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Thread: This is a Lee 6 cavity mould

  1. #81
    Boolit Buddy
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    Quote Originally Posted by jmortimer View Post
    It may help to put slight bevel on the leading edge of the sprue plate.
    thanks, I'll give that a try

  2. #82
    Boolit Bub
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    How long do aluminum molds last

  3. #83
    Boolit Master



    Crash_Corrigan's Avatar
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    I have two that have been used heavily and they are over twenty years old. I dip 'em in molten alloy for 30 seconds before using them. Once I have cast a few boolits I then lube them with Bullshops Bullplate lube all over the top of the mold with the boolits still in the cavities, lube the underside of the sprue plate and the alighnment pins and the screw pivot on top of the mold.

    This usually lasts for a about 600 boolits and then I do it again. I keep a very small bottle with a squirt of Bullshops lube on the bottom and I dip my Q Tip into the stuff. All this is done after I Leement the mold initially. I seldom ever have to tap the mold handles to loosen a sticky boolit. Most time I just use a gloved hand to open any of my molds after proper preparation.
    Pax Nobiscum Dan (Crash) Corrigan

    Currently casting, reloading and shooting: 223 Rem, 6.5x55 Sweede, 30 Carbine, 30-06 Springfield, 30-30 WCF, 303 Brit., 7.62x39, 7.92x57 Mauser, .32 Long, 32 H&R Mag, 327 Fed Mag, 380 ACP. 9x19, 38 Spcl, 357 Mag, 38-55 Win, 41 Mag, 44 Spcl., 44 Mag, 45 Colt, 45 ACP, 454 Casull, 457 RB for ROA and 50-90 Sharps. Shooting .22 LR & 12 Gauge seldom and buying ammo for same.

  4. #84
    Boolit Master
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    Mark (Light) - Red River Rick owns KAL and makes sprue plates, cam levers etc.

  5. #85
    Boolit Man Smithy's Avatar
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    It's funny (getting back to the first page of this thread) on Lee's custom bullet capabilities. I was starting SASS with a pair of Ruger Old Army's and wanted a way of producing a bunch of round balls, figuring that they would work best for quick production and loading at the loading tables or just prior and cap at the tables. So I called Lee and simply asked if they could produce a custom six cavity mold in a .457 round ball? I was told basically "No way possible". It was a RB that they already had to cherries to cut as it was offered in a single cavity, double cavity, and as part of their ROA duo mold that had round ball and conical. They gave some reason as to not being able to get the cherry into the spot they needed to be able to make the cuts on their six cavity mold blocks. I offered to pay for the creation of a new cherry, but was denied. Now it's funny to see all of their buckshot molds that they produce which in essence are a very large production round ball mold. I have their #000 buckshot mold as a core mold. I pass them first through a .339 Lee sizer so then the oblong piece of lead will fit into a Corbin weight control core die of .340 diameter. Then these short little disks are passed through their HC-2 cannelure tool to impart a diamond pattern on the outside surface. This brings the diameter up to .342 which is the exact diameter I need to mate it with my selected Stretch wad and MagTech hulls from Ballistic Products. 5 disks out of a defensive 410. Pretty awesome. Soon to be Lee Loading 38's and 44 mag's I'm looking to get six cavity molds for their 158 and 240 grain respectively, tumble lube semi wadcutter bullets. Has anyone had any experience or success with their tumble lube bullets and do they need sizing? Smithy.
    Salvation is through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and in Him alone.

  6. #86
    Boolit Master

    petroid's Avatar
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    Lots of great info in this thread. I have several Lee DC molds and have been disappointed in one way or another in just about all of them. I then splurged for a Lyman 4cav. Wow! What a difference in quality and it makes awesome boolits! Just recently I bought two Lee 6cavity molds because I had heard they were overall much better than the DC molds. This is absolutely true. The 6C molds make great boolits in a hurry. I'm less than thrilled with the aluminum sprue plate and it drags and grinds on the latch but it can be replaced for much less than the cost of a Lyman or other top tier mold. For the price, they are a great value.

