Lee molds (again)

[pdawg_shooter]

The little brown truck brought me another Lee mold yesterday. Sprayed it down with some carb and choke cleaner and tried it out last night. It is the .309 170gr RNFP. Bullets dropped .310 and left the mold with just a gentle tap on the hinge bolt. This make 5 in a row NOT in need of any Leementing. The last 2 Lymans both had to be sent back, one of them twice. I lube the mold with 2 cycle oil and do not smoke the cavity. My oldest Lee is a .451 200gr SWC and must have in excess of 10,000 casts. Still works great. I have doctored up a number of Lees in the past but seems like they are putting out a better product now. All I can say is...GO LEE!

[btroj]

My most recent Lee mould is the 359175RD. Like you said, a gentle tap on handle pivot screw and they'll drop out. They are the right size and look great.

Lee seems to have cleaned up their production problems.

[6.5 mike]

Last couple of Lee's I've gotten where the same way. A light "spinning" of comet was all I needed, but I do that to all the Lee's when I get them. Do like the "made in USA" sticker.

[aarolar]

I just purchased my first two molds from lee and the 45 230grn truncated cone is great but the 38 semi wadcutter cone casts bad out of round almost 2tho.

[pdawg_shooter]

I just purchased my first two molds from lee and the 45 230grn truncated cone is great but the 38 semi wadcutter cone casts bad out of round almost 2tho.

I think maybe if you push that .002 out of round bullet down a round barrel with 12 or 14000psi pressure it will round out nicely.

[btroj]

bet the barrel will even do the work for free!

[geargnasher]

I'm happy to report that I've never gotten a bad Lee mould, and I have over thirty. I had a TL452-230-TC that had some chatter marks on both cavity noses, like the cutter was loose or it was cut without the benefit of a zero-backlash lathe. I considered lapping it with Comet to smooth it up, but I tried casting with it first and it made good boolits just the way it was. I'm sure plenty of lemons get through process, but I've been lucky enough that none of them have made it to my house yet.

Gear

[Ray1946]

I have 14 Lee molds, the first one being purchased in 1974. I think these are the best you can buy. Just take a little time and deburr around the sprue plate and put lube in the right places. I have over 7,000 bullets thru a Lee 309180 and it is still in great shape...............................

[41 mag fan]

It would be nice to see Lee ratchet up the QC and start making their molds from higher grades of aluminum.

Must be a fluke you got a mold thats not requiring extra work.

[DODGEM250]

Last couple of Lee's I've gotten where the same way. A light "spinning" of comet was all I needed, but I do that to all the Lee's when I get them. Do like the "made in USA" sticker.

You mean the one that says, " INSPECTED BY SHIRLEY" ? lol

[btroj]

It would be nice to see Lee ratchet up the QC and start making their molds from higher grades of aluminum.

Must be a fluke you got a mold thats not requiring extra work.

I have aout 20 Lee moulds and I have had one that "required" work. I have put a set screw in some 6 cav moulds to keep the sprue plate screw tight but that is about it.

I sort of its the old Lee group buys. I really like their 6 cav moulds. I use some of those Lee GB moulds more than anything else.

[aarolar]

I think maybe if you push that .002 out of round bullet down a round barrel with 12 or 14000psi pressure it will round out nicely.

That is a great idea but some of them are so oversized that they won't chamber freely in my gun...

[pdawg_shooter]

That is a great idea but some of them are so oversized that they won't chamber freely in my gun...

So size them before you load them. Bet that makes them round too!

[6.5 mike]

Think I do have a couple from "Shirley". Pdawgs' right, 20" to 30" bbl makes a real good sizer, :popcorn:.

[popper]

Little brown truck delivered 2 inspected by Lucille. Used my fingernail to remove the flash around the cavities(mine are hard-as-nails). Boiled, washed and dripped 2 cycle oil - I'll see how they do this week, weather permitting. One looks like it may need some bon-ami.

