I'm new to casting and reloading. I have 3 Lee 6 cavity molds (moulds?).
9mm 356-120-TC
.45 452-200-swc
.45 TL452-200-swc
So far I've made about 2200 9mm, and last weekend about 1400 45's from the single groove molds. All from wheel weights.
All molds have been boiled and cleaned with brake cleaner etc. The 2 molds that work, have no trouble with Frankford mold release. I've tried both smoking and mold release with all of them, and I'm back to smoking with the TL mold.
I'm having such a hard time getting anything useful out of the TL mold I'm about ready to chuck it. On rare occasion I'll get 1 perfect bullet and on even more rare occasions I'll get 2. I've tried altering the heat dial on the Lee 4-20 pot from 6 - 8. About 7 seems to work just fine with the other 2 molds. I've tried running the 2 45 molds together from the same pot of lead, fill one put it down to cool while filling the other. I'll get perfect bullets from the non TL mold and crap from the TL. I've tried using varying mold temps from cool to much too hot.
Is there some EXACT temperature that must be maintained? Do I need to mix in virgin pubic hairs and chicken bones? Did I just happen to get a retarded mold?
Yesterday I finally received an infrared thermometer that's been back ordered for a few weeks. It took me all of about 5 minutes to determine that it won't work on the shiny surface of molten lead. I just tossed into the pot, a piece of very dull cast steel to take readings off of. I'll try to see if I can narrow down the temps needed. I'm running out of patience and a sledgehammer is beginning to sound appealing to vent my frustration!