Lee mold re-alignment

If its the same way I do it, you run the pot a touch cooler than normal. I dont have a temp gauge, so I just "wing" it.

But then you cast fast. Way faster than normal. I did it tonight in fact. Boolits were coming out half way decent, but I had to sort a few back to the pot. I sped up the casting to dump the boolits about 10-12 seconds after it was poured and everything started working perfect again. Shiny, clean, fast and no more went back in the pot.

Anytime I plug in the pot, the mold I'm going to use sets on the top of the pot. When I come back in 30 minutes to cast, the mold is ready to go without using an extra hot plate.
 
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

shiny....................

pretty...................

master caster!

What kind of boolit lube is that if you don't mind Snuffy? :)
 
What kind of boolit lube is that if you don't mind Snuffy?
Click to expand...

That's carnuba red made by lars. If I stopped there. you'd be scratching your head saying WHO?

http://www.lsstuff.com/lube

You have to go to that web addy to print out an order form. Then snail mail it to them with a check/mo. They take a bit of time to geterdone, but the wait is worth it.

Steve, I suppose if you were casting real small boolits in a 2 cav lyman mold, the mold wouldn't stay hot enough. Like I said, with the smaller 357 boolits, I didn't have to cool the mold, it didn't over heat.

The temptation of new casters is to keep increasing the melt temp[ to get filled out boolits. What they don't understand is it's the mold temp that has to be higher. Best way to do that is to start with a mold that's already hot enough, hence the hot plate. The top o' the pot is not hot enough!

There's several guys over at cast boolits . com that have put thermocouples directly in mold blocks to accurately measure temps of the mold. My measuring of mold temps is by using a laser temp gauge/thermometer from harbor freight. It has to beam at a dark colored surface, so it don't work well on alum. molds. You have to use the sprue plate, which is considerably cooler than the blocks themselves.

I've yet to try it on a Lyman iron mold, I suspect it would work well. But, the temps I've been getting, off the sprue plate on the 44 and 50 cal lee molds is around 340 degrees when producing nicely filled out, shiny boolits. A mold is never as hot as the melt, if it were the boolits would never solidify.
 
Thanks for the link Snuffy. That lube looks like it is very full and even and is staying in the lube grooves. I haven't produced that quality yet with my melt, dip and trim operation but your boolits in the pics are where I am going to try to get to. Hog Buster tells me I need a lube/sizer and I imagine that is how you applied that great looking lube on those great looking boolits.

Very useful information and posts as usual Snuffy; and you have proved that old adage yet again:

"A picture is worth a thousand words." :)

:D I hope that isn't copyrighted and I don't have a clue who to give credit to but maybe its just that guy Anon-y-mous again.

P.S. Been meaning to tell you: Ditto on the people/dogs thing. Maybe I should do a poll?
 
I am glad that I started such a lengthy conversation.

It seems like what works best at keeping my mold aligned is tightening the hinge bolt. The bolt is pretty tight, it requires two hands with a little force to open. This way the bullets stay aligned. I suspect that the real reason is since the mold requires some effort to close, it closes more slowly, thus allowing me time to wiggle the handles into alignment.

Thanks again for the tips.
Soon I will start casting with a new batch of lead and I will probably end up with some more questions.:p
 
If you have identified the hinge as the problem, I suggest to (possibly) improve the action, you dissassemble the mold and file smooth all touching surfaces. Then reassemble and try.
 
First off , snuffy beatifull bullets from a work of Art Mold !!!!!

My Hats Off to Mihec !!!!!!

Salmon , as suggested start with smoothing things up , lube with Bull Plate (when ya get it) follow directions to the letter!! Bull Shop is a master caster himself & has tried & proven the stuff he sells !!

But after cleaning it all up & lubing everything it still remains to the initial alignment of the blocks by the handles .

I`ve spent many hrs. bending & straightening those 2 holer handles & still wind up placing the blocks on a flat surface before closure .

