Most people that follow my posts and threads will know I am not one to bash Lee's products. Most of their stuff works quite well and a lot more works well enough to get the job done. But mold, well, that is another story. I do have a couple Lee molds that work very well. I also have a couple that simply will not produce a good bullet no matter what you do. This mold I bought new so I started right out from the beginning and went by the book. Washed the mold with acetone to get all the oils off of it, and sat it on the pot for an hour. Now, A shiny aluminum mold sitting over top of a lead pot with just two skinny contact points will never ever get hot. After an hour sitting on top of the Lee Pro 20 pot at 750 degrees the mold was at 190 degrees checked with a contact thermometer. BUT, I wanted to follow the directions so when it did not work and I had to talk to Jerry I had all the bases covered. So then it went on the steel plate on top of my hot plate which is set at 450 degrees. Once up to that temp I did the corner in the pot test, not hot enough. Now, I have seen somewhere in Lee's publications that you are NOT supposed to put the mold in the pot and right in the directions it tells you to. But they do not tell you what to do if it is not hot enough. So, moving on. Like any other mold I start running lead through it to fully heat it up. Note, I purposely did not lube the pins or sprue plate hinge at this point yet because I want to see how long it takes to get rid of the wrinkles and I do not want ANY form of contamination. So, as usual with Lee molds I had wrinkles. 20 casts later it was exactly the same. I started at 700 degrees and I am using straight wheel weights. I have already been casting with several other steel mold today with no issues at all with this alloy. so I bump it up to 750. I am running a PID so temp is well controlled. No change after another 20 casts. Bump it up 800, no change in the wrinkles but the bullets are getting harder to get out of the mold. I should mention that from the beginning I had two cavities that simply would not release. I could beat the handles off of the mold and they would not come out without my prying them out. So the rest of the testing was done without using those two cavities unless I forgot and then they just stayed full until the run was finished. So last try was 850 degrees, everybody says Lee molds like to run hot, well this is almost 200 degrees over where I usually cast wheel weights!!!! Nada, still wrinkled. Ok, back down to 700 degrees, heat is not the answer. I cleaned the mold well with brake cleaner and lubed the pins and hinges and instantly had even more wrinkles. Cleaned the mold again and no more lube. Smoked the mold, Worked fantastic, for about 5 casts. Bullets fell out, except the same two cavities. There is a mechanical hang up there that I will look at later. But I am also not smoking the mold every 5-10 casts. And by now I am well over 100 casts through this mold. So, at this point I am fed up with their directions, and their molds and I bring out the spray weapon, Graphite spray. Spray it down, nozzle leaks, spray myself down, not happy. STILL will not release and still look like crap.
Soooooo, Tomorrow I will call Lee Precision and I am sure I will be put through to Jerry so Jerry can tell me all the things I did wrong. I will simply refer him to this post.
So now you can all say I am a Lee basher because I am bashing their molds. In this case, yes I am.