My new molds came in today's mail -- the TL-314-90-SWC intended for rabbit loads in my Mosin Nagant, and the C309-180-R, to become paper patched hunting bullets in the same rifle.
The 90 grain mold had a paper strip wrapped around, indicating it was "inspected by Shirley" and warning me to lube the mold before use; the cavity is sharp and shiny, vent lines on the mating faces are crisp; the only flaw I've noted so far is a small burr on one of the alignment ridges, which is easily removed and doesn't appear to affect mold closing.
The 180 grain mold, on the other hand, has no "inspected by" band, and look as if it might have actually escaped inspection; both cavities have the burrs I'd expect if the cherry were run with the mold incompletely closed (and there was an aluminum shaving between the mold faces when I first opened it, suggesting that might have actually happened). I have no way to know for certain until I cast with it, but it seems likely this mold will cast undersize and out of round by something like the thickness of the shaving that held the blocks apart during the cut, once the burrs are cleaned up.
Now, in this case, I'd be pretty happy if the mold throws .003 or even .005 under, since I plan to size these boolits down to .301 or .302 for paper patching anyway -- but if I wanted .309 boolits to fit a .308 or .30-.30, I might be a bit annoyed, since an inspection by Shirley would certainly have caught this mold and either rejected it or sent it back for rework (ten seconds with the original cherry after cleaning up the burrs).
Now, given what I paid ($60 shipped for two molds with handles and a Lee push-through sizer in .314), I'm not screaming; I'm pretty sure I can remove the burrs at the cavity edges without damaging the cavities or leaving "fins", but a) I shouldn't have to, and b) it suggests Lee is skimping on quality control (in that apparently Shirley and her colleagues aren't inspecting every single mold that comes off the machines).