibson

[William Yanda]

Casting lead is the coolest thing going!
There's your problem right there. Lead has to be hot to cast

Sorry-I couldn't resist. Besides, your behind the screen.

[MtGun44]

Sorry, I missed that. You can push the high spots in and get the low spots
out a bit sometimes, that is why I said to size first.

Leementing - lapping with a boolit cast in the cavity may solve this pretty
easily.

Bill

[TurkeyHuntsman]

Bill, I was hoping for the same thing, that the small size would bump up in the sizer...but not. It is too far off for that.

I'm going to try Larry's suggestion and drop both the temp...and temp-o - to see what happens.

Looking at the boolits again I noticed that the sprues did not cut cleanly. The boolit bases have a 1/8" - 3/16" diivot dug out that is not located right in the center. Seems the metal was still a bit too hot/soft, and the sprue plate dragged some metal out of/across the base. There are now a number of indications mold and/or metal were a tad too hot. I've read that Lees are finicky this way, but once one figures the process out...great boolits can be made. Let's see...

[KLR]

I have a mold that produced out of round bullets because the halves were offset slightly. One locating pin was set back slightly so I used a punch to drive it in to match the other. Mold closes fine now and bullets are round.

[TurkeyHuntsman]

I just got off the phone with Lee. They feel the mold is out-of-round and will either fix or replace for me free-of-charge. The tech told me that occasionally they'll get a undersized dimension across the flashing line, as mine is doing. Let's see how the replacement is...!

[MtGun44]

Good luck. Lee is pretty decent with quality issues.

Bill