Lee 6 cavity mould

[VA Shooter]

I just got a Lee 6 cavity .452 this is my first time casting should I have got a 2 cavity any suggestions are welcome

[metweezer]

I have a 6 cavity .356 lee mold on order and I had asked the same question not too long ago. The answers I got mentioned how much I planned on casting at a time, whether I planned on shooting a lot, etc. By and large I was told that there was no comparison between the 6 cavity and the 2 cavity. The 6 cavity is made much better but the 2 cavity is cheaper. I would go with the 6 but that's just me. :drinks:

[Artful]

I have many molds and I like my Lee 6 cavities, would I say that's the best to learn on - not really but I don't see why it can't be your first mold. First read all the threads about Lee-menting - check over your purchase and follow instructions about not using all 6 cavities until warms up (might be a good idea to order another sprue handle pivot arm now as doesn't take much to break one).
you can buy a real steel arm not powdered metal arm here - http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=97479

Advantages of gang mold you will get a lot of boolits quickly, but you must have a large pot to make full use of it (or two even - I use two 20 pounders). Disadvantages are the heat control required and with a large aluminum block you have a higher chance of damaging it thru rough handling/ignorance - I started off with a used single cavity iron block lyman/ideal mold and even with my mishandling it's still good today.

I agree that the 6 cavity mold is much better made than the 2 cavity lee molds, so I don't think you made a bad choice. But you have given yourself a steeper learning curve.

[Sonnypie]

I'm relatively new to boolit casting, I'm reentering casting.
I started off with a couple of two cav molds in 30 and 45 cal.
Then I got a 6 holer and it sure can drink lead and spit out boolits.
Getting the 6'er first isn't a bad thing, just cast and remelt until you are happy with what you are making. Then start keeping them and you'll develop a rhythm.
I found that once everything got hot enough I was able to settle into a good flow and made well over 500 keepers in the 3 hours I was "learning" the mold. I probably made twice that many because I fed them back into my furnace. I was air cooling and decided to try water dropping. I liked that so much I fed the pile of air cooling boolits back through.
I found the 6 cav to be a much higher quality and smoother handling mold than the 2 cav.
So, no, you did the right thing getting the 6 cav mold. You can always run them back through. ;-)

[Hurricane]

Get a cheap hot plate to pre-heat your molds. I just started doing that and it is the best way to bring the mold to proper heat with the least effort. As the lead melts I pre heat the mold, top down to heat the spruce plate, bottom down to heat the mold. If it is a HP mold I let the tip of the pin touch a heating coil to preheat the pin. This lets you get good boolits from right away.

[462]

I continue to maintain that a new caster should start with a two-cavity. It is much easier to manipulate and lighter in weight, which, I feel, leads to less frustration and fewer mistakes as the proper casting technique is developed and quality boolits are produced. Also, once one has learned to properly and efficiently use a two-cavity mould, a rather large pile of boolits can be made in a short period of time.

All the horror stories of broken sprue cutter handles are directly related to not getting the mould hot enough before use, which goes back to poor casting technique.

Leementing is an absolute must, as is the use of a hot plate to pre-heat the mould. And, disregard Lee's instructions about smoking the mould and applying bullet lube to the alignment pins. In fact, if you follow the Leementing process, the instruction sheet is best ignored.

Lee two and six-cavity moulds are inexpensive, so buy one of each and learn with the two-cavity.

[Greg B.]

Lots of good advice here. As you may have realized there are a number of slightly different ways to make good boolits. I would have loved to have started with a six cavity mould and at present the closest I have is an iron Lyman four banger. For me I would follow the directions and see what results I get. The one thing I found when using even two cavities is to maintain a mould operating temperature near that of the molten alloy and then you get good fill out (I don't have any way to measure this; I just wait until they get frosty and keep the temperature in this area) . Hence the hot plate. If they are a bit sticky comming out of the mould a small pick will pull them out and Leementing helps. Might be a bit frustrating until you establish your own casting procedure and get the temperatures right but very satisfying when you get that pile of nicely formed boolits in front of you.

Greg B.

[selmerfan]

Read this before you start. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=4790

[Springfield]

Just cast with the first 2-3 holes for awhile, not so intimidating. No one says you have to use them all just 'cause they are there.

[dragonrider]

6 cavity molds are no more difficult to use than 2 cavity molds. Just a different learning curve, not harder. It's a moot point anyway, you already have the 6 cavity.

[Sonnypie]

I did two things to mine before I started:

1st - I immediately ordered the handles I had forgotten to order with the mold. [smilie=b: :groner:

2nd - I took mine to the drill press and figured out how to embed a nice short piece of turned concrete nail in it for the sprew cutter to leverage against. ;) A nice light press fit.

I of course had some time to get intimate with it since I was waiting anyway. So I checked over the sprew cutter and made sure it was spiffy.
The fulcrum for the sprew cutter I put in turned dark blued from the heat of casting.
(It's that little button looking thing.)

http://home.earthlink.net/~pie/Sonny%27s/P9200192.JPG

http://home.earthlink.net/~pie/Sonny%27s/P9200193.JPG

Oh, sorry about the blur.
But it keeps the steel sprew lever from digging into the aluminum mold metal.
Please see the Link selmerfan posted.

[VA Shooter]

Thanks for your input this is very helpful

[Blammer]

if the mould is cold don't fill all 6 cavities, you'll never get the sprue off. :)

start with 2 or 3 first, until you get it hot, thengo for more.

