Did I Luck Out and Get a Good Mold?

[BigRix]

I was putting an order in with Midway and almost as an after thought I threw a Lee two cavity mold on my order. A 452-200-SWC. This is my first Lee mold, my first aluminum mold, and I fully expected to be futzing around with it. I read up on the LeeMenting sticky and was prepared to do the deed.

I was presently surprised. I tightened up the handle nut a bit so the halves would meet up better. Lubed it with silicone dielectric grease. Smoked it with a Bic lighter and set it on the hot plate.

The second cast looked perfect. I decided to water drop these just to try out water dropping more than anything else. Old plastic coffee "can" with a rag on top with a hole cut in the rag. I never had to use my old hammer handle once. Hand cut the sprue and the boolits just fell out.

http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss208/BigRix/Casting/ae3c3f13.jpg

Dumped the water and dried off the boolits. Measured about .0015 out of round but most importantly they were .452 on the small side and .4535 on the big side. I can size them round again. They weighed between 202 and 203 grains.

http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss208/BigRix/Casting/08edc50a.jpg

This has been by far my best casting experience so far. Makes me wish I had bought one earlier and that I ordered a 6 banger instead.

So did I luck out or have you had similar experiences with this mold?

[onondaga]

I have had similar experiences with Lee molds. I can tell by looking at your boolits that you did get the mold hot enough and got nice castings. Technique is so much more important to getting good castings than the brand of mold you use and you did great.

Gary

[geargnasher]

Good job, BigRix.

Those boolits look nice, they show the "galvanized" finish that I like on my own boolits. If you will clean the mould cavities very, very well, like you're trying to get the embedded cutting fluid out of the pores of the metal (because it's still in there, under the soot), and get all the soot out, then run another session just like this one, your bands will have much sharper edges and the finish will be more consistent.

Now, take that for what it's worth, which is coming from a "perfection-ist". The boolits won't shoot any better more than likely, they might be a little cleaner to lube with sharper edges to the lube groove, and the added bearing surface of crisp band edges might make some slight difference at 50 yards from a Ransom Rest, but the way I look at it is it's just as easy to make 99% perfect boolits as it is 95% perfect boolits, and I think the mould prep and maybe just a bit more practice keeping the casting tempo steady now that you're used to this mould will get you that last four percent. Like I said, good job, you figured that mould out in no time flat, which means you savvy the principles quite well. If you can learn to make good boolits with a Lee mould, you can figure out how to cast with anything.

If the cleaning makes the boolits stick, or you don't like the results, it'll only cost you about .00000000000002 cents in lighter butane to fix it!

Gear

[skeet1]

Nice looking boolits! I stated years ago with Lyman moulds and more recently started using more Lee moulds. Generally I think the Lee are just as good. Both manufacturers can turn out a bad one but usually both are good. Some boolit designs cast easier than others. I have a Lyman 452460 that I have had for a long time and just recently got it to start casting boolits that I could get out of the mould without beating on the hing pin 4 or 5 times. It is now one of my favorite moulds.

Ken

[Doby45]

My first mold was a 6 banger of that same boolit. Very easy mold to work with and made good shooting boolits too. Kudos on your new mold.

[Wayne Smith]

The only major difference I have seen between a good Lee mold and any other good mold is that you have to treat the Lee mold quite a bit nicer. They just aren't as hard, and on the 2 cavity the alignment isn't as positive, as the competition. Adjust for those issues and they will cast good boolits for a long time.

[garym1a2]

I liked this mold so much I got the 6 banger version of it also.
You bullets look prettier than mine.

[fredj338]

It's the problem w/ LEE QC, sometimes you get lucky & get good stuff & sometimes you get absolute crap.

[williamwaco]

I bought that exact mold in the six cylinder version about three months ago. I was a little uneasy about tumble lubeing that bullet but I am happy to report that it works fine. It feeds flawlessly in both my 1911's and I am rewarded with 2" groups at 25 yards ( Using my Crimson Trace laser. )

[35remington]

I have a lot of Lee moulds, many in double cavity, and none except one has needed any care or leementing to work.

With the comments from others on this board over the years I don't know whether that's typical or not, but I will observe that complainers will complain if they have a problem, and those without any issues won't say anything.

So maybe we've been hearing disproportionately from the few that have problems, and somehow we consider that to be "normal" when the truth is otherwise. At least, it's been otherwise for me......and several others in this thread alone, apparently.

I have this HG 68 Lee clone myself, and will observe that it's one of the most "different" HG 68 clones out there in terms of deviating from the original design.

The meplat is smaller, the amount of bullet weight out of the case when seated to 1.250" is less than many other copies, and more is seated in the case, especially considering the huge lube groove. So it gets a little higher velocity than other HG 68 clones that I have at this 1.250" OAL when using the same powder charge, which is not surprising.

The lube groove is too big IMO. A good lube in the considerable volume this bullet carries when processed through a lubrisizer (good lube being 50-50 or equivalent) opens groups because there is too much of it. Crappier lubes work better for me, ironically enough.

LLA will outshoot 50-50 with this bullet but gives more leading. I know that's somewhat heretical, but it's the fault of the big lube groove, not the lube. I like the smaller lube groove of the RCBS 201 SWC as more appropriate for good lube.

[timkelley]

Seems to me, folks complain if they get a bad mold and keep quiet if they get a good one. I have five Lee two cavity molds, three needed a little internal polishing, the other two didn't. I don't consider that I have gotten a bad one yet.

[MtGun44]

Good looking boolits.

Lee molds are not that bad. I think some of the complaining here is unfair
to Lee. No question that they have problems, but nearly all of the Lee
molds that I have purchased have been just fine.

Personally, I find no difference with or without smoking, so I no longer bother.

IME, soft works better most of the time in .45 ACP than hard.

Bill

[math]

I have had good luck whit that bullet in 45 colt, it makes for easy shooting :-D

Math

[frkelly74]

I am encouraged, I have a lee 6 hole that I have not heated up yet. I am a little intimidated by all those cavities, but look forward to getting 6 boolits every time I crack it open. Lee molds have worked well for me in the one and two cavity versions with one exception, and I have just had an excellent experience with Lee on getting that situation remedied. Even the bad mold cast a pretty looking boolit , they were just way out of round. But it is all better now. Thankyou goes to Patrick.

[Lizard333]

Not to be picky, but it looks like you need to have a bigger sprue on your mold as I saw at least one of your boolits with a void in the bottom. Other than that they look great!! I only have the one lee mold but after reading this I may order another!!

[HangFireW8]

It happens, maybe one out of five Lee molds are good out of the box.

I look at them carefully when I get them, if there is no galling or grooves in the cavity cuts, no buildup of chips on one side of the mold, they line up OK, and the two halves are level under the sprue plate, they are usually good to go without major LeeMenting. That's a lot of IF's, though, especially for Lee.

I still buy them, of the other 4/5 that aren't ready to go, I fix more than half by LeeMenting and the rest I return to give Lee a second chance to get it right.

-HF

[MBTcustom]

If you plan to shoot those puppies out of a 1911, you may have feeding issues depending on the gun.

[cgm]

Count me in as satisfied with my Lee Mold. I only have one in .44 SWC 240 grains. However, it works like a charm. As good as my RCBS mold but.... the bullets out of the RCBS are cosmetically prettier. Otherwise, no fuss and a lot cheaper!