Got my first Lee mold today

[Alan in Vermont]

USPS dropped off my first Lee mold today, a 410-195-SWC, 2-cavity. I'm waiting for my RCBS pot to come back from repairs so I can give it a try.

I did notice that the blocks don't lke to line up when closing. I found that if I just roll it upside down as I close it it does just fine. It's no harder to twist my wrist than it is to set the mold on something so I'll try it that way for a while.

Hopefully that light boolit will do OK in .41 Mag Blackhawk. I've been shooting 200 gr. Speer JHPs and have to drive them full throttle to get the point of impact down to the sights at 50 yds. I don't mind running hot loads but I'd like a little wiggle room on the sight adjustments.

[DLCTEX]

Tighten the bolt that the handles pivot on until just snug. Clean the mould with hot soapy water and scrub with a toothbrush, then do it again. When ready to cast apply Bullplate or synthetic 2 cycle oil to the hinge bolt, sprue pivot and alignment pins/grooves. Get the mould hot and very sparingly apply to open sprue plate, then try to wipe it off. Do not get it in the cavities. Works for me, except one new mould had to be cast with several times before all the machining oils burned out.

[462]

Don't forget the Leementing process, too.

[docone31]

I use nothing but Lee.
First, soak it in mineral spirits. I do it overnight. Then cast away! I do not smoke my molds.
As far as the alignment, close the sprue plate after ejecting the castings. That eliminates the slop. When the mold is real hot, the castings come out great.
I float my molds on top of the melt prior to casting. I also use the six second rule.
If it freezes at six seconds, the casting is great! Too long, and the mold is too hot. Less than six seconds, the mold is too cool.
I hope that helps. My molds are over 6yrs old with major casting useage. No smoking, only soaking in mineral spirits.
It does help, to write the caliber on the handles with dark marker! You can get tired of looking up the number from a catalogue.
Good luck.
I also water drop all my castings.

[MT Gianni]

I just got in two new Lee molds after not buying a new one in a long time. Treated like an NOE with the oven warm up and cool down cycles. Hit the plate and top with a pencil wood and lead, then bull pate. The bullets just fell out of both of them. The 358-105 measured .361-362 and the 40x145 were all at .404-.4025. I was pleased that the diameters were .003 + and bullets jumped out of both with a flick of the wrist. Maybe someone was paying attention.

[Boolseye]

It does help, to write the caliber on the handles with dark marker!
+1

I have had 100% success with Lee molds–I actually slightly prefer using the 2 cav molds, due to their weight and simplicity. Take care of them and they'll take care of you, at least that's true for me so far in the year or so I've been casting :-?

+1 on the 6-second rule, and don't be afraid to dip the mold right in the alloy to heat it. I find that I get the best boolits when I cast from a mold that's been heating on a hot wood stove for an hour or so. If you mess a little with the tension of the handle bolt, as well as getting the sprue bolt to the right adjustment (they often need to be tweaked during a casting session). I think you'll find it closes up nice for you with each cycle. I do smoke my molds, then wipe the carbon out with cotton or the like. I use bullplate on the mold block top and sprue plate, a tiny bit of 50/50 alox/beeswax on the sprue plate bolt and alignment pins.

Sounds like a good mold for the big .41. Let us know how they shoot,

-jp

[Bulldogger]

+1 to the recommendation to adjust the handle pins, etc.

And hey, if you find a good load with that 195gr Tumble Lube boolit, share it would ya? I've been through three powders, albeit with not a large number of trials and variations, but I am tired of scrubbing lead out of my barrel already. I landed a group buy 230gr mould to try next, looking forward to that.

BDGR

[Alan in Vermont]

It's not a TL design. I haven't been casting for a long time, probably before the TL thing even came into being. I don't like the comcept and see no reason to buy into it.

Right now I'm waiting for my RCBS pot to come back from RCBS. It was bought 10-12 years ago when I got the bug to get back to casting. It didn't get hot enough to melt enough to open the spout. It got tucked on the shelf and, for one reason or another, has been sitting there since. I wrote RCBS explaining the whole sorry story, they said they would look at it and if they felt it was warranted they would do warranty repairs on it. If not I get to pay but that has to be less than a new one would cost.

So I've been getting my metal together, digging out my molds and getting psyched up to melt lead.

Aw KRAP, I just remember that I need a Lyman/RCBS G,H & I set or a Star die for .410. I had a .41 BH way back but swapped it out for something that caught my fancy. I never did cast for that one, at least not that I remember.

[zuke]

I soak mine in gasoline over night warm up to make sure it's dry then use the Bullplate on it.

[Pigslayer]

Sometimes you have to play with them. I've found that with some Lee molds the groove for the mold handles is not dead center in the mold blocks. Those are the ones that have given me trouble in closing tightly giving me whiskers. I keep an old hand towel folded double over the edge of my bench. I just give the mold a slight tap against the towel covered edge and that remedies the issue.

[Abenaki]

I have been using that boolit in my Ruger Blackhawk with a 6 1/2 inch barrel for over 30 years!

I use a stiff load of Unique. It works great in my gun!

Take care
Abenaki

[Daffy]

Just started using my second Lee mold 356-125-2R double. If this thing causes much more anger I'll pitch it.
1. Sprue plate sloppy from the get go, no problem, drilled and fitted a new bolt. (almost expected)
2. SLOPPY Alignment, got to whack it back each time... ok I can live with it.
3. Started casting absolute remelts at the ~200 cast mark... look at the mold and BOTH alignment pins are MIA. (Found one on the floor and one in the quench pail)

I know I coulda spent some more green and got more quality, but geez..

