mold again?

[Crankgrinder]

alright here we go- long story short i sent six hole .357 mold back to Lee for not lining up, they replaced it no questions asked though knocking the pins back may well have been the fault of myself. Now i have a new mold except this one cast bullets that are .359 at the parting line, .357 across and then .355 just next to the parting line itself. this makes an egg shaped bullet by.004Their customer service dept gave me a few suggestions to try first before sending back a second mold, i tried what they said with the same results. I am wondering if opening the mold too soon/too late could be part of it? surely not the temp, i cast frosty bullets first then backed off the heat just untill the frost cleared up as Lee suggested.? I suppose i may not be the first to send back two mold? this is getting rather aggrivating.

[farmerboy]

I bet it is aggravating. I know nothing about casting but am asking questions and want to learn from someone who does so i can ask them or eliminate problems that i would run into by myself. Hope you get it figured out!

[GP100man]

Go to http://castboolits.gunloads.com/ & join up then search for leementing threads .

[Crankgrinder]

dont get me wrong folks i still believe Lees a great company, their c/s has been very good to me thus far. its just this .357 mold issue thats got me pulling hair if i had hair. but come high water i could just take .002 from the corners of each hole somehow, possibly with micro fine sandpaper

[chiefr]

I too have bought a Lee mould that new out of the box would not close completely. The pin was not installed correctly and Lee replaced promptly.

All of my Lee moulds cast slightly oversize. This is intentional as the bullets are to be sized before they are seated in the cartridge. I think everyone who casts bullets will either get the mould to hot or too cool when they begin to cast. One thing great about AL is it cools or heats quickly to the correct temp. I quit using steel moulds altogether many years ago and switched to AL

[Chaz88]

I quit using steel moulds altogether many years ago and switched to AL

I have been considering switching to AL mostly because the cost of LEE's are so much less. I have wandered if the lower cost equates to lower quality though. Sounds like some people do not get the best performance out of LEE.

[Crankgrinder]

this mold does close completely, it is new out of box and not the tiniest piece of trash between the halves/in the pin holes/on the pins etc. pins stick out with their bases flush with the mold surfaces just as they came to me from Lee, but still it seems the halves are misaligned creating this. I suppose ill just have to wait for a response from Lee and see what theyll do. Thisll be the second mold so i may well be on my own now.

[chiefr]

Chazz88
When I first started casting around 40 years ago, I began with the Lyman & RCBS steel moulds. It took me a long time to get these moulds to the right temp before I could start dropping perfect bullets. Also, I had to keep oil on the moulds or they would rust when stored and burn or solvent the oil off to use again. The 4 cavity steel moulds were very heavy as well as expensive, plus having to swap handles. A few years later, I bought a Lee AL mould and was amazed that the problems mentioned above were gone.
Yes the Lee's cost much less. I sold all my steel moulds and used the money to go all Lee AL. I have .429 and .357 moulds that I have cast over 10K bullets thru. I find it amazing that Lyman, RCBS et al have not joined the AL bandwagon.I like the OP, ended up with a problem mould, which lee prompty replaced.

[south.texas.dead.I]

I too have had a couple problems with my lee moulds. The spruce plate handle has snapped on me before just inside of the wood


Tapatalk ya

[Chaz88]

I like the OP, ended up with a problem mould, which lee prompty replaced.

It is good news that they fix the problems. But I have never had to return any of my other ones. I think I will give them a shot and see how it goes. What is the best place to order from? None of the local places carry much for casting.

[chiefr]

Chaz, I have been ordering reloading stuff from Midway, Natchez, and Graf&Son. Graf has been getting most of my business lately as they have hard to find stuff, low prices, and shipping is much less.

[Crankgrinder]

Lee emailed me back offering to send in the mold for inspection/replacement. A machinist of ten years now i know well how easily crap happens. For the price they charge and for their great service returning a mold here and theres not such a big deal. I use a two burner propane stove to cast with and i may seek out a hotter burner (mine is 10'000 btu). I want to cast with propane rather than electricity because its cheaper in my area ( i can fill up a propane tank sometimes for free). just not sure what way to go on that.

[snuffy]

mold again?
alright here we go- long story short i sent six hole .357 mold back to Lee for not lining up, they replaced it no questions asked though knocking the pins back may well have been the fault of myself. Now i have a new mold except this one cast bullets that are .359 at the parting line, .357 across and then .355 just next to the parting line itself. this makes an egg shaped bullet by.004Their customer service dept gave me a few suggestions to try first before sending back a second mold, i tried what they said with the same results. I am wondering if opening the mold too soon/too late could be part of it? surely not the temp, i cast frosty bullets first then backed off the heat just until the frost cleared up as Lee suggested.? I suppose i may not be the first to send back two mold? this is getting rather aggravating.

Lee should know by now that somehow things are not being aligned properly. I had the same exact problem with a 6 hole 9mm 124 2R mold. Oval boolits off by .006! I emailed them, they said return the mold with some boolits I cast. They sent me a new mold with apologies.The new one works like it's supposed to.

I just got 3 molds delivered today from titan reloading. 2 buckshot 6X18 # 4 and 000, and a 6 hole 452-255-RF for a new 45 colt rossi lever gun. I put the 45 mold right to work. It's possibly the best mold of any type I ever worked with. It's REAL hard to even see the parting line in any of the boolits. I prepped it like I always do, boiled in very soapy water, then preheated to at least 400 degrees. It drops right at 250 with a very hard alloy,(17-3 lino-pure lead). Well filled out and they drop clean with little tapping.

So lee does it right much more often than they screw up. Oh, I tried the #4 buck mold, it too worked BUT not always do all three fill out. I suspect I should have tried the temp hotter. I'll try the triple aught next time I fire the pot up. Already had the 00 mold, it too works well.