  7. #87
    Boolit Buddy
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    Lee 6 hole molds,,,,, I've got about a dozen Lee 6 holers, the spruce bolt keeps backing out, and lead get under the spruce plate etc. I had a wild idea, A friend put me on a drill bit and tap of 8-32. I drill a hole in the side of the mold(6 holder) in line with the spruce plate bolt(after I get the spruce plate bolt out) and tap the hole with the 8-32 tap. The allen wench I used was 5/'64 and I put the allen screw just in to the new hole. I put the spruce plate back in tighted it like I like and then tighten the set screw with the 5/64 allen wrench, I did all 12 of them in about a hour. I tried them out today, I poured three different bullets(with 6 holder molds) and none of the spruce plate bolts backed out. I didn't need any adjustments I'm now a happy camper with lee 6 holers, I can pour about 200-300 bullets in an hour with the 6 holers. and yes, I use the bottom pour 20# Lee pot. and yes, it leaks. (Note: don't tap the rod in the lead pot with a hammer to keep it from leaking, I tapped it once too often and wound up wearing the 18 # of lead that was in the pot.) Yes, the bottom spout fell off the pot. It was a bit of a mess to clean up! one of my molds is for .38 special and I use it for 9mm(and no, that didn't work either) the thread on the spruce plate is a left handed thread. the allen screw works on the two holer also. I poured about 150 bullets with it, (and I could learn to hate two holers. I also buy Accurate molds(when I can afford them) and they have the screw already in them to keep the spruce plate screw from turning.

  8. #88
    Boolit Buddy
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    Locking handles for the Lee six cavity mold,,,,

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_DK...nZoFxu6ZhFJ37w

  9. #89
    Boolit Buddy fivefang's Avatar
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    Buckshot did a fine job of modifying the 6 cav. Lee mold, my problem was mold & sprue plate severe contact marks,which created a gap between mold & sprue plate,caused by very hard boolit metal. so I fitted wear plates to mold, sprue plte.& sprue plate cam. I removed metal from mold & sprue plte.to accept pcs. of bedrail angle which were J-B welded in place, then drilled & tapped,screws were also J-B'd in place.

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    the footprint of the sprue plte. cam was increased by the metal addition

  10. #90
    Boolit Man
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    Have been lurking on this site for years and signed for an account recently just because purchased a pile of Lee six cavity molds. My first bullet mold purchased 37 years ago at the ripe age of 15 was a Lee single cavity 357 wad cutter mold that poured thousands of bullets from an iron pot and dipper on my mother's stove. Before graduation from high school had Lyman Mag 20 furnace and hand full of Lyman 2 and 4 cavity molds over the past 30 plus years have accumulated a large number of Lyman and NEI molds in two and four cavity sizes which other than replacing sprue plate on occasion had no issues. Couple of years ago had opportunity to buy a dozen different Lee six cavity molds from eBay vendor who was clearing out all his stock and cutting great deals on large orders. Allowed me to fill in some gaps in mold selection and thought had made the major score. Have read about having to preheat them well and then move fast to keep from breaking the sprue cutter cam where goes into handle. Have only used six of the dozen molds thus far and broken the sprue cutter on five. Only one have not broken is the mold for pouring cores for swaging 22 caliber bullets. Really like that mold as can drop a huge number of consistent cores in a hurry. Have used the 160 grain 30 caliber mold for pouring bullets sizing at 0.312 with homebrew gas checks for 7.62x39 and poured several thousand rounds before breaking the cam. Swapped sprue handle from unused units and been running well for another thousand or more boolits. It is temperature sensitive as have to find that sweet spot to pour good bullets that fill all the holes well and not get frosting from overheating but can make it run acceptably.

    My real issue comes in with molds in 40 caliber and larger. Broken sprue handles on all large caliber molds used even using the tips from this site. Have now swiped the handles off my other unused molds and replaced all the sprue handles at least once and the 40 caliber truncated cone twice. Tried leaving on preheat plate for hour, sticking directly in lead, running as fast as possible, wide range of alloy temperatures and just can't get the technique down. Only way can get them to run without breaking cams is to move so fast that one or two bullets have not hardened enough to get a clean cut as lead still molten when open mold so rear of bullet smears and has a dished base and unusable.

    If run them as four cavity molds filling four center holes skipping the two outer holes they run fine. Have taken to running the large caliber molds as four cavity units and get good bullets without breaking molds. That is fine by me as price was so attractive and used to only dropping four at a time except for a six cavity mold I purchased from a nice older gentleman who had owned a small casting company for retirement income. It's a six cavity 200 grain 0.451 SWC and know have poured over 50,000 bullets maybe even double that as it runs a few hours every week for 15 years since I purchased and no idea how many it dropped before purchased. The owner had machined a large portion of the bottom off into an odd shape to fit his furnace and a bunch of dimples like a rectangular golf ball so really have no idea who made it but will pour all six holes perfectly with minimal warm up, cut sprue's clean and if cold can whack sprue plate with my big stick and as warms up go to normal stick running for hours with temperature variations from running pot low and dumping in ingots without waiting for temperature to come back up, take break and eat a sandwich, go to bathroom pick back up and start dropping perfect boolits again. So know six at a time is possible but totally different type mold.

