Faulty Lee Mold...................

[mikeym1a]

I recently purchased a Lee 90369, c309-180-r mold. The first casting was done cold, and one of the cavities is off-set. The next day, I pre-heated the mold, and cast some boolits. The casts were a bit better this time, but one cavity is off-set. Since this is the 2nd mold from Lee in a month where this has occurred, I decided to ask Lee for help. Here is their response;

Preheating is where damage to the mold can occur.
Observing the color of the alignment pin and cup reveals how hot the mold was.

The maximum operating temperature should be limited to 400 degrees and the absolute maximum of 450 degrees for a maximum of 30 minutes. At 450 degrees the pins will turn a Pale straw-yellow. Any temperature above this will excessively reduce the tensile strength of the aluminum block by annealing. Once this overheat occurs the only repair possible is reseating the pins, and staking in place.

The aluminum molds will not overheat by simply casting but can be overheated by preheating with a hot plate, torch , setting on top of the pot to heat up or immersing in molten alloy for an excessive amount of time.


Thanks,


Andy

Lee Precision, Inc.
4275 Highway U
Hartford, WI 53027
phone: 262-673-3075

I guess I'm out of luck. Generally I try to defend Lee, but this condescension really gets my my goat. I try to buy lee because of the value factor, but attitudes like this really make it hard to support them. Next time, I'll go back to the vendor I got it from and ask for a replacement or refund. mikey

[TiteWadShooter]

Could one of your alignment pins be pushed into the block too far? I had this problem with a lee mold, one alignment pin was in too far on the block, not seating in the cupcorrectly and making for a loose fit between the two halves, some boolits were good. on others, I could definitely tell the mold halves were off alignment. So I took a small nail set punch and knocked the pin out so the two looked the same, now the mold closes like it should. Hope this helps at all!

[mikeym1a]

Thanks for the idea, but, I already checked that. It locks up tight as can be. It was defective from the factory, and they don't want to admit it. I have about 15 different Lee molds, and have been casting for about 30 years. It really gets my goat when somebody says that it's my own fault. If it's my fault, then the mistake was to buy a Lee mold. If I don't hear back from them, I'll just have to lap out the mold until it is round. Well, better go wrap some boolits now; from another mold that is not offset, and goes through the sizer square. mikey

[TiteWadShooter]

Hey, I agree with ya! Lee makes their product cheap enough that they should be able to replace it without any loss. But I guess to them, one mold is more important than one loyal customer! Good luck to you!

[Cmm_3940]

Seems unlikely someone at Lee isn't lurking on this site, even if they never post.

[dkf]

I thought the "reduce the tensile strength of the aluminum" reply was hilarious. Hard to reduce tensile strength when it is already some of the softest aluminum known to man

I have found Lee is a **** shoot. A lot of the stuff is good but bad product is higher than it should be. If you get something that does not work you are better off throwing it away than contacting Lee. I contacted lee about and obvious problem with a die and got BS excuses. I won't make the mistake of contacting them again.

[TiteWadShooter]

I hope Lee is reading this! Any business owner should know is that customer service comes first, if they expect customers to return.

[UBER7MM]

I bought a Lee C309-200-1R mold last fall. Before casting, I inspected the cavities by holding it up to a light. I could see light through the halves in the bottom of the cavities. I returned it to Midway and got a replacement, pronto. I was even credited for my return shipping. One can still find good customer service today. Its the exception rather than the rule, however.

[462]

Lee's quality control department can learn much from Midway's customer service department.

[ubetcha]

I to have purchased a mold recently that with the mold closed, you could see light. Looking from the front, you could see that one block was not seated straight and was very tight on the handles. Took it back to Lee ( I happen to live close by) and they first tried to fix it then wound up replacing it. The replacement mold was much better. I'm starting to feel that their quality control and assembly groups need a talking to. I think a lot of Lee products are decent, but the molds are starting to lack in attention. Yeah I know they are cheap, but some of the designs are great.

[Fishman]

Maybe your email to them wasn't clear enough. Sometimes it is difficult to determine a person's knowledge or intent in just a few sentences.