Just for stating : I like a mold where I can open 1 handed if need be & not close (flop close by turning the mold over)
 
+1 on Bull plate lube.....get 2 bottles cuz you'll knock one over. Don't ask, just trust me.

+1 on Mihec

+1 on PID controllers....make your life easier.

+1 on those purty HP'S!
 
L Molds

I have a 2 cav 357swc mold I bought , lubed up and right out the box didn't want to align right. But I can't complain to much about a $15 mold.
Hey Snuffy what brand of mold is that one in your pic?
 
Hey Snuffy what brand of mold is that one in your pic?
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That mold is made in Slovenia. That's just south of Austria.

The person that makes them is Miha Prevec. They are a close copy of the old long gone Cramer type mold. Miha has taken that old design, improved on it with modern compute driven CNC milling machines. The most important part is the hollow point pins stay in the mold so they stay hot. Lyman and other molds that cast hollow point boolits have a separate HP pin that has to be removed and put back in the mold for each boolit. That allows that pin to cool off. The cool pin then makes irregular HP cavities.

Brass makes a great mold material. It's harder than aluminum, but softer than steel or iron molds. Since this one is my first one made of brass by Miha mold, I didn't know what to expect. I'm very pleased to say the least. They're NOT cheap, this one was $118.00. Another one is in the works, a 4 cavity 200 RNFP 45 acp mold with the same penta, and round HP nose, with the option to also cast a solid.

The molds are obtained through a group buy process over at the castboolits.com site Here's the URL for the one I'm presently waiting on. You can see there's well over a hundred molds ordered. (112) to be exact.

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=97566

I noticed I somehow failed to post a pic of the thermocouple installation on my pro 20 pot, so here it is;

PB080110.JPG


That's since been changed because it leaked. I may change it again, because it gets in the way now,(when using 6 cav. molds).
 
Its very simple - Lee's dovetail method of mould alignment is reliable and has the advantage of never wearing out of alignment as many other makes do. But sometimes the dovetails stick slightly and don't make it into full engagement. It is sporadic, which is why you are seeing it sometimes but not all the time. Also, some moulds do it, others don't. I have two that do it. I hve figured out just where to gently tap them into line, which I do each time before filling them. I have also timed it and have found that it does not slow down casting significantly.
 
re: mis-alignment

I have many Lee molds . Haven't had any real complaint with them until now. I just bought one several days ago and it has the same problems as decribed here. A freind of mine bought one a month ago. Same problem. Now I have Lee molds that are years old. One in particular is at least 25 years old and still cranks out 358 swc ers just as good as the day I bought it . I have a feeling that Lee is doing something different in their manufacturing proccess that just isn't up to snuff.. As far as it being a cheap mold, sure they're cheap but seem to work as good or better as my Lymans ,RCBSes and one custom I have. I like the fact I can buy 4 of theirs to 1 RCBS.. Hope they fix the problem soon.
 
I've had a chance to use two of my Lee molds.

The .45 Colt I lubed with wax around the screw, the pins and under the sprew plate.

The .45 Auto I did nothing but squirt a little Hornady dry lube by the screw.

The results were almost the same. If anything the Auto worked better and my Colt mold now is all nasty and yellow from the burnt wax.

From now on I'll just clean and polish my molds and not lube them.

Occasionally I had allignment issues, but my whacker stick is square so I just rest it on that to use as a flat surface to line everything up. Using this method I had no problems.
 
Presently I have ten bullet molds and all are Lee except one SAECO. All of them are one or two cavity molds. There is a learning curve when using an aluminum bullet mold but once you are through it they work fine for low volume casters like myself. It is important to follow some rules when using them and lubing them correctly is important. Here is what has worked for me and it comes straight from Lee.

