Old Lee mold

[Tom W.]

I have an old s/c Lee mold that I bought in the late '70s. It has pins that hold the blocks to the handles, and when it gets good and hot, the pins try to escape. They haven't fallen out all of the way yet, but it sure is annoying, and pushing them back in and tapping with a punch only helps for a short while. I thought about threading the holes and putting in bolts, but wondered if the same thing would happen, the blocks get hot and the bolts working themselves out. I also thought about punching the holes a bit to close them up a bit, but wondered if I might damage the mold itself doing that. I know it's just a cheap Lee, but it has served me well....and is an accurate boolit.

[country gent]

Tom. The quick simple fix is a small center punch and light hammer. set the pins in to depth with a pin support the tops of the blocks on a flat smooth piece of steel on a solid bench. and at 4-6 points around the outsides of the holes edge just lightly punch them. About .030 from edge works well. this moves the inside edge of the hole in and the 4-6 points makes it some what consentric

ANother way if there is room under the pins is to tap the bottom of the hole and use a set screw to lock the pins in place with. This allows the set screws to tighten and lock against the pin securing it. I would want at least 1/4" depth for this.

[Thin Man]

Speaking about old Lee molds reminded me that about 4-5 months ago I bought two old Lee single cavity molds, both for the 41 Magnum caliber. These molds are so old the blocks are held to the handles by large sheet metal screws. Both are plain base. One mold is marked LEE-208-WC and is a full wadcutter profile. I hoped this one would deliver tight groups but it didn't, gave something more like patterns. It didn't matter if I used a fast or medium speed powder, or a light or moderate load, that boolit refused to deliver acceptable groups. Next time out I may try to speed them up some more to see what that delivers. The second mold is marked LEE-193-1R and is a traditional round nose pattern. Oddly enough this boolit does deliver tight groups at slow to moderate speeds. I wonder how it would respond to faster speeds? The next time I build ammo with these boolits it will be higher pressure loads, waiting and looking for answers.

[tazman]

I am with country gent and suggest a center punch and light hammer. I did that to correct the same problem on a couple of my Lee molds. I used them for years afterward.

[Wasalmonslayer]

I will third the small punch and staking the pins in the block.
I now do it as standard procedure with my initial cleaning/tune up process.

[Tom W.]

I do have a punch somewhere in the shed.......

[Tom W.]

The punch thing didn't do so well, so I pushed the pins in as deeply as they would go and filled the holes with J-B Weld. So far it's working.