Lee brand Molds

[chaos]

Please post your thoughts or opinions on lee brand molds. They are 1/3 the price of what I am looking at in RCBS. I've never considered lee much other than a bottom pour pot.

Waste O' money or bargain?

Chaos

[docone31]

You know, I like the Lee Molds. I got a crappy one once, and they turned it around with a much better one.
I find, they cast well and easily. I am used to them now and I am very comfortable with them.
I like them. I even have the timing and heat down on them. I like them.

[NSP64]

I like lee molds. If they cast too small then they are easier to lap up to size than rcbs,or lyman.
P.S. I have 2 rcbs and 7 lee

[DLCTEX]

I have acquired my 18th. Lee mold today, I also have RCBS, Lyman, TC, Ideal, and unknown brands. The Lees make just as good boolits as the others, sometimes with more effort, sometimes with less. They do get up to temp faster than steel molds. Using Bullplate lube makes them work more easily and prevents lead smearing if I cut a sprue early. DALE

[miestro_jerry]

I have about 11 RCBS Molds, 14 Lyman molds and 20 Lee Molds, that is if you count Ranch Dog molds as Lee Molds. Plus I ordered another Lee mold this morning. I use one of their bottom pour pots, that I bought back in te 80s, still works great and the spare coil for it, is still sitting and waiting for the day that I will need it.

For me I have taken the plunge with the Lee luber sizer system, these are for my Ranch Dog molds.

I have used Lee dies for many years, one die didn't resize the shell properly, I sent Lee 5 spent cases from that rifle, the dies and I think $20. I got a dies back that worked for me.
I like the Lee factory crimp dies, but the turret press didn't work right for me. I do own Dillons, which have worked faithfully fo me since Dillon 450 press came out.

So Lee stuff can be "cheap" looking, but the stuff works and the company stands behind their product.

I own no stock or interest in any of these companies, but I buy things and try them out, if they don't work for me, I sell them at gunshows.

Jerry

[Brownie]

Lee molds work well, but they wear out after about 5000 bullets. I cannot remember ever wearing out a steel mold.
:castmine:

[Poygan]

I have around a dozen Lee molds, single or double cavity. I don't have any 6 cavity molds so I can't comment on them. I think the Lee molds are good for low production casting. I think they are much easier to gall but Bull Plate lube takes care of that. I prefer the RCBS molds for continued use.

[chaos]

Can I run their bullets through my Lyman 4500 and lube them with it even though some have very small lube grooves?

I purchased this damn thing, I just cant see going and lubing in a bowl....

[epj]

I have used Lyman molds in the past, but am currently using Lee molds. Don't have a lot of experience with them yet, but they seem to do just fine. Important to keep the alignment pins lubed.

[mooman76]

Yes Lee moulds are worth it. I have about 40 and I also have some Lymans and a couple RCBS. They are all good moulds. Sure Lee don't last forever but they last a long time with proper care and I have yet to wear one out. If you buy a Lee mould and don't like the bullet, you aren't out much and you can get sever moulds to try for the price of others. $60-70 is allot of money to find out you don't like the bullet.

[ubetcha]

I have several Lee molds, some lyman molds ,some RCBS molds,plus one mold that was given to me by Dick Lee himself.It's a 116 gr wc single cavity in 357.Many years ago I was a range officer at a local sport shop that had a range in the basement and had bullseye leauges.Mr Lee and I were talking about differant mold and bullet weights and he asked me if I had ever used anything lighter than 148 gr in 357.The next week he gave me a mold and said to give it a try.If it didn't work then just throw it away.I still have it.As far as I know,It's a one of a kind.
The only thing that I have to do with Lee molds is in order to get the bullet to fill out properly is I have to run my lead temp to 800 degrees.They just don't fill out until I get to that temp.My Lyman and RCBS fill out at 700
All of my pistol dies are Lee and I have their collet dies in 30-30 and 30-06.The rest are hornady and Lyman.Most of my presses are Lee also with one Pacific

[DLCTEX]

Chaos, if you are refering to the TL bullets with the micro grooves, some can be lubed in the lubersizers, but they are designed to be tumblelubed andloaded as cast. If you don't size them down too much they will retain enough lube to work. DALE

[chaos]

Dale, Some of their designs look more traditional. I guess these would be OK to size and lube as normal with my lubrisizer?????

[DLCTEX]

Yes, the traditional bullets are just like RCBS, Lyman, etc. They are sometimes pan lubed, or tumble lubed, and loaded unsized or sized . Some lube before sizing, some after, some during. DALE

[45-70Govt]

I have had Lee molds, dies,melting pot and a press. All look kind of cheap but that blends right in with the rest of my place :-)

All items work as intended although my last mold in .458 cal is given me some problems. It is not the mold I am sure but my lack of know-how. Those 500 grainers still come out with wrinkles on one side.