    So now have six Lee six cavity molds never used missing sprue cutter handles stolen for other molds and not excited to buy spares though understand Lee will replace the broken ones not sure want to fool with that and actually come up with better cam. The molds missing handles are all large boolit molds afraid to even try using with stock Lee sprue cutters. Have CNC machine with ability to cut non ferrous metals like brass and aluminum and considered setting up to cut a few out of T6 or use my manual mill and make them out of steel from the get go but not the best machinist on the manual equipment.

    So do I send broken in for replacements and run large hole molds as four cavity or machine something tougher. Aluminum molds are just finicky enough getting to correct temperature and keeping there to keep running six consistent boolits with each drop and not break handles is a challenge for me. Feel like have two choices, tougher cams so can leave mold closed longer and last two pours have time to cool properly or run as four cavity with stock cutters. If anyone is already up and running making steel cams, give me a shout. As to advice to make them run, read all on the site and guess am just so used to cast iron can't get the rythem to keep aluminum molds running well.
    For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. 2 Timothy 4:3

  11. #91
    Boolit Master
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    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/foru...L-Tool-amp-Die

    Replacement cam levers, sprue plates, and mold handles. I use the bottom pour pots, move quickly and do not fill all mold cavities until well up to temp. If you ladle pour, with a 6 cav mold, you are probably moving too slow because the first couple of bullets are fully set up before you even get the last one poured. Cast fast and hot, which you seem unable to do. How about filling three, cut the sprue, then fill the last three, cut and dump?

  12. #92
    Boolit Man
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    Appreciate the link and idea to cut, refill and then cut again. Will time against filling four cavities at a time. My mention of ladle pouring was at age 15 when magically a Lee turret press, two sets of dies, scale, bullet mold and ladle appeared at the house. Closest place to obtain was Atlanta which was a 90 minute drive one way not counting wandering the side streets to find gun shop. Parents never asked till too much time had passed to punish. Same few days before when heard me in front yard blazing away with a new Smith Model 19. Store that sold it knew my parents and said to have one stop in and fill out papers next time in town. Those were the good old days when kids could have guns in their car on school property as kids didn't shoot each other back then.

    I had a Lyman Mag 20 by age 17 and it still runs to this day. Have a second also so can keep rifle alloy in one, pistol alloy in the other along with a Lee bottom pour for pure lead and a new Mag 25 on order hoping arrives eventually. So am bottom pouring and not a newbie. 37 years of casting and two of it on mom's kitchen stove is probably reason for some of my daftness. Like Nero fiddling while Rome burned due to lead poisoning. Often would be melting wheel weights and pouring ingots from one eye and casting on other from time dinner dishes were put away till bed time where stuffed the evenings casting session into cases. Had a load using my wad cutters and Bullseye that allowed me to get dozens of loadings out of every case before it gave up as buying new ammo to get fresh cases was tough on a kids budget.

    Moved to two cavity cast iron molds when got first bottom pour furnace in 11th grade. By senior year had four cavity molds in 0.357 and 0.451. Been obsessed with pouring bullets ever since. Honestly unsure if reason for shooting is so have reason to cast and load or reload so can shoot more. Reloading may actually be my favorite of the two though they go together. Yesterday from after church lunch till dinner time poured 45 caliber SWC's then 30 caliber rifle bullets from after dinner till bed time. Managed to set the fire alarm off in house for first time as decided to Flux the alloy in both furnaces at same time and ventilation fan could not quite keep up with the smoke. Glad my fire suppression system is heat activated or would be having it recharged today. Lesson learned. Thanx for the link and ideas. Want to get all the Lee molds fixed and running without breaking sprue plates. Anything under 30 caliber is no issue but 30's got a huge number run before breaking and 40 caliber and up just darn moving backwards. Luckily most of the big Lee molds are for backup or odd bullets just want to experiment with though the core mold and 160 grain 30 caliber mold have become regular use items.
    For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. 2 Timothy 4:3

  13. #93
    Boolit Master
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    I have not read all replies so bear with me if this has been covered!

    When you cast fill from the pivoting point towards the opening point, ie. on a 6-banger from the end towards the handles.
    That way the hardest sprue will be furthest away from the lever and easier to break.

    Look at the handle on my .452-255gr, it's all i need and as you can see it has been ridden hard and long. The sprue plate used to be black anodised 10k boolits at least and the short handle is plenty of lever when i fill from the front and break sprues as soon as the last one has solidified.




    The usual Lee mending:


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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check