Has anyone ever had any luck with a Lee aluminum mold?

[longbow]

It was just a thought. Some people cast, empty then examine the boolits before refilling the mould and wonder why their mould cools off.

If you are casting fast enough that the sprue stays molten for a few seconds it sounds like your lead and mould are hot enough.

Maybe you do have some oil or something in cavities. It wouldn't hurt to clean with solvent or brake cleaner and wash with dish soap though I seldom do more than wipe the mould down, put some sprue plate lube on the pivot, mould top and alignment pins then pre-heat until the sprue plate lube just starts to smoke.

As for sprue plate lube, use a Q-tip to wipe on a very thin film... it takes very little to work. If you put on too much yes it can get in the cavities. A drop is way too much.

Other than that, I've got nothing.

Longbow

[longbow]

Okay, one more thing... when you go to clean the vent lines heat the mould and try wiping the lead off with a rag or paper towel. Lead will not bond (solder) to aluminum. If heated to lead melting point it should wipe off.

If that doesn't work then use a wood toothpick or skewer to scrape/poke/pry the lead out of the vent lines while the mould is hot. DON'T USE METAL!

Longbow

[45DUDE]

You might try putting it on a heat plate for a couple of hours. I bought a .308 mold I hated 4 years ago. I had some time this past week and left it on a heat plate and it started acting right.

[Tar Heel]

With 26 Lee molds in use and no issues with any of them, I suspect your process is the culprit here. May I suggest you stop using all the petroleum products and other products to clean or prepare your molds. When new, I clean once with M.E.K. to remove ALL traces of lubricant from the mold. After one or two throws to heat the mold, the bullets are perfect. The issue is not the molds sir.

Perhaps your alloy is contaminated as well. You mention WW metal in the mix. You may have Zinc in there messing with you and causing problems. All of my Lee molds cast beautifully with Lyman #2, WW metal (not zinc), 20:1, 30:1, pure lead, and other alloys.

I preheat by placing the mold over the pot during warm up, not in the pot or touching molten metal. Most of the time I preheat by casting into the mold and letting the alloy heat it up. As mentioned above, my last mold threw perfect bullets in 3 casts from a cold mold.

There is something going on there besides Lee molds.

[JoeJames]

I have found that after the melter has gotten the alloy to the right temperature, to put the Lee mold on top of the melter upside down with the sprue plate barely sticking down into the melt. Then a wait a bit, and start casting. Got the idea from the free internet book "From Ingot to Target". Google it and it is free on the internet. Also got the idea of using sawdust for flux from the same book, BTW.

[Rich/WIS]

Use six Lee 6 cavity and four NOE 5 cavity molds, all aluminum and have had no issues with any of them. Heated on a hotplate and with alloy in the 725-750 degree range get good bullets on the first or second pour.

[Rickf1985]

Well, This is an interesting thread. If you read the thread from start to finish you will see that obviously I am not the only one that has issues with these molds. The interesting part is that the solutions cover the entire range of what some say to do and some say to never do. Some people say to use brake cleaner and some say to never use it, but both of those people are having success. Some say oil and some say wax for lube and no for the other but both are having success. Some say smoke and some say never. See what I am saying here? It seems like everyone had problems and kept trying until something worked for them, even if it did not work for someone else.
I am open to all suggestions but I will tell you that of all the suggestions mentioned so far I have tried 98% of them. I am not new to casting, been doing it off and on for 50 plus years. And I thought about the zinc but first off I have had the alloy tested and no zinc. plus when I melt down my wheel weights I do it very slowly with a thermometer in the pot and as soon as they are barely melted at about 600-650 I scoop out the clips and anything else floating. I have caught one or two zincs but I am pretty efficient at pre sorting. But zinc melts at 750 plus so I am nowhere near melting in a zinc at 600-650. And as I have said several times, all my steel molds are producing perfect bullets at the same temps with the same alloy and the same pour methods. I don't think I mentioned pour methods, I am using both bottom pour and ladle. Basically I am trying anything and everything to try to find the sweet spot. And yes, I have also put the mold right against the spout on the bottom pour pot. I think that was what plugged up the mold.