[EMC45]

I use Lee exclusively! I have tried an RCBS mold and did not like it! I couldn't get the heat right and it took forever to get the first good bullet. I do appreciate the mold lent to me by another member here, but I am not familiar enough with the use of a steel mold I guess. I like the Lees a lot! And I lube all my Lee cast bullets in my Lyman 4500. I have 4 molds for .358, 2 for the 45 acp, 1 for .30 cal., 1 for 45-70, 1 for .323, 1 for 9MM, 2 for .44, and they are all Lee!!!!

[Dennis Eugene]

I'm to cheap to buy lee molds. Dennis

[Down South]

I have genuine conglomeration of different brands of reloading and casting equipment. I don’t have that many moulds. I have a couple RCBS and four Lee 6-holers. All of the Lee moulds except one do a great job. (On one the halves aren’t exactly centered and caused the boolit to be about .003” out of round. Sizing seems to cure the problem). For the price they are a great deal. I use Bull Plate sprue plate lube with them and it works great too.

Lee molds work well, but they wear out after about 5000 bullets. I cannot remember ever wearing out a steel mold.

I don't agree with that. Taken care of and used properly, the Lee mould should go a whole lot farther than that.
I've got one Lee mould with at least that many boolits under it and it is still going strong.

[dromia]

Lee moulds are like all Lee products well thought out and designed but hit and miss on production and materials, thats why the price is so "good".

If you are prepared to do some fettling then Lee moulds can give you thousands of trouble free cast boolits for your £.

I have around 30 lee moulds at present the vast majority are 6 holers and quiet a few of them are Cast Boolit GBs. The six holers are a far better mould than the double or single cavities but still a goodly proportion need fettling.

I also find that Lee's HB moulds tend to be cut above their ususal and I have a few of them, one the 405 gn 45-70 HB is a real treasure and has casted perfect boolits from the first cast. I wish that all Lees moulds worked so well.

If there is a similar boolit mould made by an other manufacturer then I'd sooner pay the extra for that mould than buy a Lee.

However when it comes to production then the Lee six holer is very attractive price wise which is why I'm in on so many GBs. :mrgreen:

Lee is a good starting point for entry level casters, however the risk of a duff mould is higher and if you don't want to or know how to fettle then they can be demoralising. Personally I'd point tyro casters at Lyman moulds if the price isn't too frightening.

For experienced casters Lee certainly offers a lot of potential as is evidenced by the success of the GBs.

[looseprojectile]

I consider myself as being of the 'old school' type of caster.
Just in the last year or so I discovered Ranch Dog moulds.
I bought the small .44 mould and the .50 caliber mould for the S&W.
I have also used the Lee liquid alox to lube most of the other boolits I cast.
I can lube two or three hundred boolits while you are changing your sizing die in your luber sizer. About ten minutes. Use a zip lock bag.
I am into time and labor saving processes. The Lee sizing system is much faster than the old Lyman sizer luber.
The results of shooting these boolits are excellent, as good or better than the old methods.
Try the LLA one time and you'll see for yourself. You can even develop your own shortcuts to save some handling of those pesky boolits. I run the boolits through the Lee sizer dry to seat the check. Then just put them in the baggie, squirt in the LLA, massage them till the lube is evenly distributed and dump them out on parchment paper. With some long rifle boolits I stand them up on the bases and they dry overnight.
Life is good

[largecaliberman]

I started with Lee molds and for the price, you can't beat. I like these molds because I can produce more boolits faster compared to Lyman and Saeco, most Lee molds will cast 6 expecially on the smaller pistol calibers. Don't get me wrong, Lyman and Saeco are excellent molds too. The only problem I have with iron molds is the extra care against rust. I would say if you don't excessively bang on the molds to release the boolits or overtighten the screws in such a manner as to strip the threads, Lee molds will last.

[S.B.]

I recently bought a 6 gang Lee mold and have yet to get a good bullet out of it?

[clodhopper]

I own Lee, RCBS, and Lyman moulds. None of them worked real good when new.
keeping iron moulds rust free is an ongoing problem.
Aluminum moulds are rust free but have other draw backs.
They do need lubed they do need some care.
Lee moulds are cheap enough if one does wear out on you, you can buy about 3 more before you get to the cost of an iron mould without handles.

[Junior1942]

I recently bought a 6 gang Lee mold and have yet to get a good bullet out of it?I'm betting something is wrong with your technique. 6-hole aluminum molds, especially, like hot lead. Turn up your pot. I own more than a dozen 6-hole Lee molds, and they all work perfectly--with hot lead, that is.

