linoww wrote: What have you been able to do when the sprue on their 1-2 cavity molds refuses to lay flat? I have a couple that just refuse to work properly.That has been my only big complaint other than the cheap alignment roll pins falling out.
"5 to 6K bullets a year with and they have done that for 6 to 7 years."
42,000 bullets from a Lee mold is amazing.
George
Amazes me too particularly in light of what I read about how cheap they are. Honestly, I've never had an alignment pin fall out on a 2-cavity and had one pin slide slightly on a 6-cavity.
My preference are the 2-cavity molds (the ones everyone consider cheap). I have 17 2-cavity molds (all custom designs). I've had some cataloged 2-cavity molds but sold them as the designs simply didn't interest me. I just sold three custom 6-cavities and have one cataloged mold left, the TL452-230-2R (my oldest and longest in use).
I've tried different things with the different molds that I have but there are two things I have written in law (for myself). Before the mold is used for the first time, I polish the upper surface of the mold with Mother's Aluminum Wheel Polish. I also polish the underside of the sprue plate with a sharpening stone. Please read “polish", not remove metal. I've bought the Bullshop Sprue Plate lube but stopped using it as I couldn't keep from getting it in the bullet cavities. The polishing has made the need for the lube a non-issue. With the polishing to my satisfaction, I insure that the pin holes are staked, clean the mold with Coleman fuel, and get busy. I use the Lee 50/50 stick wax to keep the pins and sprue plate lubed at it's pivot point. The 6-cavity pin that started to move was a result of the pin sticking (operator error on my part) from lack of lube (and lack of heat control).
The second important item I've learned is not to use excessive heat. In fact, I think heat is the #1 cause of problems with the molds. From the pins falling out to the bullets being out of round, it is all caused by heat. I cast with a Lyman #2 clone and now limit my casting to temperatures between 600° to 620°. I've used heat to try to correct a lot of problems in the casting session from a poor alloy mix to poor mold fill-out but the bottom-line is that it is damaging your aluminum mold through expansion and contraction.
All last year I conducted an exhaust study for my reference on mold/alloy temperature and bullet diameter. I measured bullet after bullet with and against the seam and that's how I have a pretty good idea on how many I'm casting. When you apply heat to an aluminum mold, it IS going to react. Bullet diameters grow as do the alignment pin channels and holes. Speaking of which, it is a very simple matter to remove the blocks of the 1 & 2 cavity molds by cleaning up the pin hole with a drill bit (best done with hand pressure), lightly heating the block with a propane torch, touch the stick wax to the hole, tap the mold, and the pins will fall right out. So you see, in a normal castings session if you have lube the pins you are pretty much at a point that they can fall out once heat is applied to the mold. If they come out NOT via the hole, there was definately not enough wax being applied and I would say way too much heat being used.
The ONLY Lee-menting I've done is drilling and taping a set screw on my original 2-cavity TLC432-285-RF. I 'm not sure why I did it as I didn't need it. If the screw is tight and you keep the pivot point lubed, it shouldn't back out as there is no wear against the screw because of the sprue bushing. Heat will cause the parts to stick through expansion but that is why there is a constant need for lube.
In troubleshooting mold problems I'm no longer surprised to hear that someone didn't follow the Lee instructions on lubing the mold at the start of the session. A big error if they did is not relubing the mold on a constant basis. Actually, my biggest surprise is if they read the instructions at all.