[zarrinvz24]

Aluminum molds are notorious for absorbing oil and taking a long time for it to cook out. I would recommend a soak for a few days in denatured alcohol, Coleman fuel (white gas) or Gasoline. Then wipe down with paper towel and try it. The 2 stroke oil is wiped on with a q-tip and then wiped off with the dry end (only leaving trace amounts). It took me a long time to get what I felt was reasonable boolits from Lee style molds. I eventually traded off all my Lee molds and am 100% Lyman steel. They have their own set of issues, but are much less finicky than the aluminum ones.

[Rickf1985]

I just looked up my alloy in the calculator and I am pretty light on tin so what I am going to do is add a 1/4 pound of pewter to each ten lbs. of alloy I have and that will give me 2.1 tin, 2.5 antimony and 95.4 lead. That should bring the tin up to a good level for fill out. I was at .05 on the tin before. And I will go back to the 2 stroke oil on the molds. I had done that before on my 30 cal mold and it seemed to work well there, I had release issues on that mold which I believe were mechanical in nature.

[gwpercle]

I've been casting with Lee moulds since the first single cavity moulds came out for $8.50 ...
A kid in high school could mow a lawn or two and afford them easily . I own a lot of moulds and most of them are Lee . I cast with a open pot and Lyman lead dipper , pressure casting .
Since 1967 I have lost count of the number of boolits cast with Lee moulds .
It isn't the Lee mould ... it's all casting technique , proper cleaning , alloy , mould lube , temperature and fluxing .

Maybe you aren't holding your mouth right !
There is a bit of learning curve to Lee and all aluminum moulds , just keep trying different things and don't be afraid of heat ... I cast mine right at "frosty" and be sure and flux often with wood shavings, beeswax and Marvelux flux ... not one , but use all three .

And a "must" is proper mould preperation , degreasing and break in ...read the Stickies on this subject ... it's a must do to get good boolits.

You can do it !
Gary

[Jason Gilmour]

I’m likely not as experienced as some her but I have never had any issues. I clean them real good and smoke with a lighter and the bullets drop free and are filled out if the mold is warm enough.

[MT Gianni]

When you are casting try putting the ladle directly on the sprue hole and pressure casting. When it's full, continue to pour the contents of your 1 lb ladle over the mold and let it run back into the pot.

[Targa]

Hopefully adding more tin will help you out. I have around a dozen Lee molds and have never had an issue with any of them, I run about 2% tin in my alloys.

[oley55]

...I store my lee molds with Kroil on them and I use brake clean before they are heated up.

Before I oiled them when I put them away they would oxidize and would give me problems later.

Doesn't flushing with brake cleaner wash away most or all of the lube under the sprue plate pivot and require lubing the pivot every time? No matter how sparingly I apply lube it seems to eventually gravitate toward the nearest cavity and cause bullet base fill-out problems. So I avoid doing anything that requires me to use more than a the barest whiff of lube.

[johnnybar]

I just had 5 more 2 cavity Lees delivered to my door for $19.98 each and added them to my dozen or so 2 and 6 cavity Lee molds. Never had any issues other than my urge to cast too fast and frost bullets. Only other mold I own is an old Lyman RB mold a friend donated. I clean everything, smoke cavities, lube as Lee recommends and get busy casting. I get great results with Lee's REAL bullets in my various Hawkens.

[Rickf1985]

One thing I have found is also the issue with lubing the sprue plate contaminating the cavities. No matter how light I go it ends up in there. I have tried beeswax, 2 stroke oil, candle wax. All gave me issues and I ended up spraying it down and starting over. Lee also recommends using never seize as a lube, I have tons of it as I am a mechanic but I hate using it as it gets on everything. In saying that I can picture it getting all over the mold. Has anyone tried it? And what do you use?

[Wheelguns 1961]

To lube the sprue plate, I fill the mold with hot lead, when the sprue hardens, I cut it off, and while the bullets are still in the cavities, I wipe the top of the mold and the bottom of the sprue plate with a rag lightly wet out with 2 cycle oil. I use very little oil on the rag. As for lubing the pins, whenthe mold is up to temp, use a q tip dipped in the same 2 cycle oil to wipe the male ends of the alignment pins. A little oil goes a long way. I don’t use any more oil unless the pins get sticky.

As far as cleaning the molds, I just use hot water, a drop of dawn, and a toothbrush. I have smoked them, and I have used brake cleaner. I don’t bother anymore. To me, the key is getting the lead and the mold at a good temperature, and regulating your casting speed to keep them there.

[megasupermagnum]

All I can say is that if you learned on Lyman molds, you probably picked up some odd methods. Lyman molds are some of the crankiest molds there are to get to work.

