frkelly74
11-30-2011, 12:44 AM
I have been banging away at using my Lee molds with some pretty good results. I, years ago, assumed that tapping the mold hinge pin was the way to get the boolits to fall out of the mold. After all the instructions say it will work if the boolits stick. I was accepting of this "fact" and learned to expect the use of my mostly single cavity molds was just going to be painfully slow and laborious. I looked forward to upgrading to double cavity at some point to go faster. Then I came to Castboolits and began to hear about lementing and filed the info away until I might need it some day, I still thought banging was normal I even have a special piece of 1"x1" oak with a nail through one end to act as a banger and a pick for the really stubborn ones. I am amazed I haven't wrecked a mold or two since I have been casting. Gradually I have soaked up information about how to do it right but finally I got a two cavity RN 45 mold from another member here and cast with it and was amazed at the boolits falling out without banging the mold. I asked the gentleman what he did and he said he lemented it, And a light went on finally. So I have been working over some of my molds and the difference is stunning. I have one of a 6.5 custom Lee single that a guy was selling on e-bay probably 10 years ago and I did not like to use it because it was so hard to get the boolits to drop out. Well today I lemented it with comet cleanser and toothpaste and it acts like a different mold, now it is easy and fast to use. The limiting factor now is only how fast the metal sets up , not how long it takes to get the mold empty. So with my right hand empty, now I put on a glove and began to open the sprue by hand and drop the boolit and close it up again and no banging or picking. I did just kind of nudge some of the boolits out by hand if they didn't fall right away but I am sure that if I work up a cadence that that will be solved. I feel almost ready to tackle the 6 holer that I got and have been hesitating to try using.