Mold blocks not aligning
Posted by on 20 October 2011 01:45 PM
Aluminum molds require occasional lubrication. A technique that works well is to have a glob of hard, stick-type bullet lube (like Lee #90007, but any alox/beeswax lube will work) about the size of a .45 slug rolled into a football; when the mold gets hot, touch one end to the aligning grooves along the sides of the mold block, on the underside of the sprue plate around the sprue pivot, and on the steel pins along the bottom of the mold block. Use sparingly, if any gets into the mold cavity it will cause wrinkled bullets.

http://leeprecision.com/ALOX-STICK.html

Lack of lubrication will cause the mold blocks to misalign, or the sprue plate to gall the top surface of the mold.

This has worked for me and yes a little of the lube will do the job. Get it in the mold cavity and you will have fun getting it out. I couldn't find the Lee stick lube and purchased the RCBS Stick Bullet Lube and it works just fine. I apply it by scraping a small screw driver on the stick of lube and then apply it to the above mentioned places on the hot mold. Just a small amount will do it.
Cary
 
I won't ever use wax-based or alox-based lubricants on a bullet mold, again.
As stated by several posters last year, it leaves residue, and causes issues.


However, I have found synthetic 2-stroke or synthetic bar-and-chain oils to work amazingly on moulds. (The guy that sells "BullPlate Lube" is a logger. ;))


I have 2 Lee 2-cavity moulds that perform fairly well. They're crap, but get the job done.

I also have a few Lee 2-cavity moulds that perform terribly. They're crap, and take a lot of extra effort to get the job done. The worst of the bunch happens to be for my favorite bullet (:(), the 429-200-RF. It must be tediously aligned for each pour, by hand. By "by hand", I mean my left hand is holding the mold handles, and my right hand is carefully manipulating the mold blocks, until they match up. Whether or not I lube, makes no difference ...it's a pain in the butt. (But I won't get rid of it, because it does produce great bullets, when I line it up for each pour.)

However....
My Lyman, RCBS, NOE, and Accurate moulds all perform better with some lube on the critical areas.
(I'd like to tell you it's "BullPlate" ...but that would be an insult to the synthetic 2-stroke oil I use. ;))
 
Good thread. I've been casting cool for some time now, and getting results very similar to Snuffys. I don't have an elaborate temperature controller, I just used a K TC in the top of the pot to get used to my dial seetings and their actual values. Surprisingly enough, the thermostat on the RCBS and Lee pots are both right on the money. Just a touch below 700 is where you find joy.

If you guys are going to order some Bullplate lube, you might as well go ahead and try his sizing lube too. I kid you not, it's better than Imperial.

They used to say that frosty bullets were very brittle, and while they will shoot, they are not ideal. Now I see so much advising that frosty is good that it makes me wonder who thinks this stuff up?
 
They used to say that frosty bullets were very brittle, and while they will shoot, they are not ideal. Now I see so much advising that frosty is good that it makes me wonder who thinks this stuff up?
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He who speaks the loudest has the most important opinion. :rolleyes:


And gets parroted by other people, more frequently... ;)
 
They used to say that frosty bullets were very brittle, and while they will shoot, they are not ideal. Now I see so much advising that frosty is good that it makes me wonder who thinks this stuff up? -Edward429451


I prefer shiny bullets but some moulds with my alloy seem to produce bullets that are a bit frosty when all else is ideal. Brittle part doesn't make sense.
 
A little bit frosty has never bothered me. I care more about fill out. I do not push barn burner velocities, and my cast bullets are for puching holes in paper, and perforating pop cans anyway. Shiny, or frosty they seem to work the same as long as they fill out.

Oh and I just got a new mold in today. Lee TL 158 grain SWC. Have lead in the pot melting as of a couple of minutes ago. At first check I could see light through the mold. I cleaned it up real good with mineral spirits, and then boiling water, and Dawn dish soap. A good rinse, and dry off. I tiried again it looks good to go. I followed with smoking it with a birthday candle. I am fixing to heat the mold, and lube it with some synthetic motor oil, and cast a few bullets before cleaning up, and going to bed.:D

It is casting weather here now. 65 with a nice breeze. Have the Lyman Big Dipper going right now.:D Ok enough now I am going to get to some serious casting now.:D
 
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