If I had read this several years ago, it would have saved me some learning time.
As is, I now get my NEW Lee mold, use plenty of acetone on everything, inspect the alignment pins to see if they have been driven in enough to plow some metal up at the ends, about 1/2 the time they have been.
Use a slip on the underside of the sprue plate, place very small amounts of nickel neverseize on the pins and "v's", spray the pivots with graphite and then rubber band the handles together and use thick CA glue to immobilize the handles and blocks.
I use the back of an Exacto knife to lightly check all the edges of the cavities for any burrs, lightly smoke the cavities and then use a q tip and acetone to remove all carbon not in the cavities.
After casting a few, I mike a couple to see how big they are, most are too small, so , after trying the lapping and messing up a mold, I decided to make a reamer similar to a woodruff key mill at the diameter I want, a little squeezing and twisting and I have molds that are the size I want and are also round.