New Lee RB mold. Is this normal?

[Rick R]

My new Lee .454" round ball mold rolled in today. When I took it out of the box the first thing I noticed was that their boolit description was stamped on the top of the mold in the space not covered by the sprue plate. The second was:

83329

There are conical steel looking pins that mate into steel looking inserts in the opposite mold half, unlike the kinda stuck in the aluminum sideways metal bar that mates with an indent on the opposite half as is normal with a Lee mold.

Is this normal for RB molds or something new from Lee?

Thanks for lookin'

[Ben]

This is the " New Style Mold ".

It has replaced the old style. All 2 cavity molds being made now by Lee Precision are the " New Style " molds.

Most ( if not all ) of the vendors that sell and ship Lee molds are now shipping out the " New Style " molds.

I have ordered 2 different Lee , 2 cav. molds from MidWay in the past 20 days, both when they arrived were the " New Style " molds.

[Rick R]

Ben,

Thanks! Overall it just looks like there was more care taken during the manufacturing process than my other two cavity molds. Might be a good time to get a copy of my favorites.

[Ben]

I like my 2 latest " New Style Molds " that I've purchased from MidWay USA and have no complaints.

I'm like you, I think it is a much improved design showing great similarity to the already proved Lee 6 cav. mold design. Of course, the real test will be to put the " New Style Lee Molds " in the hands of casters and then see just how well they will hold up.

Many reloaders today feel that Lee presses, reloading dies and bullet molds are " cheap " and they avoid them. However, a lot of people can't come up with the money to buy SAECO, Mihec, or Accurate molds ( by the way, those 3 do make some fine molds ! They are not over priced, they are just considerably more expensive than a Lee Mold ).

If you're on a bit of a budget ( which I have been all my life ), Lee still offers you a good product ( if you don't have an extra $100.00 laying around to buy one of the molds mentioned above ) with a stand up warranty, if they do err and make a bad mold, they will correct the problem for you.

At roughly $20 a mold , if an individual is willing to ( as soon as the mold arrives prior to casting a single bullet ) remove the sprue plate and do about 10 minutes of de-burring on the sprue plate edges, clean the mold well with Brake Cleaner and/or HOT soapy water with a soft bristled toothbrush, dry and then lightly lube the underside of the sprue plate with either 2 cycle engine oil or Bullplate, you can then be making some fine bullets in short order. ( Don't overdo the lube on the underside of the sprue plate, if a millionth of a milli-micron of that stuff gets into the mold cavity you'll be wishing it had not happened )

I have quite a few Lee molds that I bought in the early 70's, those molds still produce " A grade " bullets today. I also own several H & G molds , NOE, Accurate, SAECO, RCBS, Cramer, Lyman, IDEAL, and Modern Bond bullet molds.

I'll be the 1st one to admit that Lee molds ( which seem to me to be made of softer aluminum than other aluminum molds ) are much more susceptible to wear and tear over the long haul when compared to the list above. However, in my opinion, Lee Bullet molds are still easily worth the asking price of $20.00 . We seem to have forgotten just how many members on this forum started out many years ago with a single Lee bullet mold.

Most of the damaged Lee molds that I've seen at gun shows were caused by casters that had no knowledge of the need for sprue plate lubrication and they ran the sprue plate way too tight ( Lee Precision in the past 15 - 20 years has knowingly contributed to this problem also , as the molds that left the Lee factory had far too much pressure on the sprue plate hold down screw ) & then the owners of the molds " ran them dry " and galled the tops of the blocks badly.

If a Lee mold is owned and maintained by a knowledgeable caster, it can cast MANY thousands of bullets over a fairly long life span.
What else could you expect in the way of a bullet mold for $20.00 ?

Ben

[gwpercle]

I got two of the "new" Lee 2-cavities, a 41 magnum and a 303 british, and like the new moulds . Of course you have to deburr , smooth some edges and clean-up etc. but for $20.00 with handles it is a bargain , and I can afford them. When you poor you got to learn to make do with what you can afford. I got my two moulds broke in now and going to do some serious casting this weekend.
After prepping and heat cycling twice, both started dropping boolits like a champ...and they look good. Whatever method they use to cut the cavities gives the cast boolit a nice surface. I like the new design.
Happiness is a new mould ( or two ) and a pot of lead at temperature...I just enjoy casting boolits.
Gary

[Maven]

Well, my experience with the newly designed mold blocks is a bit different:

I ordered 2 Lee molds from Titan Reloading (top of screen) and highly praise their service. I ordered late Sat. PM and rec'd them today. The molds are a 160 gr. roundnose "ballette" (nominally .452") which I want to try in my Rem. 1858 cap & ball replica and a .454" RB also for the Rem. 1858. Both molds are the new design. While the former was perfect right out of the box with only a small amount of Leementing needed, the latter (RB mold) was just the reverse. The blocks wouldn't close tightly so I decided to manipulate the locating pins. That didn't help. I next removed the pins entirely and filed and trued the mating faces of the blocks. That didn't work either as there was still a visible gap. At this point I knew I couldn't return the mold to either Titan or Lee. As I had nothing to lose, I placed the mold in my bench vise and tightened it with all my strength...several times, with the blocks in normal position, inverted, reversed, etc. I'm happy to say it now closes as it should with no gap when held up to a light source. Btw, the sprue plates on both molds needed minor filing and truing so they wouldn't gall or otherwise drag on the mold top. In short, 1 perfect mold and 1 imperfect one don't inspire a lot of confidence in Lee Precision's quality control.

[Ben]

In short, 1 perfect mold and 1 imperfect one don't inspire a lot of confidence in Lee Precision's quality control.

When one pays $100 ( or more ) for a mold, they certainly have the right to expect more.

Sorry there were problems Paul.

Ben

[tward]

Bought one of the Lee 125 gr 358 molds from Midsouth and it is the new style. The finish seems a little better and fit was good, cast great Boolits. The Lee mold before that was a .360 RB mold which casts well but the bottom of the mold looks like it was cut with a chain saw! Tim