[MikeS]

Even tho I don't really like Lee 2 cavity moulds, there were a couple of moulds I wanted that are only made in the 2 cavity moulds, so I went ahead and bought them. They are the C.E. Harris designed boolits for the 7.62x39 cartridge, the C312-155-2R and the CTL312-160-2R basically they're the same boolit, but one has a traditional lube groove, the other is for tumble lube.

Well, after casting about 150 boolits from each mould, I remember why I hate them so much! The biggest issue is that they're so loosely mounted on the handles that it's hard to close them, and get them to align properly!

This got me thinking, if their 2 cavity moulds were made to mount onto their 6 cavity handles, I think they would align much better. It would be nice if Lee would start making them that way, and they could even market it as being easier to store multiple moulds, but using only 1 set of handles to save space. If they did this, I think they could sell the moulds for about the same price as they're currently selling them for, and I think they would make more money by doing this, as they wouldn't have to supply the built-in handles, a savings to them, and the additional machining to the 2 cavity blocks really wouldn't add that much, as the only difference between their current design 2 cavity mould blocks, and ones that would mount to their handles would be that the slot for the jaws of the handle would need to be cut wider, and instead of just drilling a hole for the mounting pin they use now, they would need to drill & tap 2 holes exactly like they do on their 6 cavity moulds. If they made this change, even tho I don't really care for any 2 cavity moulds (I prefer 4 - 6 cavity moulds) I would probably buy a few of them to get a few designs they only make in the 2 cavity moulds, as well as buying them as a sign of support sort of. They market their 6 cavity moulds as 'Professional' moulds, they could market the 2 cavity moulds with removable handles as their "Intermediate" moulds, or something like that to differentiate them from their current 2 cavity moulds.

I don't recall ever seeing anyone mention this idea, so I wonder, does this make any sense to anyone out there, or am I just crazy?

[MT Gianni]

Tighten the bolt and nut until they will not move, back off it 1/4 turn and lube with Bullplate. I get better results with Lee two cavity molds doing that. Thank Ranch Dog.

[pastorcurtis]

It's hard not to like the $20 price tag. Good tip on not smoking the mold either. I've run in to more trouble with that process than just leaving it be.

[MikeS]

Tighten the bolt and nut until they will not move, back off it 1/4 turn and lube with Bullplate. I get better results with Lee two cavity molds doing that. Thank Ranch Dog.

Thanks for this tip. I should have thought of it myself, but I guess I wasn't thinking clearly, or something like that. After looking at some of the pix of the new Inset Bar HP's done on the Lee 2 cavity moulds, and noticing that one of the moulds is mounted backwards (which is the way I actually prefer them), it got me thinking, so after I tightened down the bolts/nuts on the 2 moulds I just got I decided to try something. I drilled out the holes that hold the pins that mount the blocks to the handles (to remove the peening that keeps them in place), removed the pins, then I took a hammer, and peened the holes on the handles that the pins go thru, then remounted the blocks onto the handles (backwards so the sprue plate points toward the handles, rather than sticking out further from the blocks), and as I had peened the mounting holes so the pins now needed to be tapped into place rather than just falling into the holes loosely (like they did originally), then after tapping in the pins I peened the end of the hole to keep them from coming out should they get loose. After doing all this, the mould blocks still have some movement on the handles like they should, but they no longer tilt up or down (like most moulds don't tilt, but most Lee 2 cavity moulds do), and now the mould opens & closes great! Gone is the need to place the mould on a flat surface to close them, and they work perfectly, as far as block alignment goes! As a test I heated one of the moulds on my hotplate, then cast about 30 boolits just to see if my modification worked, and it worked like a charm! I was able to cast with the mould without any of the frustration that normally comes with using a Lee 2 cavity mould! And by reversing the mould on the handles it makes it easier to open the sprue plate by hand like I'm used to doing with my other moulds.

So my experiment in fixing the Lee 2 cavity moulds was a success! I now have 2 moulds that open & close in perfect alignment, with the sprue plate working the way I feel it should. I would include pix of the moulds, but right now my iPhone is attached to my computer as I upgrade it's software, and as it's my camera too, it's currently out of service. I'll try and take some pix once it's done with it's upgrade.