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Thread: Lee Moulds

  1. #1
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    Lee Moulds

    Hi,

    I was making some round lead balls for my revolver and some patched balls for shotgun this weekend, and was finding the lead balls weren't of a smooth finish, they looked like they were made of lots of layers, and giving a questionable finish.

    I expected the 12 gauge balls to be a bit less uniform but the 454's were the same. I was lubing the mould with beeswax as I was doing it, is this a wrong thing to do? The lead was bubbling a little bit as it went into the mould... Any thoughts?

    Cheers
    -Tom

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by Graysmoke View Post
    Hi,

    I was making some round lead balls for my revolver and some patched balls for shotgun this weekend, and was finding the lead balls weren't of a smooth finish, they looked like they were made of lots of layers, and giving a questionable finish.

    I expected the 12 gauge balls to be a bit less uniform but the 454's were the same. I was lubing the mould with beeswax as I was doing it, is this a wrong thing to do? The lead was bubbling a little bit as it went into the mould... Any thoughts?

    Cheers
    -Tom
    Your lead is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too hot.

    Not sure why you are lubing the mould, either. Some casters 'smoke' it before starting to cast - holding a match under the open mould so as to give it a fine coating of soot - but I've never done that except to see what happens if you do it. Couldn't see any difference, me. I cast 535gr Minié bullets and .457 ball and conical, using Lee moulds, for the last forty-something years without using beeswax as a lube - in any case, liquid lead IS a lubricative metal at that stage.

    Get a pyrometer and use it - remember that lead melts at a temperature of 328Celsius/621F - bubbling means boiling - NOT good, unless you have unwelcome visitors trying to climb your castle walls...

    tac
    Last edited by tacfoley; 15-04-2014 at 12:13 PM.

  3. #3
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    As above
    I put the molds flat on a hot plate to heat up
    Sounds like your molds are not getting hot enough and wrinkling the bullet
    Do not put the wrinkly bullets back in as this cools your lead and can splash you lol
    As tac I use no lube or smoke the mold

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by loiner1965 View Post
    As above
    I put the molds flat on a hot plate to heat up
    Sounds like your molds are not getting hot enough and wrinkling the bullet
    Do not put the wrinkly bullets back in as this cools your lead and can splash you lol
    As tac I use no lube or smoke the mold
    Well, I keep my moulds on the edge of the electric thermostatically-controlled melting pot - Greysmoke, you DO have a melting pot, don't you? That way they never get cold enough to be wrinkly. Remember - cold = wrinkly, hot = frosty.

    Keep them in the 'frinkly' area...

    tac

  5. #5
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    Firstly - are your moulds CLEAN - and I do mean spotless - washed off all the oil that's on the mould when new?
    Secondly, pre-heat the mould on the top of the pot to get it hot but not so hot the lead won't set when you cast into it.
    Thirdly, don't run the pot at full temperature.
    Grey finish to the boolit or ball usually indicates too hot lead pot. Wrinkles on the boolits or balls usually means cold mould/dirty mould/pot temperature set too low.
    Good luck

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by dodgyrog View Post
    Firstly - are your moulds CLEAN - and I do mean spotless - washed off all the oil that's on the mould when new?
    Secondly, pre-heat the mould on the top of the pot to get it hot but not so hot the lead won't set when you cast into it.
    Thirdly, don't run the pot at full temperature.
    Grey finish to the boolit or ball usually indicates too hot lead pot. Wrinkles on the boolits or balls usually means cold mould/dirty mould/pot temperature set too low.
    Good luck
    Lol I got the lee drippy pot so now I use a stainless pan hence the hot plate

  7. #7
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    I've ordered a melting pot, just waiting for it to come in... At the time I was using an iron pot and a camping stove, so I didn't really have much control or know how hot the lead was getting

    Moulds were pretty clean, other than the beeswax I had put in them whilst I was doing it. I think its probably a combination of the beeswax and the mould was too cold, although at one stage I had the mould smoking as I opened it up and I was still getting wrinklys... I think this was the wax burning off... The bubbling was also probably the excess of wax...

