Casting Advice needed - Lee TL356-95RL

[Handloader109]

101895I'm pretty new to this casting process, but I have successfully cast a number of Lee 356124-2R and 356120-TC along with 311160 boolits. I purchased and received a new 356-95RL mold this week and I've been struggling with getting a good cast from it. Three tries and pretty well struck out. I've cast probably 500 boolits and have less than a hundred that I'd say are pretty good. But none are really as good as some of the other two 9mm molds. Today I ran the temp from a start of 630F up to 730 and nothing really eliminated the wrinkles nor the 'nose' on the side of the boolit. Mold was both hot and cool and nothing worked. I use bottom pour Lee 20-4 with a PID installed. COWWs is the lead. I'm attaching several pictures. A couple of good 95s at the top, a batch of bad lower left which are typical of about 400 I've tossed back in and a group of the 124-2Rs that I just cast at about 670f without really trying this afternoon to make sure it just wasn't me. Several have small smiles you can see, but overall fairly decent.

What suggestions do you have? Go even higher on temp? I've had mold really hot and what I think is average and started off cold and nothing eliminates the problem.
Thanks for any help you can give me! John
101894101896

[DLCTEX]

Oil in the mould. Some Lee moulds take a lot of cleaning to get the oils out. Wash in acetone or use chlorinated brake cleaner followed by a good scrubbing with dish soap and water using an old tooth brush. Those bullets are too shiney to have been hot enough. Cast faster or preheat the mould so that the bullets have some frosting.

[tazman]

I agree that there looks to be something in the mold still. I use dish soap and a toothbrush to scrub the cavities and then use a small gas torch to heat the mold and burn any remaining coating out of the cavities.
This mold has cavities that are small in proportion to the block so it will need to be kept hot or it will cool too quickly. If you have a fan blowing across the top of your casting area you may be cooling the block too much.
I also agree that you need to preheat the mold to a higher temperature or cast at a faster pace. I have this mold and these are all the tricks I need to get good boolits from it.

[Handloader109]

I cleaned it up same as the first three molds, but I sure will do it again. It may not be as hot as I think, that is the next thing, crazy, I used my 311160 mold and frosty as the dickens.

[357shooter]

If you have a flat base oven thermometer, place it into one of the cavities. Usually a middle cavity. Get the mold up to 400-410 and give it a try. You may need to go a little warmer or a little cooler, but that's a good place to start.

[Boolseye]

Handloader109,
Assuming you've got any impurities, solvents, oils cleaned out of your cavities and your alloy is fine (which it looks to be), then the issue is mold temp. Lee aluminum molds (and all molds, in my experience) have to be really hot to cast well. I preheat my molds in a two-stage process, first on a hot plate, then with a dip of the corner into the melt. I will typically dip a six cavity mold for upwards of 2 min before I cast with it, and it usually will have to heat up more beyond that before the boolits are great.
I have never seen any adverse affects of any kind to the dipping. This is just a corner, mind you. Do not plunge the entire mold in. I also heat my melt up to 800º before I start casting. Once the mold is hot enough, the alloy temp becomes less important. Not everyone agrees with mold dipping. If I didn't dip, I would rely more heavily on my hot plate. How you do it is up to you, but the importance of mold temp is irrefutable. Also cast fast, don't stop to admire your boolits. Once you've been blasting for awhile, you can relax and take a gander.

Here's another tip: When you're adding sprues or taking a short break, fill the mold, cut the sprue and leave the hot boolits in the mold. Keep the puppy hot 'til you're done with the mold, either at session's end or at a changeover point to another mold.

Keep us posted,
-BE

[rsrocket1]

My lighter weight Lee bullet molds need a lot of heat to get them started. When I started casting with the TL452-230-TC, I would start getting good bullets after just a couple of casts. I later got the 356-120-TC mold and it took about 10-15 casts before the bullets started to come out unwrinkled. Now I make sure the mold it hot hot hot and that the lead is up around 725. Then I pour a big sprue puddle to ensure the sprue plate gets nice and hot. Bullets come out nicely filled and no wrinkles.

If they are too frosted, I back off on the pot temp and let the mold cool a bit, but frosted and filled beats shiny and wrinkled any day.

[Handloader109]

Thanks again for the help guys. I'll give it a try in next day or two. I did dip a bit to heat it up, but really no change.

[zuke]

I like to boil my new one's in water for 15 min then clean with acetone.
Weather it's soluable oil or plain oil, that usually clean's'em up.

[dkf]

Boiling for 15minutes sounds like a good idea. Or clean it up and run it through a few heat cool cycles on the hot plate. I cleaned mine several times with brake cleaner and alcohol and it still took a few heat cycles, boolits got better the more it was used.

[willvabch]

My 2¢, brake cleaner, toothpaste and toothbrush scrub, dish soap and toothbrush scrub, rinse with hot hot water, paper towels, dry with heat gun, sandpaper the spruce plate, lube the pins, spruce plate hinge bolt, and yes I do smoke the mold with a bic lighter. I preheat my having the mold rest on top of the pot too.