If you can figure out how to get a Lyman to cast a perfect bullet, a Lee should be a cake walk.

[TurnipEaterDown]

I have a fair number of molds, LEE, RCBS (iron), Lyman (iron), Saeco (iron), LBT (Aluminum), NEI (Aluminum), Accurate (Aluminum), Mountain (Aluminum), from 1 hole to 6.

I will say that each mold has it's own preference for pot temperature and technique of pour. (I ladle pour all my bullets.) I have had some molds that cast nice looking bullets down to 620 degrees, some cast well at 770.

My experience w/ LEE aluminum molds is mixed, but if you know what you are getting and prepare them properly usually work well for a couple thousand bullets. I have worn out some LEE molds.

First w/ LEE I deburr the cavity edges. Can do this with a flexible mild abrasive stick, careful use of 400-600 grit wet dry, sometimes even a thumbnail.
Second I wash them in my solvent tank, scrub the cavities w/ a q-tip soaked in solvent, and then spray off w/ gun scrubber or equivalent and let dry.
I will usually pre-heat molds when casting, sometimes by just setting on the propane burner frame a little bit from the edge of the flame, sometimes by letting the entire base of the mold rest on top of the molten lead until the lead just quits sticking. Mold closed. Never warped a mold, and I have cast thousands of pounds of bullets.
I most often also end up over pouring the first 3-4 casts out of a mold. Fill the cavities, dip again, pour generously over the top of the mold.

Yes, usually wrinkly bullets are from lead too cold, sometimes from a mold still dirty. I have cleaned some LEE molds 3-4 times by above method before they behaved.

ALL aluminum gets an oxide skim on it in Moments after being processed (formed from molten, or machined). The average person has Never see un-oxidized Aluminum. I have work mates that have worked Decades in the materials industry w/ Aluminum, and this is a fact. Also, oxide film on Aluminum is protective and stops additional oxidation from forming by normal atmospheric contact. You need some type of corrosive contaminant effect to "see" corrosion on aluminum. I don't put anything on an aluminum mold for storage. Wipe it off, set it in a cardboard box in my reloading cabinet. 25 Year old LBT molds cast like the first day (or better).

For cleaning unwanted lead splatter from a mold, use a number 2 pencil. Sharpen it, and use the point. Veral Smith taught me this. Also, the graphite / clay mix will not harm the mold and can lubricate a sliding interface.

I also wear leather gloves when I cast. Pigskin, old deer skin hunting gloves, etc., and I will just wipe lead smears off a hot sprue plate with the gloves if I shear them a smidge early.

I lube sprue plates with a mold lube that I got off auction on GB years ago. I am betting it is a silicone lube. I haven't seen it on there for over a decade. My 2 oz bottle is still 1/2 full.
If interested, probably something similar can be purchased from commercial high pressure die cast supply houses, they use a variety of mold lubricants. Comes in gallons, so I don't know what you'd do with that much, nor what formulation is best for bullet molds.

I lube alignment pins w/ LBT mold lube sticks (the black ones ~0.2" dia) or a bit of 50/50 alox soaked into a q-tip.

Maybe some of this helps, maybe not. Good luck all.

[Mk42gunner]

I have several Lee molds, 1,2, and 6 cavity. Some can be cantankerous to figure out, but they have all eventually given me good results. Eventually.

The worst was a six cavity group buy mold that the alignment pins kept moving on. Figuring that out took a while, especially since it was my first six cavity mold.

Another needed to be heat cycled about four times before it started working, then it rained boolits out like it was Hensley & Gibbs mold.

I haven't moved the temp dial on my pots in years. I set them as Gearnasher recommended about fifty degrees over liquid temp, and regulate mold temperature by casting cadence. I am about out of that particular lot of Wheel Weights, so I may have to do that again.

When lubing the sprue plate, you only need lube on the pivot point, nowhere else. On the six cavity molds it is easy to take them apart when cold and use aluminum anti-seize, for the one and two cavity molds I put a teeny tiny drop as close under the screw head as I can get it then call it good.

I do tend to color in the sprue plates with either a lead pencil or soapstone, both seem to work without migrating anywhere. This lets the sprue fall off, and seems to prevent galling of the top of the blocks.

Keep trying and don't get too frustrated, you will eventually figure out how to make them work.

Robert