[azrednek]

One of the best things I like about Lee molds, me being a real cheapskate. If you buy it, use it and don't like it you can turn it around and peddle it on Ebay. It is not unusual that some molds on Ebay fetch more than they cost new.

[kir_kenix]

I have quite a few Lee molds, and most of them are pretty good. Every once in a while a particular mold will come along that needs a bit of work to get it running good...but they are usually an easy fix. For the price, it is really hard to go wrong on a Lee mold, especially in the pistol calibers.

Are they as good or will they last as long as the Lyman, RCBS, Saeco, etc. molds...? probably not. But when you consider that they retail at around 1/3rd or less of the price, then you can't really get hurt on a Lee.

[454PB]

I quit lubing my Lee moulds many years ago. Think about it.....we go to extreme lengths to clean and degrease a mould, then apply lube to the sprue cutter and alignment ribs. If you lube a Lee mould, it is going to be contaminated with lube, there is no way to avoid it. Eventually the lube turns to carbon crude and begins to fill up the vents, and it's down hill from there. They work just fine without lube, all you have to do is develop the habit of using your "sprue knocker" to align the mould halves by holding it against the block bottoms as they are closed. After a few dozen casts, it's like second nature and does not slow down the casting pace.

[S.B.]

What about the soot(smoke), what's it do for casting with an aluminum mold???

[HORNET]

The smoke is a very thin thermal barrier between the actual aluminum mold sufrace and the molten lead that slows the heat transfer rate a little to let the mold fill out better without having to crank the melt temperature WAY up, whiich can result in increased dross formation. You do NOT need a very heavy layer, barely visible is enough (real heavy can block some vents). You might want to wipe the mold faces clean after smoking the cavity(s).
The smoke will wear away during casting and may need refreshed. After a few uses, I think that a very thin layer of aluminum oxide forms on the mold's surface and serves the same purpose. It also helps fill on uncooperative iron molds. Serves some slight purpose as a mold release as well.

[S.B.]

HORNET, B.S.! Where did you read that? A lot of other people have told me that Lees like super hot material? Slows the heat transfer**** B.S.

[Yance]

HORNET, B.S.! Where did you read that? A lot of other people have told me that Lees like super hot material? Slows the heat transfer**** B.S.

Hornet's got it right, the thin layer of smoke keeps the molten alloy out of direct contact with the aluminum long enough to get good fillout.

I tried bypassing the smoking on my first Lee mould and no matter how hot I ran my Lee pot (WFO) I never got a decent bullet until I smoked the cavities.

Next time you get a new Lee mould try it yourself. Myabe it'll be one of the 6 hole GB numbers.

As far as lubing the alignment pins and sprue plate, I use Veral's sprue plate and pin lube. Beeswax and colloidal graphite. The only way it will creep into the cavities is if you use too much. Haven't tried Bullplate yet since the other stuff sorks for me.

[docone31]

I found that to be true also. I did an entire set of castings with a new mold without cleaning, or smoking. I got good castings but they all had small wrinkles. My other molds were fairly wrinkle free once I got the speed and temp dialed in.
My thoughts, the smoking is depositing carbon. Although the heat is not enough to make the carbon glow, it still acts as a deoxidant. Similar to using either wood, or charcoal when silversoldering. It creats a micro oxygen free area.
My thoughts are on this, lead and related alloys oxidize very quickly. Molten copper and silver oxidizes much slower.
Perhaps, the carbon deposit acts in this way, rather than an insulating layer. Perhaps both.
With my 155gn mold, and my 185gn mold, both produced better bullets with smoking. Both produced good bullets unsmoked, but, the finish on the smoked ones was just overall more consistant.
Also, I noticed, the smoked bullets were more shiney after water dropping. The unsmoked bullets were just a little bit duller. Not much, but, just a little bit. They dropped out of the mold about the same either way. There was also very little carbon loss during the casting session.
My first thoughts were, the smaller weight mold would have less casting heat per molding. That was indeed the case although the amount of difference was slight. I tried casting both at the same time. Didn't work for either. The mold cooled down too much switching one from the other. Both castings suffered slightly.
With silver for example, casting with the mold at 1000* you get a crappy casting. Porous, what is called mold warts. Lowering it to 900*, or 800* and the castings are crisper. Filigree is better cast at 900*.
My belief with casting bullets is the smoke is an antifirescale component. The temperature should be 2/3 melt temperature. I seem to get good corners that way. Heating the mold prior to casting allows the melt to take the shape before setting. A cold mold freezes the metal before getting fillout. Aluminum sheds heat rapidly.
I really heat my molds before casting. Allowing the sprue to freeze stabilizes the heat transfer. I leave my castings in the mold a few seconds after cutting the sprue to pick up the mold heat, dump them quickly when the mold holds heat too long.
Seems to work for me, then, after all that going on, something goes south and I might as well walk away and start over from scratch. Usually by then, I am tired and I have cast about 500 bullets and it is time anyway.
I think, the smoke is an antifirescale agent. That allows the melt to freeze and the crystals have less oxidation to deal with during cooling.
Another observation, when I have remelted my smokeless castings, some of the same batch take longer and retain their shape longer when melting. This is not an action of the pot cooling. I noticed, smoked bullets melt faster than unsmoked bullets in the same pot temp.
This has happened when I throw several bullets from both examples in together. Not all the time, but I did notice it.
Can I over complicate something simple or what?
I have to laugh sometimes. My silversmithing students get bored when I spend hours on work hardening and its effect on a prong at the tip. They just want to know how to fix it. I try to teach them how to prevent it.
I get boring sometimes.

