lathesmith
06-07-2009, 05:45 PM
Hello all,
Like many of my fellow casters here, I love Lee molds and the 6-cavity design. Alas, we Lee GB-lovers have fallen on hard times, with wait times now extending a year and more. I watched with interest as a fellow caster and shooter, Mihec, introduced a 45 200 grain SWC six-banger mold along the Lee pattern. I meant to get in on the original buy, but missed it. Luckily, I was able to get one of these from a fellow shooter here, and I really wanted to try one of these out. Pardon me, but I AM from the show-me state, after all!
Anyway, to make a long story short, for those of you who don't want to read all the particulars, I am VERY pleased with this mold. I began with a light cleaning with carb cleaner and compressed air , and then a light coat of graphite mold release, along with some 50/50 alox for the pivot contact points. I mounted it on a set of Lee six-cavity handles, fired up my Lee drip-o-matic 20lb pot, and was anxious to see what I could do with this mold. Now, when it comes to alloy, I'm not really very particular; I just use mostly scrap lead, wheel weights, and then add a bit of solder for tin; I don't pay much attention to exact alloys or mixes. I pre-heated this mold with my hot plate and after 20 minutes or so I started casting.
What I found was, this mold more or less was like casting with any other Lee six-banger mold, and I was making good-looking bullets right from the start. Like all my multi-cavity molds, it likes to run HOT. In fact, with this mold I couldn't seem to get it too hot; I never could get frosted bullets,even with the heat turned up nearly all the way. I think this may be because the material that Mihec uses for this mold is somewhat denser than the 6061 aluminum that Lee uses, and it seems to really handle the heat well. I need to do more casting to confirm this effect, but so far that is my impression.
I measured some cast slugs, and they were right at .454, +.0008, -0005 or so. I was really amazed at this, the slugs varied less than .001 between cavities, and were also less than .001 out-of-round. These are specs I would expect for bullets after sizing--a $95 mold that casts them this good before sizing is a very impressive piece of hardware indeed!
I did size a few, to see what I came up with, and after running them through one of those lathesmith 452 Star dies (that guy sure makes some NICE Star dies, heh heh) the bullets came in right around .4515; I'll be interested to check them after they have set for a day or two.
Now, I know that some guys would love for me to bash Lee at this point, but I'm not going to do it. Lee can make a great 6-cavity mold at an reasonable price, that represents an outstanding value, and any time I can get one of these within a reasonable time frame, I'll do it. Now though, if this mold is a portent of things to come, there is now another mold maker whose product is just as good a value as the Lee's, if not better. And, within a reasonable time frame, AND with a schedule that makes sense! What's not to love about that?
I know some of you guys will also want to know how these shoot, and so do I. But at this point, the mold has done the job it was supposed to, and making them shoot will be MY job. BTW, I didn't bother weighing these, as weight variance can be as much a function of casting technique as cavity-to-cavity size variance. And with cavity-to-cavity size variance so small, I would expect only miniscule weight difference based on that factor alone.
As for me, I want more of these molds; the material that Mihec is using seems to possess outstanding casting qualities, and his work is top-notch. Thanks a bunch Mihec, with molds like this you WILL be getting more of my business!
Sincerely,
lathesmith
Like many of my fellow casters here, I love Lee molds and the 6-cavity design. Alas, we Lee GB-lovers have fallen on hard times, with wait times now extending a year and more. I watched with interest as a fellow caster and shooter, Mihec, introduced a 45 200 grain SWC six-banger mold along the Lee pattern. I meant to get in on the original buy, but missed it. Luckily, I was able to get one of these from a fellow shooter here, and I really wanted to try one of these out. Pardon me, but I AM from the show-me state, after all!
Anyway, to make a long story short, for those of you who don't want to read all the particulars, I am VERY pleased with this mold. I began with a light cleaning with carb cleaner and compressed air , and then a light coat of graphite mold release, along with some 50/50 alox for the pivot contact points. I mounted it on a set of Lee six-cavity handles, fired up my Lee drip-o-matic 20lb pot, and was anxious to see what I could do with this mold. Now, when it comes to alloy, I'm not really very particular; I just use mostly scrap lead, wheel weights, and then add a bit of solder for tin; I don't pay much attention to exact alloys or mixes. I pre-heated this mold with my hot plate and after 20 minutes or so I started casting.
What I found was, this mold more or less was like casting with any other Lee six-banger mold, and I was making good-looking bullets right from the start. Like all my multi-cavity molds, it likes to run HOT. In fact, with this mold I couldn't seem to get it too hot; I never could get frosted bullets,even with the heat turned up nearly all the way. I think this may be because the material that Mihec uses for this mold is somewhat denser than the 6061 aluminum that Lee uses, and it seems to really handle the heat well. I need to do more casting to confirm this effect, but so far that is my impression.
I measured some cast slugs, and they were right at .454, +.0008, -0005 or so. I was really amazed at this, the slugs varied less than .001 between cavities, and were also less than .001 out-of-round. These are specs I would expect for bullets after sizing--a $95 mold that casts them this good before sizing is a very impressive piece of hardware indeed!
I did size a few, to see what I came up with, and after running them through one of those lathesmith 452 Star dies (that guy sure makes some NICE Star dies, heh heh) the bullets came in right around .4515; I'll be interested to check them after they have set for a day or two.
Now, I know that some guys would love for me to bash Lee at this point, but I'm not going to do it. Lee can make a great 6-cavity mold at an reasonable price, that represents an outstanding value, and any time I can get one of these within a reasonable time frame, I'll do it. Now though, if this mold is a portent of things to come, there is now another mold maker whose product is just as good a value as the Lee's, if not better. And, within a reasonable time frame, AND with a schedule that makes sense! What's not to love about that?
I know some of you guys will also want to know how these shoot, and so do I. But at this point, the mold has done the job it was supposed to, and making them shoot will be MY job. BTW, I didn't bother weighing these, as weight variance can be as much a function of casting technique as cavity-to-cavity size variance. And with cavity-to-cavity size variance so small, I would expect only miniscule weight difference based on that factor alone.
As for me, I want more of these molds; the material that Mihec is using seems to possess outstanding casting qualities, and his work is top-notch. Thanks a bunch Mihec, with molds like this you WILL be getting more of my business!
Sincerely,
lathesmith