[Carolina Cast Bullets]

I have a client here in town who is a welder by trade. I went to his shop and described a plate I asked him to make. He used a piece of 1/4" steel, cut it to about 8" square, ground off the sharp edges then welded a handle onto it. The handle was a length of rod stock about 18" long, bent it to a curve and welded it onto the plate.

I put the plate on the burner of my hot plate and just lay the molds on the steel plate. By the time my lead is melted, the molds, I've put as many as three 6 holers, are ready to cast. I seldom drop a wrinkled bullet, even on the first cast using this plate. Should I need to stop for any length of time, just lay the molds back on the plate to keep them hot.

Set the plate control at about 1/2 to 2/3 of its max and keep on casting.

Jerry
Carolina Cast Bullets

[smokemjoe]

Put on the bull plate lub. Its great on alum.

[leadman]

If you can locate some Bullplate lube buy it. Bullshop seems to have closed up for now but his products will be missed.
Preheat the mold by dipping the end in the molten alloy. If you can't get the sprues to cut do not force the lever. Usually the handle will move a little then stop. Follow the directions for inserting a flat tip screwdriver between the mold and the rocker on the sprue plate handle. This will give you enough leverage to cut the sprue. Then heat up the mold again.
I have not found a need to add a pin where the sprue plate handle bears against the mold. I lube this area with bullplate lube and have not had an issue in tens of thousands of boolits.

Do clean the mold first as recommended. If you have a stubborn mold that casts wrinkled boolits no matter what you do you can do what I do. I heat the mold so it is very hot and a little smoke can be seen rising from it. Then fill the cavities with lead. It may take awhile for the lead to solidify, which means you got it hot enough. Cut the sprues when they solidify and dump the boolits. They should be very frosted, which is what you want this time. Let the mold cool some and start casting.
If it still gives wrinkled boolits smoke the mold with a wooden match and you should be good to go. You may or may not need to smoke it again later, most of the time I don't have to.

Have fun and post here if you have any more questions.

[XWrench3]

you already have it. no sense in trying to beat your self up for going with what you will end up with anyway. once you have experienced making 6 at a time, that is all you are going to want. i would love for Lee to make 6 cavity rifle molds. why they do not, is beyond me. anyway, CLEAN, CLEAN, AND CLEAN AGAIN all 6 cavities. i use acetone, hot soapy water, and then 91% isopropyl alcohol to clean them up. smoking the cavities in my experience may, or may not help the mold cast better. then, make sure you lube the mold up at the pins and at the handle and sprue plate pivots. GO VERY SPARINGLY, WITH EITHER BULL SHOP'S LUBE, OR A HI-TEMP SYNTHETIC GREASE LIKE "SUPERLUBE". if you put more than what is necessary, it WILL migrate into a casting cavity, and really mess things up for you. the one thing that seems to hold true with all 5 of my Lee 6 cav. molds is time and heat cycles will improve the resulting bullets. if you get a mold that drops perfect boolits the first time, consider your self very lucky, and GO BUY A LOTTERY TICKET! usually by the 5th casting session, they are working correctly, and drop beautiful boolits. i am not sure if running lead through the aluminum removes a contaminate, tempers the face somewhat, or if it is simply heat cycles that eventually makes them better, but the bottom line is you will probably make some ugly boolits before you make nice ones. once the mold is dropping good boolits, you need to, from the middle of a run, so the mold is up to full operating temperature, drop and save 6 boolits. watch and keep them in their propper order, so you know which boolit came from which cavity. measure each boolit, after they are at room temperature. if they are dropping small, then you will need to either beagle the mold (if ALL of them are small), or make a tool from a boolit of each cavity that is small, and lap that cavity to enlagen it. but that is a whole different discussion. make sure you slug your barrel. the boolits NEED to be 0.001-0.002" OVER the diameter of the barrel. if not, you will have a lot of leading issues.

[Artful]

Lee will make 6 cavity for Ranch Dog, and they have for group buy's here. Hmm, now I'm wondering why they don't for their existing rifle designs?

That's a good Question XWrench3

[wiljen]

If I were a betting man, I'd say it is because the vast majority of their competition makes 2 cav molds almost exclusively anymore. Does lyman even offer a 4 cav these days in a rifle mold?
I know RCBS doesn't and I'm fairly certain Saeco doesn't either.

[MikeS]

I just checked, and SAECO still makes all their designs in 1,2,3, or 4 cavity moulds. But they are the only company that still makes 4 cavity rifle boolits, other than the custom mould makers of course.

[wiljen]

I stand corrected, been years since I saw a 4 cav on any dealer shelf around here.

[Artful]

I don't even see any boolit molds stocked at the gun stores around here -

[MikeS]

Me too, never seen a boolit mould at a gun shop around here. All the moulds I have were ordered online.

[XWrench3]

as for iron boolit molds, i can understand why very few are made in more than 2 cavity. you would have to be superman to hold one up for any length of time. well, maybe not superman, but it would get heavy after a while. but the lee molds, even filled, are not bad. money has always been an issue with me, but if lee started making 6 cavity rifle molds, i would find a way to replace all of my 2 cavity molds with 6 bangers. it might take a while, but i hate spending all day making a pile of boolits. obviously, you can shoot a lot more pistol boolits in one day, than you can rifle boolits. if for no other reason than the rifle barrel heats up a lot sooner. i can spend a day making boolits for all 6 of my handguns, or i can spend a day making one caliber of rifle boolits. it does not take a rocket scientist to figure that out. lee needs to make 6 cavity rifle molds. if they build it, people will come!