Lee new style mold problems

[Dom]

I've been using Lee bullet molds since the early 1980's & they still work fine. Not long ago I bought a new Lee mold & it has two steel cross pins for alignment of the two half's. After heating up the mold & casting about 10 bullets I noticed the two alignment pins had become finger loose & had been pushed back into the left mold side. Also read where another caster was having the same problem. Lee sent me a replacement mold which I have not used since. Anyone aware of this problem? Has Lee come up with a fix or is this still a problem?

[Ben]

Anyone aware of this problem?


Look what happens when you do a search :

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/google.php?cx=partner-pub-6216953551359885%3A1942134700&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Alignment+pins+New+Lee+Molds&sa.x=0&sa.y=0&siteurl=castboolits.gunloads.com%2F&ref=&ss=7984j2752014j32

[Moonie]

I always heat cycle my new molds and I've read this helps with this specific issue as well. I used my new 501 440gr mold this week and I heat cycled it several times, I had no issues with it.

[Pee Wee]

I have the same problem with the 312-155 mold, when I called lee to let them know that they had a problem with the pins, he told me that I must be banging on it to hard and that they have not had any reports of this problem. I now have wings on the points of the mold and sent in photos of it they told me that I am using the mold wrong and that I must close it all the way.
I will never buy another lee product, I have never had a problem with them replacing defective products before. Now they are telling me I dont know what Im doing.

[Dom]

Basic engineering tells you a steel pin & an aluminum body expand & contract at a considerable different rate. I would have thought this would have been considered before this new style alignment was put into production. All Lee needs to do is peen or press in a shoulder behind the back of the alignment pin. From what I have read from various sources this problem is very wide spread. It appears there is an ego problem with Lee that prevents them from making a fix. To bad sense I believe they make a good mold otherwise. I have "Lyman" & "Ideal" iron molds with steel alignment from back in the early 1960's that work as good as ever after having produced tens of thousands of bullets. I also have many Lee molds from the early 1980's that still work perfectly. I do hope Lee reconsiders a fix to an otherwise good mold.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I love lot's of Lee's products.
I love the prices they are able to sell them at.
I am happy to deal with any short coming's that some of their products have.
I have never had any problems with their customer service and have heard many many others say the same thing, but I've heard a few that have had problems...it just means some one is having a bad day...I believe it's all in the day of the life of a Company that is run by the Third Generation.

[gwpercle]

With the "new style" Lee 2 cavity moulds , I find that bringing them slowly up to temperature, warming on top of the filled pot , then dipping a corner for 45 seconds or so , without casting any boolits , then letting the mould slowly cool by sitting them on top of the pot filled with melted alloy and turning the pot off to cool overnight .... doing this at least twice (I like to do it three times) seasons the mold and sets the pins.
I've done this with 4 new moulds and none have had pin loosening issues. I truly believe this heat cycling with out casting and slow cooling does the trick on the pins.

Gary

[melloairman]

I have at least 10 of the new molds . I never use a hot plate and only had a pin problem on one mold . Taped it back into place and staked it with a punch . Has not moved since . I have heard that some that use the hot plate just stake the pins before they use the mold .Marvin

[dikman]

I bought a Lee mold with this type of alignment system pretty soon after it came out. After some use one of the pins came loose, so I contacted Lee, their answer was to stake the pins! (They obviously expected this to happen and didn't believe they had a manufacturing/design problem).

Personally I prefer the older system, much better design imo.

[Walter Laich]

my new one is doing fine but I'll have to watch it.

poor customer service is a great way to lose business.

[kmrra]

Another useful tip I learned today , Thanks guys , this is the best forum on the net

[MT Chambers]

Let mold cool down some.
Insert mold into round container at end of bench.
Get on computer and order a proper mold from NOE, Accurate, RCBS, Lyman, Saeco, LBT, etc.

[country gent]

Loose pins can be fixed with little work, but shouldn't happen to begin with. Several ways to fix then are as stated stake them in tighter. This can be done buy lightly peening the aluminum blocks a little at 3-4 places around the hole and or inside the hole. A hole punch of the right dia may be able to set around the pin and lightly peen a compressed ring around the pin. The shank of the pin can be lightly peened and or dinged with a prick punch in several places around the shank. A high temp thread locker can also be used. You want one that's good to 600* or more.

[54bore]

Let mold cool down some.
Insert mold into round container at end of bench.
Get on computer and order a proper mold from NOE, Accurate, RCBS, Lyman, Saeco, LBT, etc.

LOL! Best advise ive seen!

[Boolit_Head]

I found this over at Lee, seems they think it is due to overheating and annealing the aluminum blocks.

http://leeprecision.net/support/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/719/0/alignment-pins-fall-out--overheating-double-cavity-mold

[Pee Wee]

LOL! Best advise ive seen!
^^^^^what he said, there new moods are junk^^^^^

[Tackleberry41]

I had this happen recently with a .452 300gr mold. It started casting screwy, the alignment pins were loose. Problem is the way they did it, theres a sleeve, then the pin inside it. Its not the sleeve thats loose where it can be staked, but the pin inside. I got it set where it needs to be, and dribbled some lead in there and its staying put...for now. But Im searching for a non lee replacement mold.

Lee does not really seem to put much thought into 'improvements'. The sprue plate screw was coming loose on opening, so a left hand thread...makes it come loose closing. Not sure the improvement. They really dont want to drill and tap for a set screw. Im going to say the newer alignment pins are easier to manufacture than the old style, not because its better. And Lee seems to be the only one having issues with aluminum annealing during use. Maybe if they used a decent grade of metal? Or face the fact, they need to stop cutting corners and raise the price of molds.

[clum553946]

I agree! When you look at them compared to a Noe or Accurate, they look puny! I've never had any good results with any of them!


Let mold cool down some.
Insert mold into round container at end of bench.
Get on computer and order a proper mold from NOE, Accurate, RCBS, Lyman, Saeco, LBT, etc.

[gundownunder]

I've got to agree with MT Chambers. I've bought two Lee molds in ten years and they both landed in the scrap metal bin real quick. These days the only molds I'm using are aluminium molds from Accurate.

[adam_mac84]

Great advise here for someone looking at .a first time lee mold purchase

[LuckyDog]

As soon as I saw the post that it is now run by the "third" generation, that was all I needed to know.

I really expect them to tank now. Unfortunate.

Second gen watched father struggle and work. They have an appreciation for the gift.

Third generation grew up always having money. It was always there, and they think they are smart enough to wring even more out of it.



Sent from my VS876 using Tapatalk

[Edward]

Guess I must be the exception as most of my Lees (17 at present ) sometimes need a little help , but get the job done at a reasonable cost and have created heaps of accurate boolits ! I do own some accurate moulds ,more Noe but without Lee molds my casting would be limited/boring and no way varied ! There service might suck but if I cant fix it I can toss it and replace it at their price point without crying about it . For somebody starting out its the only way to learn casting and dealing with fixing the little things without breaking the bank !!!!

[racepres]

You cats throwing them away....Just send 'em to me...I'll pay shipping!!!

[No Blue]

This is a problem that goes back at least 80 years. It was airplane engines, made of aluminum for light weight, that had valve seats installed in the aluminum head.

The aluminum will expand 3 times what steel will at the same temperature. To deal with this, they machined a bore in the head that was .006" smaller than the OD of the seat. Then they had a .006" crush on the insert. That would make it stay in the head.


So the fix was to freeze the seat in liquid nitrogen at 320 degrees below zero, heat the head up to 250 and drop the seat into the head. When everything got back to room temperature, the seat was 'probably' there to stay.

Unless the engine got really hot; then the seat would expand, crush the aluminum, and the seat would fall out. B-29 engines were infamous for this; seat would drop out, that cylinder would start munching parts, break up, catch fire, set the wing on fire and crash in the ocean.

If you were into air cooled Vw's or Porsches, they had the same problem with dropped valve seats. Aluminum engines like aircraft.

But even water cooled engines had it. First job out of tech school was at the Ferrari dealer in Dearborn. First job was pulling the heads off a V-12 Jag that they suspected had dropped a seat. That's what it was. Out to the machine shop, came back with all the seats 'peened' into place. They had used a pointed tool to upset the metal around the seat to trap it in place. Since then they also use a Loctite glue to keep the seat in place; on top of the press fit and peening. This can kill a $20,000 engine in a few seconds, so they do everything they can to stop it.

Lee is advising to not run the mould over 450 degrees. They're aware of what happens to aluminum and steel inserts. Probably good idea to get an IR thermometer with a laser and monitor the mold temp. My guess is they start a peening operation to keep the steel insert in place.

[Echo]

Re valve seats on Al heads - I drove Corvairs many years, and always had the valve seats peened. A chum who worked on them saw a fellow that had an old diesel valve the right size trimmed and undercut so he could set it down, stem in the hole, and give it a whack, and upset the material around the seat to hold it in.
I will check my Lee's- I have several, and will do some preventive maintenance...