New Molds, Lee,

[Monochrome]

First molds ive ever dealt with outside of rusted things at gun shows.

Two lee molds, yeah i know not the ideal thing but good reviews on shootability.

Anyway, here be the thing. I was surprised at the floppyness of things.

I did have flash at the cavities Most of it came off with finger nail rubbing, and alot of it came out by opening and closing the sprue plates.

However the stuff that is inside the bullet cavities dont want to come out, will it come out with the first casting, or do i need to run a razor blade around like ive read about on a forum once

 

[300BLK]

I just clean with dishwashing liquid and water and do the edges of the cavity lightly with a steel wool pad.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Generally every LEe Mold I have used requires extra effort tuning way before any lead gets melted. BUT, and generally again they work well enough to produce good projectiles.

CW

 

[bruce381]

dawn and some soft scotch bright carefully around all the edges and then cast

 

[Monochrome]

Hmm well i took a better look today. They are rough on the edges.. all edges. Really scratched up a wooden clothespin. That helped lightly but over all its as iff the mating edges are lightly raised above the surface of the bullet cavities.

Holding the dies up against a quality led light bulb panel, closed together, the edge farthest from the hinge is perfectly flat, and has a "crack" leading to the hinge. On BOTH molds

 

[GRMPS]

Welcome to the forum.
When describing a problem, pictures are worth a thousand words.
ALL new molds need to be cleaned first with hot water, dawn dish soap, and either a toothbrush or denture brush, the more expensive molds need to be heat-cycled)
You can send any new Lee mold back for a replacement (many try to fix them due to the low price of the mold and high price of shipping unless you got it from Amazon and have free return shipping) (you can call Lee and sometimes they will send a free replacement without your needing to return the defective item)
I use a 1-inch wide diamond file but you could use 800, 100 grit wet/dry sandpaper tightly wrapped around a ruler or stir stick.
make sure you hold it flat against the face of the mold and lightly sand each face. Then take a wooden pencil or soft piece of wood and lightly rub the edges of the mold cavities to remove any burs.

 

[JonB]

Yeah, the Lee 2 cav molds are floppy, you get use to that.
The burrs you describe, sounds worse then usual. when I have burrs on cavity edges that I'd like to remove, I use a wood dowel that is larger (like twice the size) in diameter then the bullet, and roll it clockwise, then counter clockwise, to 'wear' the burrs off.

 

[Ben]

Hard to offer any help without photos.

 

[Monochrome]

ill try for pictures in the mornng, just got dinner mostly cooked and im tuckered out.

 

[Monochrome]

made the mistake of properly degreasing it,, god damn almost gave me a migraine the first time the solvent washed aluminum interior faces hit the light. Heres the besti could do. Holding a camera with one hand and hoping for autofocus to do well is well, asking a quadriplegic to do a pole dance.

 

[RBHarter]

Wet a tooth and the mould in hot water add a drop of original blue Dawn to the brush and scrub that cavities to reach all of the corners . Run the edge or butt of the brush along the edges as needed to dull and turn any stand up burrs . Run a stone or fine file around the sprue plate edges . A quick spin of a drill to deburr without cutting any deeper the block factor of the sprue holes .
Heat to casting temp an let cool to room temperature 3x . While hot add a touch of synthetic 2 stroke oil via Q- tip to the sprue hinge screw and alignment pins . Handle screws where appropriate.

This applies to all aluminum moulds and steel sprue plates.

Cast some bullets and see what if anything else needs to be done.

Lee moulds generally like to be run like a rented car or mule , hot , hard ,and fast .

 

[Walter Laich]

I've always looked at Lee molds as "some assembly required" or a DIY project.

a bit of sweat equity at a lower price

 

[popper]

Probably locating pins not set right. Carefully drift them in.

 

[fiver]

maybe or the edges of the cavities are rolled outward.
you'll end up pushing them off with a popsicle stick and/or carefully removing them with a razor blade.

 

[Monochrome]

maybe or the edges of the cavities are rolled outward.
you'll end up pushing them off with a popsicle stick and/or carefully removing them with a razor blade.

its more like, get a reeses candy bar at the store. open it up, and run your finger on the back side that is flat.. near the edges. the very edge of them have always ben slightly raised above the rest.

 

[Rockydoc]

There is world of difference in the quality of the Lee 6 cavity molds from that of the 2 cavity molds. You would think they are from different manufacturers.

 

[fiver]

that's because they don't 'cut' their cavities, they press the mold around a shaped chunk of steel.