MikeS
02-10-2012, 07:25 AM
Hi All.
I posted this originally in a message thread about a Lee mould. I'm just reposting it here so it's easier to find, as I've wanted to recommend this post to others, but couldn't find it.
The first thing is to tighten the nut & bolt on the handles until the mould won't open, then back off the nut slightly (I was recommended to back it off 1/4 turn, but I only backed it off 1/8th of a turn). This helped quite a bit. Then I removed the pins that hold the mould blocks to the handles by drilling out the portion of the hole that's peened over. Once the blocks were off the handles I saw that the holes the pins go thru in the handles are oversized with lots of slop, and the holes extended out from the handles (when they made the holes it moved metal out of the way, which made the metal around the hole higher than the rest of the handles. I took a ball peen hammer, and peened that extended area until the pins didn't fit in the holes anymore (you have to be careful not to over do it here), then I reassembled the blocks on the handles, and tapped the pins in place with a hammer, then a punch to get the pins in deeper than flush, and finally I re-peened the ends of the holes to keep pins in place should they come loose of the handles.
Once all this was done, the mould blocks close in perfect alignment! There's still some play in the mould blocks (they're not glued to the handles), but there's no play up and down, and this is where most of the misalignment of the blocks happens. I personally like the sprue plate facing the opposite way they do from the factory (I like them facing inward, like most 4+ cavity moulds are mounted), and so I mounted them this way when I remounted my mould blocks, but that's not needed to make the blocks align properly.
I posted this originally in a message thread about a Lee mould. I'm just reposting it here so it's easier to find, as I've wanted to recommend this post to others, but couldn't find it.
The first thing is to tighten the nut & bolt on the handles until the mould won't open, then back off the nut slightly (I was recommended to back it off 1/4 turn, but I only backed it off 1/8th of a turn). This helped quite a bit. Then I removed the pins that hold the mould blocks to the handles by drilling out the portion of the hole that's peened over. Once the blocks were off the handles I saw that the holes the pins go thru in the handles are oversized with lots of slop, and the holes extended out from the handles (when they made the holes it moved metal out of the way, which made the metal around the hole higher than the rest of the handles. I took a ball peen hammer, and peened that extended area until the pins didn't fit in the holes anymore (you have to be careful not to over do it here), then I reassembled the blocks on the handles, and tapped the pins in place with a hammer, then a punch to get the pins in deeper than flush, and finally I re-peened the ends of the holes to keep pins in place should they come loose of the handles.
Once all this was done, the mould blocks close in perfect alignment! There's still some play in the mould blocks (they're not glued to the handles), but there's no play up and down, and this is where most of the misalignment of the blocks happens. I personally like the sprue plate facing the opposite way they do from the factory (I like them facing inward, like most 4+ cavity moulds are mounted), and so I mounted them this way when I remounted my mould blocks, but that's not needed to make the blocks align properly.