Should I or shouldn’t I- Ugly casting Lee 6 cav mould

One of my recent acquisitions was a Lee 150g round nose mould for .38 without handles. It wasn’t in the greatest condition, the mould handle screws are mostly stripped and the sprue plate flopped around like a dead fish. The worst part however was that the entire casting area was hosed down with either a graphite or mold release spray of some sort. It took several nights and lots of qtips and acetone and for the most part the stubborn mould release was cleaned from the mould. The cavities didn’t look too bad but rather than a machined aluminum look the cavities now seem to have an anodized appearance. A set of handles was eventually obtained, the sprue plate tightened up and after preheating the mould I cautiously cast a pile of bullets.

Being my first time with a 6 cav Lee I figured out the best approach for me to cut the sprues was to pour from the handle to the sprue pivot then quickly flip the mould up on its side and yank the bajeeebers out of the sprue plate handle and dump everything in the same catch tray until I got to about 100-125 or so bullets. It seemed to cast well with no finning or whiskers or overly apparent odd stuff. I separated out the sprues from the bullets and started the culling process. A bunch went directly back into the pot for real bad fill outs or severe wrinkling (my fault), the remainder seemed ok and on closer final inspection a couple of rounded base, and bands were tossed back. In the end I had about 60 or so bullets that filled out real nice but the noses looked more like a warty/speckled egg finish rather than a nice smooth bullet from all of the cavities. 50 of “the best” were picked from the pile. The bands all sized out and lubed real nice in the Lyman 45 .358 sizer and eventually loaded up with my selected load. Out on the range they performed awesome, they grouped real well (punched out the center of my target and were point of aim-point of impact with a stock S&W Model 10 at 10-12 yards.

So now for my quandary, do I try to lap and clean up the cavities to get nicer looking bullets or leave as is and accept the warty and freckled appearance and current performance. I didn’t pay much to start with and getting a set of handles more or less doubled my investment in the mould.
If my brain cells connect ill grab a pix pf the mould/bullets

mmw, If its droppings shoot well, why bother with lapping? Perhaps smoking the cavities with a wooden match or butane lighter once they're warm (to avoid condensation) will help with the CB's appearance? Lastly, I broke the factory sprue cutter by filling all the cavities and trying to cut all 6 sprues at once. Having learned my lesson, I pour only 2 cavities at a time until those 2 drop perfect CB's, then move on to the next 2 (making 4 CB's/sprues), etc. and haven't had problem cutting the sprues since. Just some food for thought....

You need to preheat the mold! The first pour will open easily, as will all the others. The wrinkles should be gone also.

Learning my lessons step by step, to date i have only had 1or 2 cav moulds, its my first 6 cav so pour cadence and mould fill has a bit of a learning curve. Once i got the sequence down and the mould warmed up well things went easier. Other than the sprue cutting everything drops real nice with nothing sticking in the mould. My lead of choice at the moment is range scrap with a touch of linotype to help fill out that i have been using successfully with other moulds.

Onget a pic of the mould/bullets my description will make more sense.

Don't fix ...Shooting Awesome !!!

I'm going to say this once , because I learned it the hard way ...
Shooting Awesome beats looking good Seven Ways To Sunday !!!
If you decide I dont know what I'm talking about ... and lap out the cavities ... and screw up the Shooting Awesome part ... well here's your sign .
And do not say I wish somebody had told me not to fix an Awesome Shooting boolit mould ...
I don't want to hear it or any whining :not listening:
Gary

I would bet money he laps them cavities !

I am a pragmatist. If something works, it does not need "fixing".

But you do not know if the bullets are good yet. Groups at 10-12 yards only tell you if you have a real crappy bullet/load. Almost anything will shoot decently at that range.

Of course, if that is all you need for what you do, then you are OK with what you have.

I don't care what your ammo looks like. Let's see the shooting! Can always powdercoat...

Pix as promised, You can see what remains of the black stuff in the low points where the textured bullet appearance comes from. Not looking to ever powdercoat, i enjoy working the sizers on rainy days.

GW-I dont be needin no signs, got plenty all on my own already. Though I'm seeking opinions and options I will likely never get around to doing anything more with this mould other than cast piles of range fodder so long as it keeps casting acceptable bullets

Not the full box on target and everything stayed in the black which is pretty good for me, 6 went in the dirt to season up the clean barrel, 12 went across the chrono (3.3g RD OAL 1.450 Av Vel:801 ES:58 SD:19) and the balance was a mix of single and double action out of a nothing special plane jane S&W Model 10-6

Attachment 299739

If it ain't broke don't fix it.
Period.

Just keep using it, some of mine look worse but shoot fine.

I like to heat up the sprue plate with a propane torch, cuts the sprue plate smoothly with out danger of breaking the lever.

Try leaving the lino (tin) out of your alloy the next time you use that mold. The added tin that aids fill out might also be what is magnifying the surface irregularities in your mold. Without the extra tin, your bullets appearance may smooth out.
I agree with others if the bullets shoot to your satisfaction, don't mess with the mold. Accuracy is the goal with casting and loading, looks mean nothing.

