Lee .600 round ball mold elongated sprue hole.

[corbinace]

So, I just purchased a Lee two cavity .600 round ball mold. I have cast maybe 75 casts with it and the sprue hole in the aluminum mold is getting deformed/elongated. I would estimate that the hole is now 1.5 times its original size, but only on the one side that the sprue would push on for cutting. It is pretty big and ugly.

Did I damage it with incorrect technique or is it just a compromised design due to the size of the ball?

The ball being so large makes the aluminum very thin near the sprue hole.

I cut the sprues when the lead was just barely past the liquid state, as witnessed by the fact that some of the balls were still too soft when dropped and deformed. It takes a bit longer for that large mass to get cool enough to drop.

The sprues still cut off plenty easy, it is just that the sprue mark on the ball is a bit unsightly and larger, now that it is not a nice round bump.

Should I just consider this a $20 experiment that did not pan out or should I get another mold and treat it differently?

[big bore 99]

I have a couple larger Lee round ball molds. It seems they are all close to the top sprue cutter. Can you cut the sprue off after dropping them from the mold?

[melloairman]

I have a .452 that has done the same thing . Now the edges will not allow the balls to drop . Never had this problem with the old style .454 and .457 RB molds as well as my .360 . Marvin

[swamp]

I would call Lee and talk with one of the techs. Chances are good that they will replace it. I have had good experiences when dealing with customer service.
swamp

[corbinace]

The problem with sending it back for a replacement is that the shipping would be a quarter the value of the mold and the next one would likely be the same. This is on a mold that was in my house for less than three hours.

I thought that maybe someone would say that I was doing something wrong and damaged it, as I have never used one like this before. I did not want to think they would sell something that would not hold up.

I counted 68 balls saved out of a double cavity mold plus probably 10-20 that I threw back. That is not much work from my new tool.

I will call them though, and see if I was mis-using the tool in some way to cause its demise.

Thanks for the information gentlemen.