Lee Molds

[Mk42gunner]

The only real problem I have had with a Lee six cavity mold was with my very first group buy mold. I had waited until the warranty period was over before even trying it (waiting on funding to buy handles). I kept getting out of round boolits- .314x up to .321, with the occasional round ones.

I tried everything I could think of or read about. Finally I was going to introduce it to my farriers rasp to try to get round boolits, when I noticed the alignment pins were slipping and had kind of peened the edge of their hole outward.

Being just a bit vexed at the dang thing by this time, I trimmed the offending aluminum with my pocket knife and staked the pins in place. Ugly, but it worked. I now get .314x.314 boolits from that mold every time, unless I put pressure on the sprue handle of course.

Robert

[gwpercle]

It's not so much the brand of mould ... but the abilities of the person doing the casting .

Some are just better at casting boolits with any mould and to work with Lee moulds ...
you need to have the knowledge and skill . Lee moulds are made to sell at a low price point , a lot of handfinishing is not done that you have to do and Lee / aluminum moulds have their idosyncrasies and if you aren't aware of them ... you will have a bad time with Lee Moulds .
Gary

[Cast10]

Got two 6 cavity and one double cavity Lee……..NO ISSUES.

[justindad]

It's not so much the brand of mould ... but the abilities of the person doing the casting .

Some are just better at casting boolits with any mould and to work with Lee moulds ...
you need to have the knowledge and skill . Lee moulds are made to sell at a low price point , a lot of handfinishing is not done that you have to do and Lee / aluminum moulds have their idosyncrasies and if you aren't aware of them ... you will have a bad time with Lee Moulds .
Gary

I will confirm that my avoidance of aluminum molds has a lot to do with my skill & patience (or lack thereof).

[barnabus]

Too late I threw them all in the can so i am never tempted to try it again. Life is too short to bother with that.

they are pure garbage in my opinion.just buy a mould from accurate and be happy casting.

[flatnose]

It's not so much the brand of mould ... but the abilities of the person doing the casting .

Some are just better at casting boolits with any mould and to work with Lee moulds ...
you need to have the knowledge and skill . Lee moulds are made to sell at a low price point , a lot of handfinishing is not done that you have to do and Lee / aluminum moulds have their idosyncrasies and if you aren't aware of them ... you will have a bad time with Lee Moulds .
Gary

Skill level wont matter when the boolits are too small and the gas check shank is way oversize or the boolits are .010 out of round.

[flatnose]

they are pure garbage in my opinion.just buy a mould from accurate and be happy casting.

Yes Thank goodness for Accurate molds. Not only are they fantastic Tom stands behind them. Like i said earlier the molds I got from MP were of great quality but dimensions are bad and they dont reply. Arsenal has made me some good ones and 1 bad one but wont reply also. I hate to garbage can the MP molds but if they cant be used I guess that is my only choice. I shoot several types of metallic silhouette and dont have time to mess with junk. I need boolits and quite a few of them to support my shooting addiction.

[kerreckt]

I have been lucky, I have a dozen Lee molds and they all cast as well as my high dollar molds.

This has been my experience, also. Once broken in and properly heated.....no problems. But that is true of all of them. Best wishes!

[243winxb]

Fine tuning/Lee products, a must do. https://support.leeprecision.net/en/knowledgebase






I like iron molds better. Lyman, RCBS, Saeco. But my Saecos cast very large diameter bullets. Sizing down .003" or more.

[wilecoyote]

Fine tuning/Lee products, a must do. https://support.leeprecision.net/en/knowledgebase






I like iron molds better. Lyman, RCBS, Saeco. But my Saecos cast very large diameter bullets. Sizing down .003" or more.

thanks about the reminder!

[poppy42]

It always amazes me. There are thousands and thousands of people that use lee molds, myself included, Without issue. Yet the OP because he has a problem has decided that all Lee molds are junk! It couldn’t possibly be that he’s doing something wrong in either his technique or application. It must be nice to have that much confidence in yourself to be able to make assessments such as that. I certainly don’t have that degree of confidence in myself. Oh well to each his own.

[jonp]

I've had a go around with Lee customer service that didn't leave me well disposed towards their company but almost all of my molds are Lee and I've had no problem with them. Without Lee and their prices I wouldn't have tried casting to begin with and wouldn't be casting today.

[jonp]

Fine tuning/Lee products, a must do. https://support.leeprecision.net/en/knowledgebase






I like iron molds better. Lyman, RCBS, Saeco. But my Saecos cast very large diameter bullets. Sizing down .003" or more.

Only difference in that is I coat for storage with Ballistol as it washes off easy and use beeswax to lube the pins and pivot. Between pours when it gets too hot I rest on a damp towel. If leaving for something I keep it on a cheap hot plate. No problems getting useable boolits out of the many Lee molds I have

[justindad]

It always amazes me. There are thousands and thousands of people that use lee molds, myself included, Without issue. Yet the OP because he has a problem has decided that all Lee molds are junk! It couldn’t possibly be that he’s doing something wrong in either his technique or application. It must be nice to have that much confidence in yourself to be able to make assessments such as that. I certainly don’t have that degree of confidence in myself. Oh well to each his own.

Multiple customers having different experiences with a product is a defining characteristic of poor quality. Don’t be so confident in your assessment of other people’s incompetence, which happens to be a defining characteristic of arrogance.

[cainttype]

Yes Thank goodness for Accurate molds. Not only are they fantastic Tom stands behind them. Like i said earlier the molds I got from MP were of great quality but dimensions are bad and they dont reply. Arsenal has made me some good ones and 1 bad one but wont reply also. I hate to garbage can the MP molds but if they cant be used I guess that is my only choice. I shoot several types of metallic silhouette and dont have time to mess with junk. I need boolits and quite a few of them to support my shooting addiction.

Send the MPs here!
I’ll be happy to dispose of them for you, alleviating any feelings of remorse.
I’ll even pay shipping, ‘cause I’m generous that way…

[Dub_from_GA]

Nothing wrong with Lee 6 cavity moulds if they are heated correctly.
I use a Lee 6cav mould for the 160gn .312 bullet and initially had problems.
The large steel sprue plate takes longer to heat up than the aluminium mould itself and can cool the alloy as you fill the mould, resulting in poor casting.
I tried turning up the alloy temperature and dipping the mould into the pot without success.
I then read a post on another forum that suggested using a hot plate to heat up the steel sprue plate and it worked!
I now preheat the sprue plate and get consistently good casts.
ukrifleman

Interesting idea on heating the steel sprue plate.

What temp level do you think your hot plate is running ?

[ukrifleman]

Interesting idea on heating the steel sprue plate.

What temp level do you think your hot plate is running ?

Trial and error really, I use a 10lb Lee pot with the heat setting at around 6 and run the hot plate at mid setting on the 1-6 dial and find this works well.
Sorry I can't be more precise.

ukrifleman

[flatnose]

Send the MPs here!
I’ll be happy to dispose of them for you, alleviating any feelings of remorse.
I’ll even pay shipping, ‘cause I’m generous that way…

Read through this and you will find the ones that had the gas check shanks that were .017 to large. They might deal with you as like mine they cant be used.

[BJung]

Trial and error really, I use a 10lb Lee pot with the heat setting at around 6 and run the hot plate at mid setting on the 1-6 dial and find this works well.
Sorry I can't be more precise.

ukrifleman

I do about the same thing. Lee fits my budget for the variety of practice bullets I want to cast. After cleaning, I smoke my mold cavities and dab some 2 cycle oil on the pins with a Q-tip to help the molds to line up better. While my mold is warming up on the hot plate, I'm melting ingots into my 10lb Lee pot with a propane torch. By the time the pot is full, I take the mold and cycle a few casts through the mold to get the mold up to the correct temperature, looking for folds in the cast bullets. I drop these into a bent aluminum pie pan and dump these back into the pot. Then, I start casting. Bullets might hang up but I tap the handle with a plastic head mallet and the bullet drops out. I close my mold and tap the mold handle nearest the mold to align the molds and cast again.

[technojock]

I have about a dozen each Lee and Lyman molds. The later Lee molds have a much improved design over the old ones but I've lapped in all my molds with 400 then 800 grit lapping compound. I can't say that I had too but the bullets all drop out easier than they did before the work. Some of my Lyman molds are the old Ideal/Lyman single cavity and I polished them too... The reward to effort ratio is very good...

Tony