I'm another vote for if it works it don't have to look pretty. Only reason I figure my wife is still around. I do get the job done but I darn sure ain't pretty to look at.

I like the Lee 6 cavity. Not a "great" mold but for a production pile of plinking or target ammo they get the job done. Paper don't care, dirt pile don't care, I'm with them.

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Originally Posted by dverna

I am a pragmatist. If something works, it does not need "fixing".

But you do not know if the bullets are good yet. Groups at 10-12 yards only tell you if you have a real crappy bullet/load. Almost anything will shoot decently at that range.

Of course, if that is all you need for what you do, then you are OK with what you have.

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Agreed/

And to the OP.. lets see those boolits!

I don't think that little bit of speckle is any concern, but if acetone wont get it, try B12 chem tool. Use a small metal bowl. The stuff will melt a plastic bowl. It eats skin, so don't touch it. It eats paint, plastic, and pretty much anything organic. If B12 doesn't clean that off, it's some kind of alien goo.

Agreed. I use b12 to clean antique tractor fuel systems..it eats right thru 50 years of fuel varnish.

It's an aluminum mold. It will cast better each time you use it. Your problem was expecting it to throw good boolits from the get-go: After the cleaning you gave it I wouldn't have even started looking at the boolits until I'd thrown back more boolits than you ended up with.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dverna

I am a pragmatist. If something works, it does not need "fixing".

But you do not know if the bullets are good yet. Groups at 10-12 yards only tell you if you have a real crappy bullet/load. Almost anything will shoot decently at that range.

Of course, if that is all you need for what you do, then you are OK with what you have.

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I'm a Baptist ... what has religion got to do with it ? :drinks:

I'm just messing with ya ...couldn't stop that bad joke if I wanted to !

Sorry for the delay to get pix, took me a bit to get back around to casting with this mould. Definitely a learning curve for a 6 cav. The second session went a bit better, i pre-heated the mould really well while the big 20lb pot was getting up to temp. Sprues seemed to cut easier and in a short while I had a decent pile with about 20% immediate rejects, mostly due to my pour cadence resulting in poor fill out when I started. The pitting in the mould cavities are real evident on the finished bullets again.

With the groups opinion leaning way towards doing nothing it makes that choice for me much easier- it will stay as-is ugly but effective rather than pretty but useless.

Attachment 299971

Use as is, pre-heat the mold, (I use a broad tip propane burner and move the mold)
Good choice on your part
Mike

may have missed it: what temp are you heating your lead to?

Mine Lee 6-cavities are very happy at 715°

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Originally Posted by Walter Laich

may have missed it: what temp are you heating your lead to?

Mine Lee 6-cavities are very happy at 715°

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The Lee 20lb pot is generally filled with range scrap/keel/scrap lead and a touch of Linotype here and there. I generally end up running it at about 750~800 deg, but it varies from pot to pot looking for the balance of not freezing up the spout and decent fill out. Up to now the pot generally fed a Lee soupcan wadcutter 148g mould which is probably the easiest to cast and most forgiving mould I have.

Try dropping your pot temp to around 725. As long as the mold grooves fill out OK, you might see a little less definition on the nose defects.

Worth a try…..

Sam Sackett

You have my sympathies, I use to have three Lee moulds, two six cavity and one of Lee's two cavity 44 caliber 310 grain gas check moulds. Then I bought some of Midways mould release. The only smart thing I did was use my cheapest mould as a trial. That poor Lee two cavity mould, once apon a time it made decent bullets. I ruined it. Acetone was the closest thing I came to removing the mould release agent. I never did actually get it all the way clean. Better luck with yours.

I usually have dedicated handles for every mold. On the Lee 6 cavity molds when the handle screws strip, I put the screws in and then hit a few center punch stakes in the aluminum around the screw head.

The Lee sprue plate cutter depends on the handle being completely closed so that the cam action can start the cut. When you close the plate, consciously push the sprue handle towards the handle hinge to set the relationship. Don’t hold the sprue handle while filling the mold.

Pot temp ~72F. Pour from sprue pivot bolt out - that hole cools first. Cut the sprue (drop into a pan or something), then open the mold and tap the handle bolt. Might try lapping with toothpaste to clean out mold release.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gwpercle

Don't fix ...Shooting Awesome !!!

I'm going to say this once , because I learned it the hard way ...
Shooting Awesome beats looking good Seven Ways To Sunday !!!
If you decide I dont know what I'm talking about ... and lap out the cavities ... and screw up the Shooting Awesome part ... well here's your sign .
And do not say I wish somebody had told me not to fix an Awesome Shooting boolit mould ...
I don't want to hear it or any whining :not listening:
Gary

I would bet money he laps them cavities !

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Perfection is the enemy of good enough. And when "good enough" is awesome, don't mess with it!!!