Lee 6 gang prep

[Johnch]

I just got a Lee 6 gang mold . I also have sent in 2 checks for group buys .
Other than the standard degreasing
What should I do ?
Before I smoke the mold and fire up the lead pot

Johnch

[David R]

Some do a lot, I clean the mold, start to pour a few, lube the pins with a LITTLE boolit lube, lube the sprue bolt and the one that locks the plate down with a LITTLE lube. I then clean it agian with some spray cleaner and a toothbrush while its warm. I pour a few more, smoke it with a butane lighter and away it goes, smooth sailing.

There are some articles, one on castpics and One I think at the top of this page that says Check out the cast boolit articles. Read them and draw your own conclusion.

I have yet to get a stubborn or problem 6 cavity mold.

David

[Johnch]

I read the sticky .
But I wanted to also see if there were any other good ideas
I degreased the mold and installed the handels .
Hopefuly I can try it out Sun Am

WORK the worst of the 4 letter words

Johnch

[Willbird]

I take the sprue plate and run a norton orange india stone over both the underside of the sprue plate and the tops of the mold blocks, there are burrs on both places at times. I use a half round stone, and I lightly chamfer the sides of the sprue plate, and the slot where it goes under the hold down bolt, and apply lube upon re-assembly.

scrub with dish soap and a toothbrush, I prefer to warm the blocks with a bushel or two of bullets (about 5 minutes worth) then smoke them with butane grill lighter. This makes sure they are bone dry when I smoke them.

Then I run them back to front, and front to back to see if one works better...if one direction works better I pour them that way.

then commence to making bullets.

Bill

[Char-Gar]

All I have done is scrub the block well with detergent and a soft toothbrush. I rinse in hot tap water and dry with a blow dryer. Each cavity and the top of the blocks and entire spru cutter get a coat of NEI Mold Prep and I start casting.

[pdgraham]

As I just found out with my Lee 6 cavity and 2 cavity molds... Take the Micrometer to the first batch of bullets.. because you may find that many of the cavities are casting undersized bullets or they are out of round...

Lapping may be in order..

Oh, and don't forget to lube them up with Alox Beeswax Mix Bullet Lube Stick or you'll get bound up when the mold gets hot..

[Buckshot]

............If you don't HAVE to do anything beyond cleaning/degreasing, then don't. Give the block faces a good looking over, use a handheld glass or just the Mk1Mod1 eyeball detector if nothing else. You might find a couple tiny aluminum flakes between the blocks carried in by coolant in the machining op.

On occasion you may find a couple cavities that have a burr or 2 across the parting line. As they're cut a bit of metal may get smeared across the seam. Maybe not. If so your fingernail may do the job. You're read the articles and the sticky.

Lube is ultra important to these moulds. It's life or death. You will invariably at some time use a bit too much, but don't fail in using some, and when the mould wants it. Be thoughtfull in the use of the sprueplate as you have a lot of leverage on the hinge pin way down there at the other end of the block.

............Buckshot