Lee .40 bullet mold

[maliveline]

So I just got Lee bullet mold that makes 6 bullets at a time in .40 cal 175 grain.
I accidentally dropped my mold into the water and it seems pretty warped. Any ideas on what I can do. I haven't tried casting since I dropped it I basically quit when that happen.

[leeggen]

Contact Lee and see if they can help you,probably won't but worth the try. Take it as a lesson learned and move on. Sorry it happen but it does and once warped it is nothing but scrap alum.
CD

[maliveline]

It almost seems like it kinda straightened out a little once everything full cooled but who knows.

[runfiverun]

just have to give it a try.
it might just be the steel parts, the heating and cooling expansion rates of the aluminum and the steel are different so rapidly going one direction or the other might make things look bad until you re-heat everything up to operating temp and kind of get it all re-aligned again.

[gwpercle]

You really don't have to cast and water drop boolits. Most think they have to do it to make the boolit hard because "Harder is Better "....not necessarily so , handgun boolits don't need hard. they need fit more. If you size a hardened boolit you cold work the surface and remove most of the hardness.
Let an air cooled boolit set a week or two and it will age harden.
I just don't find an advantage to water dropped/hardened handgun boolits. It's messy and what happens if you drop your mould into the bucket....water hardened mould !
Gary

[too many things]

heat it and clamp with wood blocks while hot in a vice make sure the pins line up and let cool in the vice.

[Jackpine]

My guess is that as previously stated, they are probably toast, but can you be a little more specific about what you mean by warped. When you put the two halves together, with the handles removed, do the blocks fit tightly together but are twisted or are the bowed and separated or ?? If they are separated, is the separation in the middle or one or both ends or ??

Jackpine

[rsrocket1]

I doubt the aluminum mold warped. I don't do it with my 401-175-TC, but I regularly dunk the front couple of inches in a bucket of water or the entire bottom face onto a soaking wet towel to cool it every 4-5 fills in order to keep the TL452-230-TC mold from overheating. Several 10's of 1,000's of bullets later and the mold closes snug and works perfectly.

I love the 401-175-TC, it's my most used mold. Probably over 50,000 bullets made with that mold
My bounty from the last casting session:
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj96/rsrocket1/Shoot/E923A7A8-11CB-4BD0-B40E-BAFC9ADFDE6E_zpsuv0jyu1p.jpg

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I'd try heating it up just a little short of what will damage aluminium, and let it cool. There is just a chance that that will relieve stresses and allow it to straighten. What to do when that doesn't work... I'm sorry, I mean if it doesn't work... depends on how it is bent, and whether it is useless if you don't try something.

If one or both blocks are bent in a single, bowlike curve, you could clamp it in a vice with pieces of wood or thick card at both ends on the concave side and in the middle of the convex one. Tighten up the vice till it straightens, and then see if it retains that straightness when released. Most likely it will need to be flexed a little beyond straight, as it will spring back slightly on release.

If a block is twisted it is less likely that you can fix it, But one more bowed at the top than the bottom, or at the bottom than the top, is the only one I don't see any chance of putting right by force.

[Lloyd Smale]

never seen a lee mold actually warp. Saw warped spruce plates on them.