Problems with a Lee 314-90-SWC

[stu1ritter]

I'm trying to cast with this mold and running into problems I think are the mold itself. I've checked the faces of the mold till I'm blue in the face but I'm still casting a parting line on the boolits. Also, the are out of round by .004-.005 and I'm squeezing the handles as hard as I can. The boolits look beautiful, great fillout, no frost, no wrinkles, just too far out of round to consider. Anyone have any ideas?
thanks,
Stu

[zuke]

Try not squeezing so hard.
If it's new send it back where you bought it.
I have the exact same mold and have casted about 1000 with it so far. It's gonna be me new plinking boolit.

[Larry Gibson]

2 or 6 cavity mould?

Larry Gibson

[Old School Big Bore]

I have a new two-cav of the same boolit and the castings are so out-of-round it loses the lube grooves on the fat sides when sized.

[zuke]

Mine is a 2 cavity. If I knew where to get a 6 cavity,I'd get me one!

[stu1ritter]

It is the 2 cavity, I don't believe the 6 is available anymore, though I'm not sure.
Stu

[Mk42gunner]

If this is the new style with the alignment pins like on a six cavity, use a straight edge on the mating faces to make sure they are flat.

On my very first group buy mold when the alignment pins were pressed in, they distorted the mating faces. It took me almost a year to figure out what was wrong. Once I did, it took about two minutes of careful trimming of the swelled aluminum with my pocket knife to have a good casting mold.

Of course if it is new and still in warrantee, there is always the option of sending it back and trying a new one before you attempt surgery.

Robert

[stu1ritter]

Yes it is the new style with pins. I'm going to send it back as it is quite new. I like the bullet style and will just replace it. Right after the .314 mold I switched over to my 2 hole TL358-158-WC and cast a few hundred of those, same metal, same pot full, same temps (700F) and perfect boolits, round, firm and fully packed. These .314's go into the remelt pile. Thanks folks.
Stu

[sail32]

I use a Big Lube 6 cavity mold and I have found that if I close the mold and then place it, left side on the table edge, and hit the right side and then the sprue cutter with the mallet, the mold is then closed properly.
I do this with my Lee 2 cavity mold as well and this produces a better quality bullet.
Both molds are for 200 grain 0.429 bullets.

[stu1ritter]

Interesting idea. I might just try that. Today though, since I completed my PID temp controller for the pot and borrowed an infra-red thermometer from my old repair shop to measure the mold temps, I thought I'd give it another try making sure the mold was at temp, the alloy was at temp and all things in the firmament were square. The bullets came out much rounder, but still shy of what I would like to see. They were mic'ing between .3125 and .3138 and some of them were almost round. Occasionally thought one would mic in the .309-.310 range. Strange, must be my technique.

Stu

[Michael J. Spangler]

I just picked up the same mold Wednesday and mine was in spec.
Good luck with yours.

[TXGunNut]

I also have that mould, wish they still made a 6-cav because my 32-20 revolvers love that boolit. I'm wondering if the alignment pin or pins need to be seated a bit deeper. If not I'd either send it back or order another.