Something is wrong at Lee

[richbug]

I got a 358-140SWC yesterday from Midway to cast cores with. I washed off the cutting fluid with Dawn and hot water in the kitchen sink. Applied some bullplate, and went out to the shed. I preheated it briefly. The first 6 bullets fell out(no tapping or anything), the next couple 1000 did the same. No wrinkles, nice and crisp edges. .3585"x.3585".

I wish they were all like this. It is a crying shame I am going to mash them into 9mm cases.

[Murphy]

Sounds defective to me....sure your mic is calibrated properly?

Good to hear LEE 'may' be getting back to where they once were. I own several LEE 6 cav molds from 6-10 years back and they're really easy to work with. No burr's...etc.

Murphy

[bkbville]

Wow....

What happened when you woke up?

[stubshaft]

Yup,
Lee has been known to screw up at times and produce a mould that casts almost perfect boolits.

[Shiloh]

Just got the same mold from Natchez.

I would get rounded edges and incomplete fill at the
flat front wadcutter band. I started LEEMENTING it by scribing the vent lines bigger. Now the fill is much better. Need a bit more tweaking, but have got six flawless boolits on occasion,
4 and 5 very often.

The second cavity from the handle is VERY sticky. won't release the boolit without mallet treatment on the mold handle bolt.
Going to have to turn some boolits in the cavities with a Comet Cleanser slurry.

Drops boolits at just under .359. I like that A LOT!!! I'm about to lube and load some. Hopefully it'll be warm enough to shoot tomorrow!!

Shiloh

Shiloh

[wilddog45]

I was in on a group buy that Happy7 honchoed and he sent it back twice until they got it right. They punished us by making us wait but maybe they learned it was quicker to do it right the first time. I still don't think any of us will be doing any group buys from lee in the near future.

[Storydude]

I picked up a 125G 9mm 6 banger the other day from Midway for the same use.

does the exact same thing. I thought I was dreaming :)

FIRST CAST all 6 popped out with a slight jiggle of the handles.

It's a keeper.

[dromia]

Glad you got a good 'un that does just what its supposed to.

I'd hold onto it a while as being a rarity it must be worth few bob.

Trouble is if you advertised is as is "A Lee mould that works as advertised" few would believe you.

[markinalpine]

I've always had pretty good luck with their moulds. :bigsmyl2:
In addition to cleaning, I use brake cleaner outside, I use toothpicks, pencils, the occasional Xacto blade, to deburr the cavity edges under a lit magnifier, just to start out right. I've never needed to leement, but I did have one 6 banger where one of the allignment pin was sticking out a little too much. Fixed that by incrementally driving it back where it should have been with a c-clamp, protecting the mould block on the back side with a piece of hardwood.
Mark [smilie=s:

[fishnbob]

Yup,
Lee has been known to screw up at times and produce a mould that casts almost perfect boolits.

Well I got one today, a 9MM .356 125 2R that I was going to use to mash up in BT SNIPER'S ,40 swage die and it looked like somebody took a ball point pen and scratched the hell outta the inside of both cavaties on the right side. I couldn't get a cast that was filled out to where I would even think about mashing it. Naturally I boxed it up and mailed it back. Been waiting on it for a week. Now I can wait some more. If it would warm up and the wind quit blowing, I would go fishin'!
Maybe Lee will screw up & send me a good one!!!:(

[Thecyberguy]

Guess that answered my question I was going to ask.....Do you folks ever do a group buy on Lee moulds? Sounds like not......

I have 3 and have good luck although I did have to deburr the 309-113 I just got. But it seems to work good now.

I might get in on a .270 130 gr. or a 6.5 100 -130 gr... I will try to keep an eye out... To be honest..I like lee because of the price...I don't have deep pockets ..

Thanks and have agood 'un, Guy

[happy7]

I had a similar experience to post one, with a 6x 429-200-RF. I bought it recently and just cast with it today for the first time. The bullets just fall out. After preheating, from the third cast I was getting perfect bullets. Lee molds can at times hang up and be difficult to open. Not this one. It almost opened itself and then with one gentle tap, all bullets fall every time. All beautiful. All bases perfect. I was so happy and enjoying myself thoroughly, and then thought to myself, "but wait till you measure them..." So when I took a break, I got the micrometer out. All measurements between .430 - .431 so very round and perfect size. And what mold casts faster than a Lee 6x??? I don't know of any current production molds that do. So after a number of dissapointing molds from them and sending several different ones back in the past year, I sure latched onto a keeper first try this time.

