Lee 6 cavity mould troubles

[no34570]

Hi fellas
I have a few GB moulds form this Cast Boolit forum and I'm having trouble with two of the moulds not releasing the boolits.
They are the .460 Collar Button bullet & the Boomer Mikeys 434-330 Gc,they won't release the boolit with out hitting the mould bolt like an animal[smilie=1:

I've cleaned them and I've checked them for burrs,but cannot see any,well I don't think there is.

Is there a simple fix for this?????????:roll:Help!



Cheers
Dale
no34570
:castmine: when I can get it to work for me:-D

[IcerUSA]

Have you read the sticky on Leementing ? Not hard to do . Sometimes they just need a little help to get them to drop . Polishing the cavities has helped on most of my moulds which include Lyman's, RCBS's , Lee's , and one Ohaus to date with the Lee's usually needing a little more luv(&^#$%$^&^#%%#) than the others .

Keith

[no34570]

Have you read the sticky on Leementing ? Not hard to do . Sometimes they just need a little help to get them to drop . Polishing the cavities has helped on most of my moulds which include Lyman's, RCBS's , Lee's , and one Ohaus to date with the Lee's usually needing a little more luv(&^#$%$^&^#%%#) than the others .

Keith

Keith
I thought that was for only the single and two cavity moulds[smilie=1:?
So if I tried that with the 6 shot Lee it might work you reckon mate?

Thanks for your help and reply
Dale
no34570
:drinks:

[Buckshot]

...............Cast 6 good slugs and cut the sprue but leave them in the cavity till cool. You'll need to sacrifice an allen wrench to the mould gods, but it will be worthwhile :-). Pick out a suitably sized one and measure across the flats. Use a drill bit as close to that size as possible and drill a hole into the base of each slug. Now mark each on the base so you get them back into the right hole when it's their turn.

Cut the short leg off the allen wrench and drive it into the base of the 1st slug as straight as possible. Chuck them into a drill motor. BTW, we don't WANT or need speed so a cheap=o cordless is duckie. Put either toothpaste or car paint buffing paste into the cavity, insert the slug, close the blocks loosely and spin the boolit. While dowing so apply steadily increasing pressure on the handles to close the blocks completely.

When you see the paste turning gray, you're seeing microscopic aluminum and it's about time to quit. Treat yourself to a beer after the completion of each hole. Shortly you'll wonder why they don't make 24 holers :-).

Besides pigs ears at the parting line or around the cavity opening which are easy to see, there are other areas not so easily seen and suspected, but they can still hang onto the slug. Any sharp corners created by the tool cuttting into the aluminum can have a ridge of tiny sharp raised metal.

It happens due to the way the tool cuts, or doesn't cut if it isn't truly sharp. The tool actually plows through the metal compressing it slightly, until it fractures away from the parent piece. Think of it like how the bow of a ship causes the water to hump up in front as it moves along. This fracturing of the metal is microscopic (usually) so it still appears smooth. However, at outside corners like the bottom corners of lube grooves inside the cavity, where the bottom and sides of the LG's meet you can have this fin of raised and usually raggedy metal. If you have a magnifying glass and a bright light you'll see it.

Spinning the boolit in the cavity with the mildly abrasive paste will remove the metal that is proud of it's surroundings. We're not looking to enlarge the cavity just to gently smooth it and remove any offending out of place metal.

The only other way cavities can really hold a slug in place is if the cavity is bored off center. If this is the case you'd be able to tell by looking closely at the marks left at the parting line on the boolit where the slug had to squeeze past. And all the difficulty would be in one block.

.................Buckshot

[no34570]

Wow,thanks for that Buckshot
Very informative & I'll try it have plenty of allen keys/wrenches.
I forgot too say that some of the boolits don't look like they have filled out properly,for they have a few wrinkles in them.
But the last 20 I made look pretty good?????
Cheers
Dale
no34570

[Lloyd Smale]

one thing to keep in mind is the lee molds like to be casted very hot and will drop better that way too. In a steal mold i dont like to cast frosted bullets but in the lees its about manditory.

[no34570]

one thing to keep in mind is the lee molds like to be casted very hot and will drop better that way too. In a steal mold i dont like to cast frosted bullets but in the lees its about manditory.

Lloyd
I'll try again before I do any mods to the mould and get it hot enough to frost the bullets,see how it goes,thanks for that
Dale
no34570
:drinks: