Lee mirco band bullets molds

[AZPaul]

I have a few quesions about these molds. How good are they?
Do you realy not need to use a resizer for these and can you use a moly lube as a lube on them in stead of the sticky waxy one recamended?
Thx Guys

[Yance]

Welcome Paul; (a little late)

Looks like you've been readin' here for a couple of months.

You'll get differing opinions on how "good" Lee moulds are. Personally I'd rate them "pretty good", but then what would you expect from a $28.00 mould?

Commercial market "standard" moulds from Lee tend to cast "to" or slightly under stated diameter. For tight throats and barrel groove diameters that's OK. Diameter can be varied SLIGHTLY by modifying your alloy. More lead=smaller diameter, more lino=larger diameter...to a point.

You'll notice that most, if not all the group buy moulds run .002"-.005" OVER "nominal" diameters. That way we can fit slightly oversize throats for best accuracy and reduced or eliminated leading.

Back to the size question. Since Lee's Tumble Lube designs are so close to "nominal" diameter, yes, they can be, and were intended to be used "as cast" and lubed with Lee's Liquid Alox.

The only TL design I shoot is their 230 gr TC .45 ACP bullet. Liquid Alox thinned about 50% with mineral spirits (charcoal lighter fluid) does a fine job for me with that particular bullet.

Don't know about trying to moly coat the TL designs. You could try it and post your findings here.

One thing about Lee's moulds. Since they're made of a soft aluminum alloy they won't take a lot of abuse.

Read and follow the directions that come with the mould, especially about lightly smoking the cavities before trying to cast the first boolit.

Good luck, and have FUN!

[HeavyMetal]

I'll second Yance's opinion. For the dollar spent you can't ask for the Lee molds to do any more than they do. No if the boolits load and Chamber in the gun you've got you do not have to size them at all and your good to go!

Now for my opinion: the tumble lube molds were designed with two purposes in mind, first to get an entry level mold into the hands of "Newbie's" so they could get into casting without breaking the bank. The second was to have a market "Niche" no one else had!

$28.00 for a mold, $4.95 for a ladle, (it sucks don't buy it) a bottle of Lee liquid alox at $ 4.98 and a cast iron 1 or 2 qt "pot" from any "thrift Store" and your casting on the kitchen stove!

Total cash outlay ( not including flowers so the little women knows your sorry for using "her" stove) $50.00!

The Tumble lube concept has brought a lot of shooters into the casting realm, and many went on to bigger and better "toys" as they got "into" the hobby.

As an "old school" caster the tumble lube stuff isn't my cup of tea but anything thats helps the industry grow is a good thing!

Good luck with the Lee mold and keep us posted as to your sucess.

[dromia]

Hi Paul and a big welcome to these forums. :drinks:

You've already had good advice, to add my tuppence worth I think the Micro groove boolits are good I used one exclusively in my Enfield .38" S&W before the pistol ban here, got me the odd gong at Bisley.

I now use liquid Alox in low velocity rifle rounds like the 310 Cadet or reduced rifle loads for indoor ranges and it works well up to around 1400 fps in my experience.

As you'll gather from this site the secret to cast boolit shooting is good bullet fit. Get that right and you'll get the most from your lube.

If you are getting some liquid Alox then try White Label lubes at the bottom of this page, Lars is one of us and sells liquid alox at a price that puts Lee to shame.

Link Here:

http://www.lsstuff.com/index.html

[Ranch Dog]

The Micro-Bands and tumble lubing with alox works well for me. I actually dip rather than tumble on most of my bullets. I do shoot the Lee TL452-230-RF with my Colt 1991 and it shoots very, very well.

I have customers lubing my bullet designs with just about everything out there. I prefer Alox and shooting it up to 2400 FPS and beyond.

[Sig shooter]

Lee micro ban molds

+ cheap - tumble lube is quick - best bang for the buck for starting casting. They shine in all low pressure rounds - no sizing generally.
in .45 auto everyone seems to have good luck.

- the lube can be annoying to handle - lube stinks - clogs up the seating die .

[jonk]

I've not seen any difference in my uses either with microband or regular groove molds. They work pretty well for me.

[Boerrancher]

I Tumble lube everything micro band or not. The only cast boolit I resize is my 30 cal to .309 to seat the gas check. If I don't shoot a gas check on it I don't resize it, I then use a card wad on the base of the boolit and fill the case with toilet paper between the powder and the card wad.
I use JPW as a lube, coating my low velocity pistol boolits only once and not shooting over 1000 fps. On my higher Velocity rounds, I give them 3 coats letting each of them dry a full 24 hours to a hard coat before applying the next, doing this and keeping my boolits a few thousandths over size virtually eliminates all my leading problems. I have pretty much repeated what has already been said, please feel free to ask as many questions as you wish, because I still learn something new every day from the questions ask on this sight.


Best wishes from the Boer Ranch

[James C. Snodgrass]

:castmine:I use moly, I have put it on in the tumbler with powdered stuff from midway. I also added it to Felix lube, I mostly put it in the lube to mess with a few guys that said it wouldn't work. In my experience it does work, But it fouls some I get it out with Ed's Red. As far as talking to some folks at Sierra the say it is as much con as it is pro, But I do know that David Tubb does their moly coating. So your guess is as good as mine as to how good it is, But I'm still going to continue to use it. James

[AZPaul]

:castmine:I use moly, I have put it on in the tumbler with powdered stuff from midway. I also added it to Felix lube, I mostly put it in the lube to mess with a few guys that said it wouldn't work. In my experience it does work, But it fouls some I get it out with Ed's Red. As far as talking to some folks at Sierra the say it is as much con as it is pro, But I do know that David Tubb does their moly coating. So your guess is as good as mine as to how good it is, But I'm still going to continue to use it. James

Just a few more questions, for now anyway.
James are you useing the Lee Miro molds and what is smoking your mold? This is legal right? :bigsmyl2:
I'm trying to stay away from the gooey lube and use dry moly lube.
I've been using moly coated lead bullets in my stock Glock barrel and it seems to do okay.

[Yance]

Just a few more questions, for now anyway.
James are you useing the Lee Miro molds and what is smoking your mold? This is legal right? :bigsmyl2:
I'm trying to stay away from the gooey lube and use dry moly lube.
I've been using moly coated lead bullets in my stock Glock barrel and it seems to do okay.

Smoking the mould is using a wooden kitchen match or butane lighter to leave a thin, even layer of soot in the thoroughly cleaned and degreased cavities.

The "smoke" has nothing to do with the bullets releasing, but acts as an insulator so the alloy doesn't "freeze" immediately on contact with the walls of the cavities causing wrinkles.

On my first Lee mould I didn't bother to read their instructions. The machining oils left in the cavities makes a nasty mess rather than burning off. Scrubbing with dishwashing detergent and HOT water, then degreasing with brake parts cleaner and lightly smoking the cavities will have you making nicely filled out boolits.

[supervirgil]

I am new to this site, and am a rookie caster. i am using the tumble lube molds for 9mm and 45 acp. How do these bullets do with pan lubing, or should i just stick to alox???

[Yance]

I am new to this site, and am a rookie caster. i am using the tumble lube molds for 9mm and 45 acp. How do these bullets do with pan lubing, or should i just stick to alox???

supervirgil;

Welcome to the forum and the wonderful world of Cast Boolits.

For now I'd stick with Lee's Liquid Alox, or Lar45's Xlox

http://www.lsstuff.com/index.html for a substantial savings over the Lee stuff.

Thinned with up to half mineral spirits makes for a faster drying, thinner finish. With these products, "Less is more". All a heavy coat of LLA does is quickly foul your seater die and chamber throats.

[Sprue]

I have a few quesions about these molds. How good are they?
Do you realy not need to use a resizer for these and can you use a moly lube as a lube on them in stead of the sticky waxy one recamended?
Thx Guys

Hi Paul and Welcome!

