Bullets not releasing from Lee mold

[Rufus28]

Evening, I need some advice. My bullets are not releasing properly from my Lee bullet mold forcing me to knock out the cast with a wood hammer handle. I am scared that i will damaging the mold. The lee manual explain that you need to smoke the mold to release cast quickly. Any advice would be highly appreciated.

[Blammer]

clean the mould really well, check for tiny burrs on the side of the mould.
smoke and tap the handles gently to get them to fall.

[DLCTEX]

Do a search for"sure fire Lee-menting technique". I am not able to post a link from my tablet. It I in the stickies section. There are other threads on it but this one does it well.

[petroid]

I'm not a seasoned caster, but from what I have seen, read, and heard, a good mold will not be sticky. Check the obvious, like, is the alloy seeping between the sprue plate and mold. If so, the plate is either not tight or warped. Clean, clean, and clean your mold with hot soapy water and a scrub brush. Then dry thoroughly. Lube the alignment pins and sprue plate hinge with bullet lube or mold lube. Do NOT get any lube in the cavities! Lots of people smoke the mold with either a candle or match or lighter. The carbon keeps the alloy from sticking somewhat. You can also use commercial mold release. Another option is lee-menting which is described in stickies as well as polishing the mold with toothpaste or comet cleaner and a toothbrush. You can also use a wood dowel or popsicle stick to rub the edges of the mold where the cavity is cut to try and remove any burrs. Good Luck!

[hickfu]

go to your local Harbor Freight and pick up a brass wire brush... brush the mold cavities with it and it will take any burrs away... I use it every 10 casts or so to make sure my boolits drop easily. Brass wont hurt or even scratch Aluminum

Doc

[Jeff R]

Once you have deburred the edges of your mould cavities, check out the "Kroil in a Boolit Mould" sticky. I tried it and its increases a moulds dropability by about 90%, in my experience. I use it every time I cast now.
Regards,
Jeff

[MtGun44]

Scrub the cavities with a toothbrush and Comet. This both cleans and does
a light deburr.

Bill

[Pb2au]

^+1
Lee molds, (and pretty most any mold) simply need a thorough scrubbing and deburr to get them ready for production. (I have never used Comet, so I will try that on the next one, Thanks MtGun44.)
I normally use dish washing detergent, Dawn or what have you, scrub with a toothbrush and hot water. Then I will carefully inspect the edges of the cavities under my magnifying glass for burrs. Also, a fresh cotton or paper towel will grab on a tiny burr. If I find one, I will use a new exacto blade and VERY carefully flick it off.
Smoke typically is not required.
Good luck!

[Handloader109]

New caster here, lot of good advice other than the brass brush, you are assuming that the Chinese brass is really brass and not brass plated or colored. One of those things won't be coming near my aluminum molds. But I had two of my three Lee molds sticking. Cleaned with spray carb cleaner, lightly added a wd40 brand product (out of Kroil that would be best to use) then tried them. Better, one cavity of each worked. So I got out the barkeepers friend (comet alternative) and using Bullitt polished the mold. Link above is good read. All now drop like they should. Goodluck

[mdi]

Machine oils/coolants can be pretty hard to remove from aluminum. I suggest the Comet cleaning method and possibly a "lapping" with oil and Comet follower by a thourough cleaning (use a bullet cast from the mold with a self drilling sheet metal screw screwed in the bottom and coated with the oil/comet and slowly rotated in the mold with a hand drill/power screwdriver). This will "polish" the cavity without removing any metal and also clean up any small burrs...

If you do need to rap the mold, don't hit the mold blocks themselves, just tap the handle nut...

[Rufus28]

Thanks everyone for the good advice. Bought a brass brush and scrubbed the mold. Checked for burrs and cannot see any. Cast still sticking

[Pb2au]

1) When you are able to get the boolits out, are they well filled out, smooth, etc, or are they wrinkled? If so, your mold may not be up to temp yet.
2) Take a match stick, wooden, and carefully rub the edges of each cavity. This can help to gently burnish any burrs you might miss.
3) Turn the mold upside down when you go to open and drop. Seriously, it can work.

