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

[Walter Laich]

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

Mine Lee 6-cavities are very happy at 715°

[metricmonkeywrench]

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

Mine Lee 6-cavities are very happy at 715°

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.

[Sam Sackett]

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

[david s]

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.

[imashooter2]

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.

[popper]

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.

[Scrounge]

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
Gary

I would bet money he laps them cavities !

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