I'll go against the grain here, everyone has their own methodology for the most part. What works for some doesn't for others. That said, here are my thoughts.

Firstly for the most part, I'm weaning myself to other lubes and sizers now, but I did solely use LLA (Lee Liquid Alox). I like to tinker!

About the TL bullets, I will always run em through a sizer. You'll be surprised by the number of loose & tight bullets when you run 4-500 through a sizer. I'll cull the very loose ones.

Sometimes it takes a good bit of force to get one to go thru the die (too big). And I would not want that bullet to be fired through any pistol. Oversize bullets are not apparent by looking at them as you are aware.

For LLA, I had no issues with that process. I do not cut it with anything. I take a hundred or so sized bullets, put em in a plastic bowl, (gotta love the plastic bowls that salads come in from fast food joints) add 12-15 drops of LLA and shake/twirl for a couple minutes, then dump them onto a lid of some sort, if not just leave them in the shake bowl. I let them sit for 12 hrs or so, shake em just to turn and complete the drying process. Load them up after 24 hrs. I don't handle or touch them needlessly nor do I stand them up. I have more important things to do. They stay a tad bit sticky but not much at all. I have no mess issues with the stuff.

LLA gets your shoot'n iron dirty but hey, I clean them after use anyway. Also I'm not crazy about the smoke during firing but hey, its cheaper than the factory stuff.

Nothing wrong with reading, actually its your friend we all know. After a bit of exploring and asking questions you'll develope your own methods....

Again, everyone has their own hitches. There are many paths to explore in this hobby, with luck we all will meet at the end with clean, most accurate, leadfree toys.

Let us know what you end up doing

[duke76]

As long as we are talking about micro grooves I have a quick question, if I dont get a response I will start a new thread but dont want to hijack this thread, my question is can you pan lube micro groove bullets with 50 50 lube, I may try it but just wandering if it works or does the lube not stick in the tiny grooves, Thanks Todd

[Sprue]

The groves are quite tiny. I tried running a TL bullet through my luber/sizer to see how it would lube. There was very minimal lube in the groves. I tossed it into the scrap pile.

Give us a Full report on your findings.......

[AZPaul]

Hi Paul and Welcome!

I'll go against the grain here, everyone has their own methodology for the most part. What works for some doesn't for others. That said, here are my thoughts.

Firstly for the most part, I'm weaning myself to other lubes and sizers now, but I did solely use LLA (Lee Liquid Alox). I like to tinker!

About the TL bullets, I will always run em through a sizer. You'll be surprised by the number of loose & tight bullets when you run 4-500 through a sizer. I'll cull the very loose ones.

Sometimes it takes a good bit of force to get one to go thru the die (too big). And I would not want that bullet to be fired through any pistol. Oversize bullets are not apparent by looking at them as you are aware.

For LLA, I had no issues with that process. I do not cut it with anything. I take a hundred or so sized bullets, put em in a plastic bowl, (gotta love the plastic bowls that salads come in from fast food joints) add 12-15 drops of LLA and shake/twirl for a couple minutes, then dump them onto a lid of some sort, if not just leave them in the shake bowl. I let them sit for 12 hrs or so, shake em just to turn and complete the drying process. Load them up after 24 hrs. I don't handle or touch them needlessly nor do I stand them up. I have more important things to do. They stay a tad bit sticky but not much at all. I have no mess issues with the stuff.

LLA gets your shoot'n iron dirty but hey, I clean them after use anyway. Also I'm not crazy about the smoke during firing but hey, its cheaper than the factory stuff.

Nothing wrong with reading, actually its your friend we all know. After a bit of exploring and asking questions you'll develope your own methods....

Again, everyone has their own hitches. There are many paths to explore in this hobby, with luck we all will meet at the end with clean, most accurate, leadfree toys.