[MtGun44]

Nothing in the mold cavity, including soot. Scrub with a toothbrush and Comet.
Understand that you are adding "chunks of heat" equivalent to the wt of the boolits
cast. Huge boolits, lots of heat added every cast, smaller boolits, less heat per
cast. So - cast very fast and do not inspect boolits or do anything until you have
cast at least 25 fills, done at max speed - fill, cut, dump, fill, cut, dump - adding heat.

Mold is either too cold or too dirty, the standard answer for new casters. Frosty is
not bad.

Bill

[rintinglen]

One other thing I've found that helps with this mold is to pour a large sprue. The more lead, the more heat, and those Lee aluminum molds lose heat fast, so you need all you can get. Those pretty little buttons that you see in the magazines don't cut the mustard. You want an ounce and a half of lead slathered on top of the sprue plate.

As has been mentioned, You have to cast fast, as fast as you can, to keep the mold temperature up where it needs to be. At the risk of heat stroke, I prefer to cast with those in the summer months on a hot day. I get more good boolits that way.

[Quiettime]

Read this thread. Some good help in there

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?236488-Something-I-learned-last-weekend-about-temp

[burrkiss]

Preheat it on the top of the pot, then when you cast, dump the first 3 batches (gets the heat into the mold), then get you casting. Check after about 6-10 casts for quality and adjust what is needed. DONT take too long checking with the lee aluminum molds, they lose heat quickly. Its a pattern once you get it right, you wont forget.

[Old School Big Bore]

Your grocery store should have an el cheapo hot plate circa ten bucks. The medium setting on mine gets the molds just about hot enough; your mileage may vary. Don't neglect the sprue plate when you're preheating (I flip mine like burgers), and try to learn the art of piling up a good sprue atop the plate. With some molds you may have to run the pot as high as 850 to wake 'em up. If you're using WW with or without added pure, you may want to score a little tin - solder - pewter to aid fillout. Good luck.
Ed

[Handloader109]

Not going to add a hotplate to the mix, not enough room and not needed. 95 grain boollitt is small enough that full pot of lead will take me a while to use up. I did cast a few hundred the other day. Cleaned again then Dipped in pot, left for a minute or two and after a couple casts the bollits dropped filled out and frosty. As you guys have said, frosty is OK.

[tazman]

Not going to add a hotplate to the mix, not enough room and not needed. 95 grain boollitt is small enough that full pot of lead will take me a while to use up. I did cast a few hundred the other day. Cleaned again then Dipped in pot, left for a minute or two and after a couple casts the bollits dropped filled out and frosty. As you guys have said, frosty is OK.

That works.

[zuke]

For year's I cast my boolit's on the frosty side, I had complete fill out and the 6 cavity mold's? the boolit's fell like rain from them.

[Tonto]

My ritual with a new Lee mould involves a spraying with a degreaser carb spray then a slow boil in a pot of water and Dawn dish soap. A good rinse in clean, hot water then a pre-heat and cast session right away usually leads to good bullets once the mold is up to temp. Always lube the mold too, Bullplate or it's equivalent for the sprue and pins. Do that when the mold warms up. From there you can see what further treatment is required for burrs, etc. of dozens of Lee molds over the years, only one went back due to an undersized gc shank. They gladly replaced it.

[randy_68]

I just got in the Lee 356-120tc mold and cleaned it good in soap and water with a toothbrush. Tried to cast and could not get a good boolit, looked like yours. So I cleaned it again with brake cleaner, blew it off and preheated it on a hot plate. Started getting great boolits on the third cast. Not sure what the mold temp was but it liked the lead at 725 + then I never had a bad boolit after that.

[tazman]

Glad to see it is working for you.

[woodsxdragon]

Did you have any problems with one cavity filling and the other not? I got a Lee mold for my 45lc and the front cavity is dropping fine but the back (towards the handle) just will not get a good fill. I guess I can try recleaning it buy is this common to have a half and half?
Not trying to hijack your thread just thought maybe it would be a similar fix.

[tazman]

Did you have any problems with one cavity filling and the other not? I got a Lee mold for my 45lc and the front cavity is dropping fine but the back (towards the handle) just will not get a good fill. I guess I can try recleaning it buy is this common to have a half and half?
Not trying to hijack your thread just thought maybe it would be a similar fix.

You might check the fit of the sprue plate on that cavity. In my experience, Lee molds sometimes suffer from a too tight fit and the boolit in that cavity will not fill out correctly. May be poor venting causes this.
I just loosen the plate slightly and the problem goes away.

[woodsxdragon]

I'll have to look at it this weekend and see if one side is more rubbed or not under the sprue plate.

[Smoke4320]

I have had the same issues as well .. Now I take a fine Arkanas stone and make a VERY fine v in the block top halves end to end .. Now almost never get a bad base

[Handloader109]

One or the other didn't want to fill depending on the temperature of the mold. If I have mold hot and lead at about 700 according to my pid, I have been successful.

[woodsxdragon]

Update on my end btw... loosed the plate just ever so slightly and got the mold hot to the point where they were frosting...perfect fillout with both cavities. thanks guys.

[tazman]

Update on my end btw... loosed the plate just ever so slightly and got the mold hot to the point where they were frosting...perfect fillout with both cavities. thanks guys.

Always good to hear success stories. Enjoy!