[DLCTEX]

To avoid damage to a mould by the screw driving through the boolit when Leementing a mould, use a short (1/2 in.) metal screw with a hex head. The head will serve as a depth stop and I think the hex head in a nut setter chucked in the drill lets the boolit float easily.

[Marlin Junky]

A brass brush?!

You could have simply been pouring an alloy which was too hot or the temp differential (between the mold and alloy) was excessive.

MJ

[randyrat]

New caster here, lot of good advice other than the brass brush, you are assuming that the Chinese brass is really brass and not brass plated or colored. One of those things won't be coming near my aluminum molds. But I had two of my three Lee molds sticking. Cleaned with spray carb cleaner, lightly added a wd40 brand product (out of Kroil that would be best to use) then tried them. Better, one cavity of each worked. So I got out the barkeepers friend (comet alternative) and using Bullitt polished the mold. Link above is good read. All now drop like they should. Goodluck

Barkeepers friend is some good stuff (It polishes and cleans the cavities). This is the least invasive or possible damaging you can do, yet polishes any burrs overlooked. I use it on all new molds along with a toothbrush.

[Rufus28]

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/19/upy4u8es.jpg

[Rufus28]

I have do e everything possible to sort this mold out and he is give me a run for my money. I have clean with acetone, break cleaner, scrubbed with a brass brush and lubed with kroil. The bullets are still stubborn to come out. I have checked for burrs under a magnifying glass and found nothing. Know leementing. I used the smallest screw and casted a soft bullet and twisted in the screw. Then i tried to polish the cavity with no luck as the bullet do not want to turn? What know? This had been a major learning curve

[Rufus28]

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/19/vamadu4u.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/19/yvuze7ez.jpg

[MtGun44]

Brass brush is a bad idea. Scrub with comet and a toothbrush.

Bill

[DLCTEX]

Hold the boolit loosely between the mould halves and start the boolit turning, then slowly close the mould on the turning boolit. When the mould will close, stop and wipe the faces of the mould halves clean, close the mould and continue spinning the boolit.

[Rufus28]

Thank DLCTEX. I used a philips hand screw driver to get it into shape. Once it started to turn properly i used some tooth paste and a small hand drill to polish the cavity. Cleaned out the mold with brake cleaner to remove the toothpaste and rinsed with acetone. Started casting with the clean mold and the bullets started to fall out once the mold opened. I inspected the bullets and noticed that i am getting fins on the bottom of the bullets. Yet again another learning experience with bullet casting. What do I do know. http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/19/uby9eny8.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/19/vemurupe.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/19/hy8uze2y.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/19/sutada4u.jpg

[petroid]

Finning is from the mold not being completely closed and alloy leaking between the halves. Make sure the block faces don't have any lead deposits or other junk on them. If you see much light through the mold when closed its not tight

[DLCTEX]

The carbon on the mating faces may be what's causing the finning.

[Rufus28]

I finally sorted the finning out. It turned out that the 2 mold block were not 100% touching each other when you close it. All the pins and screws were 100% in place. So i used a micro file and started to file off as little as possible in the joining groves. I lightly gripped the mold in a vise and started filing. I made use of a strong lamp to check that the light goes away a i progressed. Once completed i cleaned with engine cleaner and a tooth brush. Check for burrs with a magnifying glass and nick the off with a needle. Leemented again with tooth past and cleaned once more with acetone to ensure at everything is clean. Heated up the mold lubed the joining grooves with home made bullet lube. And used a q tip which i dipped into Q20 which is the same stuff as kroil. Started to cast. The first 10 were wrinkled and then BAM perfect bullets. I only released the spru plate and opened the mold bullets were dropping out without the need of taping. I am so proud of the hard work put in and the results paying off. Thanks everyone for your advice. 260 bullets in one hour http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/20/2asy8apy.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/20/mu6yqyse.jpg

[DLCTEX]

I have cured the gap problem on a couple of those mould by clamping in a vice and giving it a squeeze. I hesitate to advise it as you can get the boolits out of round that way. It is a way to close one down a thou or two if it is too wide opposed to the parting line.