Let us know what you end up doing

Frankford Arsenal has a spray on bullet rease agent for molds, how well does that help in bullet pouring?
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=763758

By the way Midway has some good deals going on right now for reloading and bullet pouring.

[R.M.]

I've been casting and shooting .32 S&W Long tumble-lubed wadcutter bullets for years. I size and lube them in my Star. Each groove doesn't hold a lot of lube, but there are many of them, so it kind of makes up for it, I believe anyway.
YMMV :castmine:

[Ricochet]

I have that Frankford Arsenal Mould Release Spray in several of my moulds. Boolits drop out of them fine. They also do when the moulds are smoked, or when they're just cleaned up. I can't tell much difference.

My standard Lee moulds have always cast boolits somewhat larger than advertised diameter. But since I discovered that squeezing the sprue plate handle while casting springs the front of the blocks open and makes badly oversized ones out of the front cavities, I think my need for sizing has mostly gone away.

I have a couple of lubricator-sizers, but I hate the whole mess of using them. I've been tumbling or dip lubing everything for several years. LLA is really pretty good stuff, and if you keep the coat light, it's not messy. If you want the exposed boolit surfaces clean and dry for pocket carry, wipe 'em off after loading. If you're loading out of a box into the magazine, it really doesn't make any difference. If you use very heavy coats of LLA or other sticky lubes, you'll have problems with lube building up in the seating stem and pushing the boolits deeper into the cases.

[AZPaul]

My next question is how do you keep the molds hot while your pouring? :drinks:

[Yance]

My next question is how do you keep the molds hot while your pouring? :drinks:

Work faster.<G>

[supervirgil]

Ok I have another question. After loading up my alox bullets, what can i do to keep the stickines down when loading. would a light coating of cornstarch be okay???

[Dave B]

I thin LLA 20-30% and tumble them in a small plastic tub. I do 2-300 at a time. Sometime I might do it twice if I think they need it. I have learned that they don't need a thick coat. I don't size them much any more and it does'nt seem to matter. I figure they size themselves on the way out. I have neverhad any leading problems at all using wheel weights, even in rifles.

[Dave B]

Also, you can lay them on wax paper or a plastic tray overnight, or a day or two and they will dry fine. I just leave mine in the tub uncovered for 4-5 days and shake them up once in a while.

[dromia]

Ok I have another question. After loading up my alox bullets, what can i do to keep the stickines down when loading. would a light coating of cornstarch be okay???


A big welcome to Cast Boolits Supervirgil and thanks for your contribution. :drinks:

The usually recommended medium for reducing LA tackiness is powdered mica but it can be a tad pricey and there are inhalation concerns.

However you've found the solution in corn flour, I use it extensively and it works champion at an affordable price. :mrgreen:

[Sprue]

Frankford Arsenal has a spray on bullet rease agent for molds, how well does that help in bullet pouring?
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=763758

By the way Midway has some good deals going on right now for reloading and bullet pouring.

I have a can of that spray......

I bought it at a yard sale a year or two ago. I've only used it once (not long ago) and it seemed to work okay. Normally I just use a match, sometimes I use a candle flame.

When it comes to my molds I don't try too many different processes such as mold release goes. Smoking does just fine and IMO the Franford release is an extra expense, needless to say if you order it, it will be shipped as a Hazardous Material. Thats why I didn't purchase any online. I just stumbled across some locally at a yard sale as mentioned.

Again in this case, I'm not much as an experimentor. When I find a method that works I usually don't deviate. A wooden match does fine.

[Sprue]

Ok I have another question. After loading up my alox bullets, what can i do to keep the stickines down when loading. would a light coating of cornstarch be okay???

If you are that concerned just get a RCBS or Lyman lubrisizer.

I mix up my own Felix (no heater needed for use) lube my bullets -yet my felix mixture is just a tad sticky too, but its not all over the bullet.

Using a luber/sizer you'll still have have a nice, bright, as casted look, when the round is completed. They look commercial, and thats cool !
But you will still have tacky fingers during the reloading process.