[Rather-B-Huntin]

I just got my first mold, a Lee six cavity 452-228-1R, and it does OK as long as the mold and the lead are HOT. The fifth cavity from the handle is sticky, but will fall free with a light tap to the handle nut. For the cost of the mold and handles ($50 total) and the cost of my WW's (absofreakinlutley free), I won't complain too much. Air cooled bullets drop at exactly .452. Water Quenched are dropping larger and I can't figure it out for the life of me?! I'll buy another (probably several more) Lee mold.

[mfraser264]

Was surprised myself last week with a 6 cav. 38 cal with gas check, just dropped out on the first pour after a preheat. Only had to wrap the hinge once in a while. Cleaned and smoked as instructed. As good as sliced bread.

This was my first experience with Lee 6 cavity and ordered a .38 wad cutter and a 44 gas check for my father two days later. Running a RCBS 2 cav. 9mm along with it soon found the 9mm off to the side.

The small pile of bullets measured .3593 with Lino and nearly no out of round across the parting. Just wonderful. Being a engineer, once in a while you want things to move along. Honestly was not convinced with Lee 6 cavity but am looking for a 9mm when the budget alloys. How about the cam lever on the sprue plate, about time!!! After 30 years of beating the sprue plate with a maple handle someone figured it out. Why are there not more on the other molds?

[chboats]

Well I think that Lee has it half right. last week got 2 Lee 6 holers. the 40 cal worked like a dream. Boolits dropped, were round and were withing 0.2 grains of each other. Now the 357 mold was another story. Had to go through the full leementing process to get it to work.
Half right is better than all bad.

Carl

[pistolman44]

Was hesitant to by a Lee mold after reading all the negative posts about Lee molds. Well I got a good deal on a new Lee .452 RF 255gr. 2 cav. for $18. I fired up the pot to do some casting with this mold. Got it all cleaned up and added some Bull plat lube to it. Most of the boolits fell right out of this mold, I didn't even smoke the cavitys. I water quenched these and used WW. The size came out to 453.5" but the weight was lite at 251gr. not the advertised weight 255gr. I thought for sure they would be heavier with WW.

[Bula]

Same success recently with a 6 cav 230 Truncated cone .45 cal mould. Man is that thing a joy to work with. I did give it about a 20 minute boil in dawn and a good toothbrushing with comet, but this one drops'em right out. It almost feels like they're jumpin' out.

[Colorado4wheel]

Don't worry, I got two bad ones. One was very under weight. The other wouldn't even close right when I got it.

[sargenv]

I wouldn't mind getting that underweight mold if it's a 9mm.. I find with the .356-2r 125 rn with pure lead they drop in the range of 131-133.5. I wouldn't mind if they dropped closer to the claimed 125.. They are just a tad long in the 9mm brass for mashing... I thought about some non quenched WW's to see if they would weigh a tad less.

[Greenhorn44]

What?? Lee no good. This is all foreign to me. Thought they were the pioneers.

[anachronism]

What?? Lee no good. This is all foreign to me. Thought they were the pioneers.

Their advertising people are pretty good...

[Colorado4wheel]

I wouldn't mind getting that underweight mold if it's a 9mm.. I find with the .356-2r 125 rn with pure lead they drop in the range of 131-133.5. I wouldn't mind if they dropped closer to the claimed 125.. They are just a tad long in the 9mm brass for mashing... I thought about some non quenched WW's to see if they would weigh a tad less.


124gr mold dropping at 118 gr. Makes it tough to make Power Factor. My 125 2R mold droped at 130gr. Those shot great but were not round so they leaded.

[oscarflytyer]

I had a similar experience to post one, with a 6x 429-200-RF. I bought it recently and just cast with it today for the first time. The bullets just fall out. After preheating, from the third cast I was getting perfect bullets. Lee molds can at times hang up and be difficult to open. Not this one. It almost opened itself and then with one gentle tap, all bullets fall every time. All beautiful. All bases perfect. I was so happy and enjoying myself thoroughly, and then thought to myself, "but wait till you measure them..." So when I took a break, I got the micrometer out. All measurements between .430 - .431 so very round and perfect size. And what mold casts faster than a Lee 6x??? I don't know of any current production molds that do. So after a number of dissapointing molds from them and sending several different ones back in the past year, I sure latched onto a keeper first try this time.

