Question about a Lee mold.

[Mixxerd]

I recently inherited a cap and ball .44 and some casting stuff from my father. A lot of the stuff looks to be lightly used if used at all. I decided to take the screws out of the molds and apply a little anti-seize to them. The apparently unused 2 cavity conical mold had a "righty-loosey" screw and was easy to take apart and put on a bit of anti-seize. The .454 single cavity round ball had a "lefty-loosey" screw and was TIGHT. I almost thought that I was going to strip out the head it was so hard in coming out. I did put on some anti-seize and put it back in, was very hard to get back in too. Here are a few pics of the mold, not sure if that will help at all to tell if it has been used or not, looks really clean.
Thanks for looking and adding any input!

[richhodg66]

I have just started coming around to Lee molds, been casting for years and never got them to work right very often until recently. That looks to be one with the new alignment pins so better than the old ones. I clean mine with brake cleaner to get them absolutlely grease free, and have found lubing acros the top (careful not to get any in the cavity of the mold) with some sprue plate lube which looks an awful lot like synthetic two stroke oil, helps. I recently got some advice to also lightly lube the alignment pins with the same stuff.

It helps to pre heat the mold on a hot plate or you can stick the blocks in your melted alloy til it comes up to temperature before casting.

Cap and ball revolvers, and muzzle loaders in general are a lot of fun. I'm thinking a .454 ball is too big for a .44 revolver, so the conical may be what you want to work with first. There are some much more knowlegeable guys than me on the topic of cap and ball revolvers here, I'm sure a few will post soon. Welcome to the forum and learn all you can, it is a huge base of information and help.

[WRideout]

My kids got me a Lee double cavity mold for my inline ML rifle. It is the one that casts a single .50 cal RB, and a single REAL conical. I had a supply of pure Pb, from roof flashing etc. that I used. I am finding that when using pure Pb in a Lee mold, they like to run HOT. You almost can't cast fast enough to keep the mold hot.

Be careful about greasing the alignment pins on a Lee mold; the lube can spread into the cavity or vent lines, causing all manner of grief. I would use something that's not too runny, and not use too much.

Wayne

[Mixxerd]

Both are really solid tips that I have seen while doing searches, thanks for coming in and making sure a new user is headed in the right direction! I was just worried with how difficult it was to remove the sprue plate screw to apply anti-seize. I have some ZIP lube on the way even though I have plenty of 2cycle oil in the garage I figure I would support a vendor on the site. Plus I am down to 2 pounds of beeswax so I figure get a couple more, and he says he has some dandy of a batch of wax, very aromatic and bright yellow. I will post what I think of it in his own subforum after I get it!