Lee mold suggestions.

[hornady]

I bought a new Lee 2 cavity mold, I know big mistake, I wanted to try the bullet out, and the project worked out pretty well.
I have bought a few Lee 2 cavity molds over the years, if I liked the bullet, I bought the same in a better mold, and sold the Lee.
Most Lees I have owned were temperamental, but this thing is a nightmare.
I would be ashamed too pass this thing on. I have done everything I can think of too tighten this thing up. But the slop on this one seems to be in the mold pins and the handles.
Is there a way to tighten this up, it looks like they are mounted with split pins?
The only way I can get it to close properly is to set the hot mold down on a flat board and close it slowly.
I use bull plate lube, I have tightened the handle bolt, cleaned and checked the mold over several times, no burrs or guide pins out of place just a lot of slop.

[462]

Try re-stacking the pins that hold the mould halves to the handles.

Closing a Lee two-cavity mould, while it is on a flat surface, is the only way that I've found to provide consistant alignment. It has become such a habit that I close all moulds that way.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Closing a Lee two-cavity mould, while it is on a flat surface, is the only way that I've found to provide consistant alignment. It has become such a habit that I close all moulds that way.

I have 15+ Lee 2 cav. molds.
I think their QC has really improved from a few years ago.
anyway,
I close a Lee two cavity mold while holding upside down,
right after the boolits fall. Hence using the sprue plate
as the flat surface.

On a real bad one (I've only had one),
I've bent the Handle blades to permenantly re-allign it.
Jon

[hornady]

Thanks for the suggestions, I tried using the sprue plate to close the mold, but its 50/50 as to that working. Leveling on a board seems to work best , I may call Lee I have bought and sold many Lee 2 cavity molds over the years. This one is pure junk. It acts like too much play between the mold and handle. I have never seen a new mold with this much play in it. And I cannot see any good way of taking the blocks off to shim it up.
Funny I have read on other forms guys have said Lee QC on the 2 cavity molds has gone way down. This is the first really bad one I have gotten.

[Maximumbob54]

The sideways alignment pins in the couple of two cavity Lee molds work just fine to line mine up. Are you saying that your's are off??? If so, how would holding it on a flat surface or upside down help unless you remove the pins??? I'm confused yet again.

[hornady]

The problem is the mold block to handle fit. Once you get the blocks closed it drops a nice bullet, you just can’t close the handles and expect the alignment pins to get it lined up. I need to alien the bottom of the blocks on a straight surface to close the blocks.
I have never had blocks and handle flop around so much.

[Wally]

The problem is the mold block to handle fit. Once you get the blocks closed it drops a nice bullet, you just can’t close the handles and expect the alignment pins to get it lined up. I need to alien the bottom of the blocks on a straight surface to close the blocks.
I have never had blocks and handle flop around so much.

I have many Lee molds and a few are like what you have. I close the blocks with a gloved hand and all is well. The problem is caused by the slots in the blocks (where it fits into the handles) being a bit too large. You can shim it with a strip of aluminum from a soda can...

[hornady]

Just not use to Lee molds I guess. Like I said in the OP I will be putting this mold up for sale and if this is a common flaw with the 2 cav Lee mold it should not be a problem. I just did not want to pawn a bad mold off on someone, when I get ready to unload it I will post the loose fit. I have read here and other forms the Lee 6 cavity molds are not bad. But is the loose fit an issue with them as well. Getting to old to monkey with something that is temper mental.

[Harter66]

I actually have 2 like that. 1 in a 401-180TC thats been that way from day 1 and a 30 I tweaked and cut on that's well on its way to used up,having cast a couple, closer to 5000 boolits.

[mooman76]

Every once in awhile you get a Lee like that one. I have had two but I have allot of moulds. One wasn't too bad but the other was terrible. Some times tapping it when closed helps jar it enough to close it good. I just got used to tapping them to ensure they were closed all the way for more consistant boolits. I noticed my last one that was real bad. The handles were also tweeked abit and didn't line up straight. I made them worse by trying to align them.

[MtGun44]

Bullplate lube on alignment points.

Bill

[frkelly74]

I saw two suggestions that I have used already said. One is bend the handles slightly , two is lube the mating surfaces, sparingly though. I also had one once that had a burr in the vertical ridge that mates with the groove in the mold. I filed it off and all was well after that.

Lee molds are great, and their customer service is unsurpassed.

[RobS]

Just not use to Lee molds I guess. Like I said in the OP I will be putting this mold up for sale and if this is a common flaw with the 2 cav Lee mold it should not be a problem. I just did not want to pawn a bad mold off on someone, when I get ready to unload it I will post the loose fit. I have read here and other forms the Lee 6 cavity molds are not bad. But is the loose fit an issue with them as well. Getting to old to monkey with something that is temper mental.

The Lee 6 cavity molds use normal steel pins and sockets so there isn't the play that the 2 cavity molds have. IMO they are designed better. The six cavities main issue is when people try to cut the sprue on a full mold when it isn't up to temp resulting in a broken cam lever (the sprue plate handle). The way around screwing this up is to pour 1 to 2 cavities at a time while moving to different cavities between pours. Next fill 3 and then 4 cavities etc. until all six cavities are filled and the sprue can be cut easily. If a person has a hotplate to heat up the mold it cuts down on the number of drops before the mold is up to temp. Placing the mold on a hotplate at a proper temp, 50 to 100 degrees under your alloy temp works well for many casters, a person can start with 3 or 4 cavities then be able to fill 4-6 cavities in as few as 3 or 4 drops.

[milprileb]

Certainly not a mold expert. I had two Six cavity molds that were problematic. Both dropped bullets of irratic sizes and all bullets dropped were huge and sizing was swaging bullet lube bands.

I did not blink. I send both back and Lee repaired one and replaced the other. I have nothing but good things to say about Lee Service in this regard. I sent molds out on a Monday priority mail and got molds back the following week on Wed.

If I had problematic molds, I recommend sending them to Lee for attention.