[S.B.]

I've smoked this mold every time I've attempted to cast with it and it still doesn't fill out?

[docone31]

One thing I forgot to mention.
My sprue plates on my molds all had rough entry holes. I also opened them up a tad, and draw filed the bottoms. If yours are also rough, could this be causing cavitation on pouring?
Don't open them up too far so the sprue is too thick to cut off easily.

[S.B.]

My mold has been back to Lee for a period of around 3 weeks, if they didn't fix anythig apparent, they're not doing their jobs?
I followed all the advice on this forum and the instructions that came with the mold, smoked and lubed this mold went through the Lee preps on this forum, and still haven't gotten any good bullets out of it? I've casted for years with Lyman molds without these problems and will probably go back to my Lymans and leave this one sit!
I know something is wrong, on my end but, haven't found out what, yet and will no longer spend time searching for an answer.
Cheap isn't cheap if it doesn't work! The mystery of how to cast with Lee molds is too deep for me. Right now, I don't care to learn any more of their secrets. I give up on Lee!

[454PB]

None of my 17 Lee moulds have been smoked in the last 20 years, and every one casts just fine. They need to be CLEAN! No oil, no carbon buildup from lubing.

S.B., I'd love to try out your mould when it returns. Send me a P.M. if you want to sell it and be done with Lee moulds.

[S.B.]

I know, everyone here is tired of hearing me rant about this mold but, if Lees are going to take so much extra work to get them operational, they need to publish a manual?
It's been back for some time and I've tried it again with the same results and no I don't want to sell.

[DLCTEX]

Lee molds need lubing and the only way I have found to do it properly is to use Bullplate lube. It only takes a tiny amount on a Q tip(almost dry) on a hot mold, lubing the sprue plate(top and bottom), the pivot pin, and the alignment pins, after these points I then lube the top of the mold with an almost dry Q tip, with a boolit in the mold and staying away from the cavities. The Bullplate does not build up and clog vent lines, in my experience. This saves wear on the pins, helps prevent smearing on topof the blocks, and aids in sprue cutting. DALE

[chaos]

I tired out my first lee last night with good results. I first scrubbed the hell out of it with acetone. I lubed the pins and sprue plate with FLAKE GRAPHITE. Dusted the thing with Drop out and started making Good bullets. I will definitely try more of their molds.

[TexasJeff]

HORNET, B.S.! Where did you read that? A lot of other people have told me that Lees like super hot material? Slows the heat transfer**** B.S.

Nope, Hornet's right--aluminum moulds do better with hotter lead.

Jeff

[S.B.]

I think you took my post, out of context? I meant smoking the molds was B.S. Not that they didn't like hot alloy?

[prs]

I have several Lee molds and some from Lyman and RCBS; they all work ticky-boo. I mostly use my PRS454-250-RF 6 cavity molds as that is what I mostly shoot -- I have not come close to wearing a mold out -- I have split a handle and I have seen other folks jsut about ruin the blocks by beating on them while hot. Then again, I can even keep my Loadmaster running slick as silk.

prs

[Boomer Mikey]

Lee molds require a different approach than iron molds to achieve success in making quality boolits.

For those of you that are new to Lee 6 Cavity molds the following article is a good introduction to them and how to prepare them for use and for those of us with years of experience with iron molds that have issues getting Lee molds work as well.

http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting2006/swwheelgun2/index.asp

I've been of the opinion that all of my iron molds molds were superior to anything made by Lee but now that I can get them working I actually prefer them over my iron molds... especially the 6 Cavity Custom Molds. I still don't like Lee 1 & 2 cavity or standard production 6C molds. For me Lee standard production molds don't drop bullets large enough.

I hope you get your molds in a timely manner, I sent 3 molds back last August and received replacements last week - 9 months- not good in my book.


Boomer :Fire: