Lee 6 Bangers....Singles or all six at once

[kfin]

For those of you who use the Lee 6 cavity molds, do you fill the molds 1 hole at a time or run all six of them continuously? And why? Just curious. I have been pouring mine, from a bottom pour pot, one at a time and was thinking of doing some tomorrow all at once. Wondering if there would be a reason to do one or the other.
Thanks for explaining your method.

[rsrocket1]

From my very first session with the Lee TL452-230-TC, it was all six through the 4-20 bottom pour pot. I fill all six cavities because I want that mold as hot as practically possible. With 230g bullets, it's not hard and I actually regulate the temperature with a sponge sitting in a plate with water in it. With my 356-120-TC, it cools down much faster and the lead does not add as much heat so I don't have to cool it, I need to keep the pace up to prevent it from cooling down.

You want to keep the temperature of the mold in a zone where it does not produce wrinkled bullets but cools quickly enough so you have to wait forever for the sprue plate to freeze over or cause smearing of lead between the mold and sprue plate. For me it's about 3 seconds from the last cavity to complete freeze, wait another 3 seconds, then cut the sprue, open the mold and dump the bullets. At the right pace, the bullets fall out like rain. Too hot and the bullets stick to the mold. Wait too long and the sprue is difficult to cut, the mold is difficult to open and you may get wrinkled bullets on your next pour.

[Echo]

I set my molds on the furnace to warm as the alloy melts, then pour all 2/4/6/10 at the same time, to address the problem of equal warming. No problems...

[Walter Laich]

all six at once plus the sprue is one bit piece and easier to load back in the pot.

When I first start I'll do one, then two, etc so the mold comes up to temp and I don't break off the handle (Lee molds)

[Dusty Bannister]

I do one at a time beginning from the farthest hole. I also connect the sprue puddle so it forms one long sprue, sort of like a welding bead. I find I get a more uniform fill. If I use a running flow, I seem to have rounded bases and some weight variation. Maybe it is just me.

[bangerjim]

I use a Lee 4-20 bottom pour and start at the far end and fill all six cavities in one smooth movement.

Preheat your mold to FULL casting temp (not just warm!!!) on a hotplate B4 ever starting. I get perfect drops from all 6 cavities from the 1st pour every single time.

Doing it my way, you can cast a ton of boolits in a VERY short time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't waste time using the antique method of sitting the mold on the edge of the casting pot. Buy an electric hotplate and move into the 21st century. You will NOT look back.

banger

[DerekP Houston]

all 6 all the time, I bought them for fast plinking ammo after all.

[GhostHawk]

I tried all at once but unless the melt and the mold is really hot I'd have to reject 2-5 boolits per fill.

Hitting each hole with a ladle pressure casting I get 6 out of 6 almost always. Once in a while I will get a gap at the base, but seldom.

Suckers still rain boolits compared to a 2 cavity.

[toallmy]

I put off using a hot plate , just because I'm hard headed , until I had about given up on 5-6 cavity aluminum , but as soon as I set a saw blade on the electric burner to preheat the mold it's been raining bullets . I fill all cavity in a continuous pore . I throw the first 2-3 drops of 6 in a separate pan to view but when no wrinkles the pot will be empty in short order.

[kfin]

Good stuff to know. I am just starting off and heading down to cast for a couple of hours this morning. I have 3 molds and have used them all once so far but only did about 100 each time. I read several times that the Lee's do better after being heat cycled 3 times or so. I will probably make a couple of hundred of each today and check them out tonight. Have been doing them 1 cavity at a time but will work on the 1 continuous pour today and see how it goes.

I have a solid surface hot plate that I preheat my molds on. Nothing in the directions at all on temperature for it. It is a 900 watt new one. So I'm still trying to figure out a way to check the temperature. I had it on Medium last time. It took the pot about 20 minutes to heat up and I had the mold on the hot plate that entire time. First boolits were really shiny. In fact all boolits were really shiny, have seen nothing frosty yet at all. Almost 90% of the boolits were right at mold size. I was hoping they would be a tad bigger. My lead temp got totally out of control according to my Lyman thermometer so I think this played a part in that. Today I have my PID finally finished and will use it for controlling the lead temp. It was swinging from almost 900 and would then go to 650 if I turned it down...back and forth. No consistency so I built the PID to take that out of the equation.

Let you know how it goes, thanks for the tips.

[Shiloh]

All at once.
I bought the six cavities to make a mountain of boolits.

Shiloh

[C. Latch]

I don't have a hot plate to heat molds with, but what I do, when I'm ready to start with a new mold, I walk 20 feet into the kitchen and turn on a stove eye then put aluminum foil on it (so I don't get lead on the stove) and rest the next mold on the foil. When the mold is hot enough, I go pick it up, turn off the stove eye, walk outside and start casting.

I did this last weekend with a new 6-cavity Lee and the first pour made usable (not perfect) bullets.

[Wayne Smith]

Actually it varies according to the size of the boolit. I have a number of them, from .32 to 45-70, and the larger they are the more you need to attend to specifically filling each cavity. I ladel pour everything and the large boolits need pressure pouring each cavity to get guaranteed fill each time.

[TXGunNut]

Not sure what the OP is asking but will address both possibilities as I see them. When I pour six (or five or four...) cavity moulds I stop the pour between cavities. When using a muti-cavity I pour all cavities on every pour except for possibly the first few with small cavity six-bangers.
In the first situation it's because that's the way I shoot falling plates, I concentrate on one at a time. May be slower but I'm happier with the results. In the second I do it that way because I paid for six holes so I want to have six shiny boolits drop out every time, lol. Actually it's because most of my six-bangers like to run pretty hot and the best way to keep them hot is to fill every hole.

[dondiego]

Not sure why you would pay extra for multiple cavities and only use one??????

[high standard 40]

To answer the OP, I always fill each cavity in multi cavity molds before I cut the sprue and empty the mold. I fill each cavity as if it were a single cavity mold as opposed to holding a continuous stream and filling all the cavities before stopping the stream. I have found that I get much more consistency from bullet to bullet when I fill each cavity one at a time.

[kfin]

Okay, I'll post some pics later tonight. I cast about 250 of each bullet. Did some 356 125 RN for my 9mm and some 200 SWC for my 45. The bases filled out great, most of them have slight wrinkling. I used the hot plate on M, going to try H tomorrow. Casting temp was great at 700 with the PID. These are new molds and have been cleaned fairly well, I'll clean them again and also get the mold hotter to try and get rid of my wrinkles. I would load about 90% of them as they are, but I'll dump 'em back in the pot and go again.....sure does not take long to get a pile of bullets with those 6 bangers!

[blikseme300]

It's a pity that Lee did not machine a trough in the sprue plate such as those done by H&G and a few other gang mold makers. This makes it so much easier to cast all cavities with a continuous stream and get good fill-out. I have modified all of my Lee 6-banger mold sprue plates by running a 3/8" ball end mill to create a trough. This really helps especially with skinny rifle cavities as good fill-out is hit and miss when pouring a stream with unmodified plates.

[toallmy]

My hot plate is the electric stove in the kitchen with a round saw blade on the burner 10 minutes on medium and on my way to the basement , I tell the little darling not to touch it its hot .

[Seeker]

all six at once plus the sprue is one bit piece and easier to load back in the pot.

When I first start I'll do one, then two, etc so the mold comes up to temp and I don't break off the handle (Lee molds)
This method works for me also.