can you see daylight through your 6-cavity mold ?

[LAKEMASTER]

so im moving and today i was securing my mold/pot and i noticed i can see light through my lee 6 cavity mold.

i only have 17lbs of lead through it... is this normal ? im going to see if 300/400 degrees makes the gap go away =(

to clarify, i see a gap of light between the section of cavities. the 2 solid ends are making contact,the center isnt. i know aluminum will grow so maybe im pulling a nube moment =)

[Butchman205]

If it grows "the right direction" you're good. If not, def going to have some mould fins on the boolits.

[bangerjim]

huh.......no.

Check for specs of lead or burrs on your mold faces. All my many molds are light-tight. Front to back. I check them every time I start casting and periodically during casting. If not, you can start to get serious finning that will result in 100% rejects.

bangerjim

[MT Chambers]

Lee does this on purpose for better venting.

[LAKEMASTER]

Lee does this on purpose for better venting.

interesting

[Bzcraig]

None of my Lee molds have light passing through them. Check your alignment pins, one may have moved causing this.

[bangerjim]

Lee does this on purpose for better venting.


All of my 26+ Lee's both 2 and 6 bangers do NOT have any light showing between the halves. Only when a bit of lead gets in there does the gap show......and horrible finning occurs. A simple clean with a wooden stick solves the problem and all the light goes away.

Same with my ferrous and brass molds. No light.

If there is light, you probably have a warped mold.

banger

[Springfield]

Some of them have a tiny bit of light, mostly the older moulds. As long as I use some Bullplate lube on the mould tops it doesn't cause a problem. I do have 10,000 to 400,00 bullets through some of these moulds.

[35 shooter]

Lol, don't bother sending it back to Lee....evidently they can't see tell if there's light coming through or not!!
I recently bought a 2 cavity lee minie ball mold and could see daylight through it. Couldn't get it out myself, so i sent it back to them.
Got a call a few days later and they couldn't see the light. I explained exactly where to look and about a week later they sent my mold back.

The note in the box explained what they did to it (exchanged a new part on the hollowbase set-up),but i could see no evidence of anything new on it as i had already cast with it prior to sending it in.
Anyway, held it up to the light and sure enough, i could see through it in the same place as before.
If i squeeze the handles tightly while casting it i can get a decent boolit out of it.
Strangely i get no venting though.

[LAKEMASTER]

ill have to look up alignment pin adjustment, but there both pins are,theres no light at all. so i doubt its help.

[rsrocket1]

The important thing is, what are the measurements of the bullets you drop out of that mold?
Measure along the seam and across the seam.

You can get lead splashes on the very first cast if you aren't careful so age has nothing to do with it.
Also check with a magnifier to make sure there are no machine burrs where the tooling cuts out the cavity. I had one mold with lots of flashing but caught it while doing the initial cleaning.
141291

[LAKEMASTER]

I super cleaned my mold last night and removed anything between the surfaces of the mold. There's now a super faint bit of light all the way from the end of the mold to the other. Almost like the pins are out a touch to much. ( as someone mentioned before).