[sandman228]

im having the same problem now I bought a 45 cal 252 swc mold and a 358 105 swc mold a month or so ago the 358 mold is fine the cavitys were out of align . so I sent it back to midway for a replacement they sent me another its the same way even worse . just my opinion I don't care for lees new mold design I have a bunch of there older style 2 cavity molds and usually don't have any trouble with them . I just sent the replacement mold back this morning and I don't want another i'll just keep shooting my 200 gr swc bullets out of my ruger Blackhawk 45 colt .I guess maybe i'll try some 230 rn bullets and just have the same bullets on hand for 45 acp and long colt

[dkf]

There is nothing wrong with the new design of the 2 cavity molds. Several other manufacturers use the two alignment pins with no issues. The problem is on Lees end.

[detox]

Sometimes Lee will let a bad one slip thru. I try to order my moulds from someone that has a verygood return policy such as Midway ...they will also endorse return shipping.

[tazman]

I recently purchased a Lee 358-125-rf mold in 6 cavity direct from the factory. During the first casting session the spru lever broke after about 300 boolits. I got on their web site and filled out a claim form and uploaded a picture of the broken part that included the boolits I had just cast with it.
They responded the next day and immediately shipped a replacement part free of charge. I received it 3 days later.
I would call that great service.

[mikeym1a]

I have about 13 Lee molds. I've only recently bought other makers, simply because Lee doesn't make what I want at this moment. So, I have to buy more expensive molds. I try and get them used. I occasionally get a good on on fleabay, believe it or not. In January, I bought a new style .32 cal 90gr mold, or something like it, to use for my 32acp. I have a friend whose a machinist, who could mill it down, and make it into a 70 gr boolit. I didn't cast with it before the conversion. When I got ready to make .32acp boolits, they came out oblong. Don't know how they did it, but across the mold line, it measured .309, and the other way it measured .312. the mold halves were not offset, but out of round. Now this new one, bought in February, a new style, has offset halves. I've determined that with the attitude of the customer service person, there is no reason to send it back. Nothing will happen. I'll simply order another, and properly test it when it comes in, and if it is bad, I'll return it to the vendor for replacement, rather than try and deal with Lee. As stated, I have a lot of lee molds. Most of them work great. So, I'll limit how much of their product I purchase from now on, and spend more money on some one elses product. It'll be their loss. mikey

[TXGunNut]

Sounds like they made two mistakes, first was quality control and second was an innappropriate customer service response. Like you I have a long history with Lee and have come to expect better from them. I'm a bit stubborn, I'd give them another chance to make it right. One mould isn't a huge investment but I'd certainly want to get my money's worth if I could.

[jmort]

Lee Precision has good/great customer service. That is a given. Why give them TMI? Why go into the minutia. I am certain if you merely stated that one cavity is "off-set" then you would have no problem. They will not miss you but you will miss them even if you will not admit it.

[mikeym1a]

Well, 'just because', I bought the same mold from Titan Reloading. When It came in, I cleaned it per instructions, and then proceeded to case boolits with it, with no pre-heat. It took about 30 casts to get the mold up to temperature, and then I got a bunch of good looking boolits. After the were dry, I examined them. The were off-set, just like the first one. I immediately emailed Titan, and they said to send it back, and if examination showed me correct, they would issue me a refund, including shipping, and send the defective mold back to lee. With this in mind, I packed up the first one, and shipped it back to Lee with a letter explaining my problem, and am awaiting a response. BTW, I got an email from Titan today saying they had received my returned mold, and were issuing an immediate refund. Now we wait to see what Lee will do.

[TXGunNut]

Seems unlikely someone at Lee isn't lurking on this site, even if they never post.

Yes, they lurk here.

[dmize]

Sounding kinda familiar.
I have 19 Lee molds that have given me no problem at all. I had a 357 SWC and a 475 mold that were junk,messed up one trying to fix it and was in a bad mood and just flat threw the other in my pond.
Last month I bought a 44-310 from Midway,I cast from too cold too frosty,they would not touch my 430 sizer. I called Midway,THEY took it back and gave me another. It too casts too small,even with straight Lino it wont touch my sizer.
Going to call Lee,after all Lees quality control is not not Midways problem. I hope they fix it.
As a side note 90% of my reloading equipment is Lee,and they have replaced the lever on my 30 year old hand priming tool a couple times as well as a 50 AE die that the carbide ring broke in as well as a couple 6 cavity sprue plate levers.

[MT Chambers]

Re: your "side note " that 90% of your reloading equip. is Lee......my condolences!

[dmize]

I have had no problems with anything except for the well used hand prime and the AE die.
I am pretty sure I have bought my last Lee mold tho.

[mikeym1a]

Well, as stated earlier, I did send that first mold back to Lee with a letter of explanation, and one of my slugs still in the cavity as an example. Don't remember when I sent it off, but, a replacement from Lee was in my PO Box on Thursday. I did some casting last night with it, and the boolits looked pretty good, but, the mold was still too cool, and I was getting voids. This evening, I preheated the mold, while the lead was warming up, and then made about 40 casts. The early ones were poor, but after the mold and sprue plate got up to temp, this new mold cast some very nice boolits. I still need to address the sprue plate. I believe the holes are too small, and restrict the flow of the alloy into the cavities. I've had to make this type of adjustment on almost all of my Lee molds, and have had success with it. BUT, the boolits came out right at .309, and I had to look hard to see the lines made by the mold halves. This one is RIGHT! Thank you, Lee Precision, for a very nice mold. Rather restores one's confidence in an organization to have that happen. This boolit should work quite well in the new Chilean Mauser '95 I just bought, that was re-barreled to .308. It has 7.62 struck into the bridge, and I slugged it to be sure, and it came out to .308 groove. Much relief and satisfaction. mikey

[Tar Heel]

Maybe your email to them wasn't clear enough. Sometimes it is difficult to determine a person's knowledge or intent in just a few sentences.

I have to agree that this may simply be a classic case of miscommunication and could be cleared up. I have had good luck with Lee over the years with various items. They made good on their priming tool when the lids cracked. On another note, is all the fuss over a $19 bullet mold really necessary. I own several Lee molds and I never expected the quality to be like a RCBS, Lyman, Accurate Mold, or other producer. If I got a bad mold over the years, I would order another. At $19 bucks - hey.

I'm sure that Lee will make good on the mold if you called them or described the issue clearly to them. If you bought the mold on MidwayUSA or another Internet Mega-Mart, have you tried returning it to them?

[mikeym1a]

This was the first instance where I needed to send a mold back to Lee. I bought 3 different molds within a month, and all had offset cavities. The first was a .32 pistol mold that I had machined down to make a 72gr boolit for the .32acp. I didn't check it prior to the mod. I discovered the offset after the mod, so I couldn't very well send it back. The other two molds were the same, ordered within 2 weeks of each other. Both had offset cavities. After my initial trouble with Lee's email response, I ordered another, same part #, from Titan. As soon as it came in, I checked it, and it also had offset cavities. I contacted Titan, who gave me a reference number, told me to include a letter with the reference #, and told me to return it, and they would give me a complete refund, including the shipping. This they did. With this in mind, I boxed up the original mold, with a sample slug, and a letter of explanation, and sent it off. Since I could not find my original receipt, I didn't know if they would do anything. I was surprised and pleased when the sent me a new mold. As stated, it is tight and accurate, and I'm very pleased.

[CeeHoo]

Are alignment pins of the newer Lee molds just friction fit? Are they supposed to be adjusted the same way as those of iron molds, using a brass drift?

Got a six cavity TL358-148WC from Brownells recently. All cavities look fine so far but it seems the pins are protuding a little bit too much. Daylight between the halves can be seen and it is not caused by burrs or other defects.

Pointed ends of the pins look like they may be prone to deform, even if a brass drift is used. Better notch the end of the drift for more contact area.

[country gent]

I usually modify my moulds sprue plates at some point by cutting a shallow trough in them as ladle casting I like to really overfill the mould and this channels the extra off back into the pot. I have also polished smoothed the v of the sprue hole to assit release of the sprue. Last is a good deburring of both top and bottom side.

I have never opened up the sprue hole itself for that reason, I did slightly "sharpen one on a old used mould by cutting the vee deeper into the sprue plate which did open it a few thousandths with no problems.

If all you've owned is one manufacturers equipment then its all the same. In moulds owning noe, accurate, old west, brooks, lyman, rcbs, saceo, and lees shows the diffrences quick.

[Grmps]

CeeHoo I'd call Brownells and have them send a replacement mold. You shouldn't have to mess with a new mold.

[john.k]

Id try the mold first...ally expands a lot more than steel,and the Lee pins have a habit of coming loose,so will push into position when up to heat.........after a while,the cooked beeswax locks the pins in place,and they stay put.........I have one mold where the pins used to end up in the bullet water........fortunately,not falling on the floor......But it works good now...........Affordable Lee.