My new 2 cav 429-200-RF is dropping 216-217 and b/n .432-.434. Mix was 13 lbs WWs + 1/2 lb 50/50 bar. Mold issue? Out of tolerance? I really don't mind a 215 wt vs 200. Just wondering. Thanx

[happy7]

Lee test casts their molds with Linotype. I do not know for sure that this is what the weights are calculated from, but, in my experience, it is a lighter alloy than straight wheel weights. So yes, with an alloy like the one you used you would expect a heavier bullet.

[oscarflytyer]

My new 2 cav 429-200-RF is dropping 216-217 and b/n .432-.434. Mix was 13 lbs WWs + 1/2 lb 50/50 bar. Mold issue? Out of tolerance? I really don't mind a 215 wt vs 200. Just wondering. Thanx

Well - did some in-depth mic'ing of the bullets - guess what - they are out of round! A sweet spot of .432, but as you rotate the bullet and measure - they are b/n .434-.435!

Guess you use up MY good luck!!!

[happy7]

Well it is not uncommon for the bullets to be out of round. In fact, in my experience that happens fairly frequently with all brands of molds. Usually you will find that the difference is greatest accross the part line. This is due to the alignment being ever so slightly off. You pretty much always have to measure a bullet all the way around when you want to see what size it is. If fact most bullets are at least .0005 out and anything less than .001 is decent.

With a two cavity Lee mold and the way that the alignment is not all that positive, you need to be sure you have closed it well. The best way to close a two cavity mold is by lying it flat on something flat and then closing it. I am not saying the problem is operator error, just that it could have been. Lee two cavity molds are notorious for being difficult to get properly closed.

I would try it again, paying close attention to make sure it was properly aligned before each cast. If it is still out of round, the good news is that Lee guarantees their molds to be round within .001 so just send it back and they will send you a new one. It is probably more likely the mold, but I would make sure before sending it back.

Just as an extra comment, it is useful to note that being a couple thousandths out is not all that terrible. Since the out of round is usually symetrical, the bullet will not be out of balance, and even if not sized before loading, the bore will size the bullet round and accuracy will not be affected, unless the out of round also causes undersize for part of the bullet.

[sqlbullet]

I purchased two Lee molds just after Christmas...A 50 caliber 320 gr REAL and a 309-160. Both are running good after cleaning the oils from them. I wish all my Lee molds had been as consistent as these from the start.

Probably will still polish them up a little. They do require a light tap to get the bullets to fall. My 240 gr .430 mold and my 309-200 both fall free and easy since I polished them up.

[dominicfortune00]

Guess that answered my question I was going to ask.....Do you folks ever do a group buy on Lee moulds? Sounds like not......

There used to be Group Buys on Lee molds.

When the wait time got up around 9+ months and the mold quality wasn't the best, new mold makers arose to make quality molds for us with a decent turn around time.

[leadman]

Per Pat, a technician at Lee, they use a 1 part tin to 10 parts lead in designing their molds.
A weight variance is not at all uncommon in a mold, no matter who makes it.

glad to hear at least some of the Lee molds are working correctly the first time.

Wish they would make the 30-113-RF in a 6 cavity. with all the 30 carbines the CMP and retailers have been selling it should sell.

[NSP64]

My new 6 banger in 358 125gr RF is .360/.361. I need .360 for throats. Actual 132gr[smilie=w:

[MtGun44]

Yep, used to be dozens of mold group buys through Lee. Mihec pretty stopped that
cold.

Bill

[selmerfan]

I had the same experience with one of RD's 30-165-RF 6 cav molds. Zero prep, and I mean zero, other than heating it up on the hot plate, and the first six dropped out without a tap. Needed to burn the oil out, but after than, the bullets dropped out and were perfect!

[happy7]

There used to be Group Buys on Lee molds.

When the wait time got up around 9+ months and the mold quality wasn't the best, new mold makers arose to make quality molds for us with a decent turn around time.

There still are Lee group buys. I myself ran two very successful ones the end of last year. However, their reputation suffered here to the point that a lot of people will not join a Lee group buy, even though they seem to have resolved a lot of the issues. Wait times were about a month, and both buys came in on spec.

However, a Mihec six cavity Lee clone is always going to be a nicer mold, and well worth the extra $20 or so. If Mihec ever gets caught up and can start making them again, I would take that any day over a Lee. There is no comparison.