My .430 has made lots of rounds.. LOTS. It is an older one bought from a local dealer as new old stock, I'm guessing at about 8 years old before I started using it. This new one is obviously crafted poorly by comparison. I'll spend some more time refining its action, but if I hit the wall it will become scrap.

2 cents worth.

[Alan in Vermont]

Daffy, thank you very much for your whining and totally off-topic post. Everybody else offered insight into dealing with a new Lee mold.

Stuff like this makes me appreciate posts that remain relevant to the thread topic.

I'm still waiting for my pot to get back from RCBS. It has been 10 doys or so since they called about payment for the repairs, which was taken care of at that time. I know I'm about as far from Kalifornicate as can be but this makes it seem like the snail must be pretty sluggish.

I'm getting impatient to try out this mold as well as a couple others, one of which is an NEI 4-cavity I bought used and I am hoping was made prior to Walt dying.

[fcvan]

I bought my first Lee molds over 25 years ago. In the past 3 years I have purchased 6 more. Call me lucky, but they have all worked well right out of the box. My first mold has cast 500k before the sprew plate screw stripped out. Drilled, replaced with a SS bolt and recently cast another 3k from it.

It took me a long time to figure the right temp, right cadence, and regular maintenance required to keep each mold working like a champ. I used to smoke the molds when new but found (for me) when they get sticky in the mold hit them with a q-tip and alcohol. Even after I used the molds to cast hot glue boolits, having oiled the cavities regularly, I found that cleanup with alcohol put them back in shape for alloy. I have heard horror stories about quality control with newer Lee molds but it just hasn't been my experience.

I've ordered all my molds through Midway except one very old mold that sat on a shelf from 1975 to 1985 when I bought it, according to the shop owner. I have some Lyman, RCBS, and Saeco, but most of my everyday molds are Lee. And there's room for at least one more . . . Frank

[Daffy]

So sorry Alan, I read the thread topic as Lee molds...Of which I have 2, one well used with few issues and the newest with multiple issues too soon to call wear and tear. I recognize poorly constructed tools and the one I received is just that.

Again my apologies for drifting your thread from what you desired.

[canyon-ghost]

I have a 41 magnum New Model Blackhawk, they do alright. The Lee mold that I have goes with my 44 Special though. Having a mix of molds, I can tell you that Lee molds are pretty much like other aluminum molds, just not as sophicated as the others.

Good Luck,
Ron

Lyman 215 grain SWC, 15.5 grains of 2400 for 41 magnum

[Alan in Vermont]

Yippeeeeee! UPS stopped late yesterday afternoon, they needed a signature and we weren't home. They came back today, I was ready to do the necessary writing so I now have my RCBS Pro-Melt back in my possesion.

Sucker melts lead this time. Sitting in the shadows on the bench I can see the liner of the pot glowing a nice shade of orange. Apparently there is no element at the bottom of the pot as the glowing area looks like it's maybe 1 1/2" wide and starts about 1" off the bottom of the pot. I filled it and let it melt inside tonight so I could watch it closely until there was a goodly amount of molten metal in there.

My first impression is that the thermostat is way off. It could be my brand new Tel-True thermometer but I doubt that. With the 'stat set on 675 the thermometer was reading 590 when the 'stat shut off. Oh well, that is why I have the thermometer.

Tomorrow I'll set it up in the shed and have it a bit of casting. It has been one LONG flippin' time since I have done any. I've got the new Lee to break in, my old standby 429421 that I need to cast some slugs in so I can lap the cavities(there is a hint of rust in there from condensation around the boolits left in the mold), and a new-to-me NEI 4 hole .452 that matches the profile of the Gov't issue "ball" loads. I bought that on ebay quite a while ago, I'm hoping it was when Walt was still in charge.

Should be a good day.

[QuickRick]

I am very fond of my Lee molds. I have several of their 6 cavity molds and a few of their 2 cavity models. The only caution I would offer is they are (predictably) somewhat more fragile than quality iron molds and need to be treated with care. All in all I feel their pluses largely outweigh their negatives.

[1Shirt]

Have about 25 of them. Have never cleaned one, just dipped in the melt and started casting. Usually have shootable blts. after about the 3rd. or 4th. drop. It works for me, so I don't try to fix it, them, what ever.
1Shirt!

[stubshaft]

I usually just give them a spritz of Kroil (when new) and go to town. I don't use a hotplate but have been dipping my molds in the alloy for years to preheat and like 1shirt usually get usable boolits after about the third or fourth cast.

[Alan in Vermont]

I did a short run with mine yesterday. After the first few casts they started coming out nice. I was running the pot a bit over 650 and had to go slow to keep the mold temp down a bit. Only thing I'm not crazy about is that it's tossing a bit bigger than I like, .415. This was with a very hard alloy so I added a couple pounds of pure lead hoping that might shrink that dimension a little. The lube grooves are a bit smaller than they look in the pics of the mold, only time will tell if there's enough lube there to protect things with full throttle loads. It will be a bit before I get to load any. I thought I had a .410 sizer but I was wrong(again). None available locally so I'll shop online for one. I've got a lyman top punch that looks like it will work so all I need to shell out for is the die. I would prefer to set up my star for .410 but the cost for a die and punch is a little more than I can swing right now.