How To Maintian My Lee Dual Cavity RB Mould

[trapper44shooter]

Fellas what do I need to do to maintain my Lee 454 RB mold to keep it in excellent working order
I have a sprue lube I ordered & I have Beeswax on it way here & I kind of guess how much I use the mold will determine how long it will take to break my mold in iam I right fellas & I hope and pray I haven't already asked this one I looked before I wrote it out I didn't fin one if I have I didn't mean to do it

[FlyfishermanMike]

It's aluminum so not too much work. I keep mine in a plastic bin with some desiccant packs. Keep the rust prone parts coated and you'll be good for your next session.

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[Bazoo]

I spray my moulds with remoil to keep rust off. I either do nothing to remove it, or if I'm feeling giddy I'll give it a spritz of lighter fluid.

[StrawHat]

I have some Lee two cavity molds from way back in the 70s and 80s. I cast a lot of bullets with them. I learned early on the o treat them gently. Not casting mallets on these. A gloved hand to swing the sprue plate and good lubrication is necessary to long life. Forget beeswax, chainsaw bar oil is good stuff. Use it minimally. Cast at high temperatures and produce a frosted boolit.

Heavy handed casting will ruin any mold.

Kevin

[megasupermagnum]

I treat all my molds the same. A rag damp with 2 stroke oil to lube the sprue plate, and a Q tip to lube the alignment pins. Fill the cavities before lubing the sprue plate (elvis ammo method). Once done and cool, I spray the molds with oil, WD-40, Kroil, PB blaster, whatever. They are then stored in ammo cans.

[Boolit_Head]

At the price of a Lee, use it abuse it and get another when you need to.

[lightman]

When I'm finished casting I spray my mold with whatever flavor of gun oil that I happen to have. Then I wrap it in an oily rag and store it in an air tight container. This pretty much requires me to degrease them before casting and I use brake cleaner for this.

I used army ammo cans for storage until recently. I bought a large MTM dry box, mostly to keep my molds in one place.

[Dapaki]

I strip them down to parts when I get them then I use anti-seize on all moving parts (including the sprue plate and body top) alignment pins, wipe of excess, blast the cavities with brake cleaner, assemble and pre-heat. No, it's not the 'norm' but it works well and boolits drop when the mold is opened.

I found myself only buying LEE molds lately, they are cheap enough to play with and freely experiment with and not get heart broken when they end up in the bin, not that I have ever thrown one away! The few times I have messed one up terribly bad, I throw them into the drill press and make ball mill media slugs.

[MT Gianni]

Treat them like a bic lighter. Get the most out of it you can and walk away when they are done.

[Dusty Bannister]

If you are casting round ball, you should be using nearly pure lead so you will not get frosty castings. You do need to keep the temperature of the mold and lead hot and that means you need to cut the sprue as soon as the sprue puddle turns to slush. You will need to watch for lead deposits on the bottom of the sprue plate and that lube will help prevent that from forming. The reason to cut as soon as practical is that the round ball will "roll" in the mold and a hard sprue will begin to distort that part of the mold block where the very thin block forms the edge of the sprue. Not the end of the world, but it will shorten the life of the mold. Have fun, and if the mold does become a problem, you can always make the investment in a steel mold.