    - Tom

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Graysmoke View Post
    I've ordered a melting pot, just waiting for it to come in... At the time I was using an iron pot and a camping stove, so I didn't really have much control or know how hot the lead was getting

    Moulds were pretty clean, other than the beeswax I had put in them whilst I was doing it. I think its probably a combination of the beeswax and the mould was too cold, although at one stage I had the mould smoking as I opened it up and I was still getting wrinklys... I think this was the wax burning off... The bubbling was also probably the excess of wax...

    - Tom
    Where did you learn about putting beeswax in the mould? A thumbnail-sized piece can be used a a flux in the lead, to get the dross up to the surface, but I've never heard of putting ANYTHING into a mould before.

    tac

  9. #9
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    as above. never heard of fluxing the mould. I heat mine up on a gas ring once the lead is fluid and smoke them with a long match when new but thats
    about it. Occasionally i may lube the "spigots" that keep the two halves of the mould lined up when closed with wonderlube but never put anything in
    the mould itself. If too hot i generally get a blue colour on top of my lead and wrinkles in the finished product if too cold. At the end of the day it comes
    down to experience and you develop a feel for it. Tim

  10. #10
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    Doesn't make any difference to the performance or accuracy so I read in bullets are cast too hot and are frosty in appearance

  11. #11
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    I cast range scrap for my .357 and pure lead ball for various muzzle loaders. I have two separate and labelled Lee pots. Tend to run about "7" on the dials but I do use a thermometer as well.

    Lubing the mould : I do use beeswax on mine, but only a light touch on the sprue cutter hinge to lubricate it, then it's good for about 400 casts or so. No beeswax inside the mould ... wonder if the OP read somewhere about this but mis-understood ?

    Cheers!
    Paul M.
    NSRA and NRA qualified RCO.

  12. #12
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    Hey

    I didnt really learn that I needed to flux the mould, I just did it I read the instruction manual for the lee mould and it said something about lubing the mould with wax, I think now that this is probably after use to allow the mould to be preserved...

    Well, I think the problem has been found, now I know what to do next time... No wax! cheers for the advice fellas

    - Tom

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Graysmoke View Post
    Hey

    I didnt really learn that I needed to flux the mould, I just did it I read the instruction manual for the lee mould and it said something about lubing the mould with wax, I think now that this is probably after use to allow the mould to be preserved...

    Well, I think the problem has been found, now I know what to do next time... No wax! cheers for the advice fellas

    - Tom
    My .457 Lee mould was bought the same day as my ROA - March 2nd, 1986. I smoked it that day, but not since, and it has cast me untold thousands of ball since then. They are aluminium, and do not require preserving from the weather, unlike a steel moud would do.

    For them, I leave the last ball/bullet in place, and spray the outside, when cool, with WD40.

    Not a problem.

    tac

  14. #14
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    As others have said, mold should not have any lube in the cavities, bit of lube on the hinge and I 'crayon' the top and bottom of the sprue plate with a carpenters pencil, found the sprue drops off easier when in production.

    Also leave a bullet in the mold and spray with a preservative, actual only good use for WD40 I've found!

    Wrinkles or frost it a temperature thing. Bullet should be smooth, shiny and 'sharp', all the edges filled and defined.

    Castings a fun thing, addictive, I end up with rows of bullets, looks like some WW1 artillery photo!

    Terry

  15. #15
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    Lee melting pot

    I also use a Lee electric melting pot bought back in the early eighties. I cast at about 325 degrees centigrade (750 or so f) which is between 6 and 7 on the thermostat. I cast medium hardness lead for .358 swc RCBS twin cavity and lee molds for everything else, mainly twin cavity 454 ball in soft lead. The RCBS takes longet to warm up to casting temp so I leave it resting on the top of the pot while the lead is melting which works fine. Within one or two casts the boolits are coming out fine. If they're wrinkly and shiney I turn the temp up a notch, frosty, I turn it down a notch. I usually flux the range or scrap lead in a big pot on a turkey broiler gas ring using a pea size piece of beeswax and burn off the smoke with a blowlamp. These fumes are a touch toxic.This is then cast into clean ingots for the Lee pot. I don't usually flux the lead any further. I've tried smoking the mold cavities with a smokey candle and also tried a spray of high temp silicone into the holes to aid boolit release, but like tacfoley, haven't noticed much difference. Usually a tap on the hinge pin drops sticky ones out fine.

    As to WD40, as an engineer of nearly fifty years I don't think I could live without it!
    [I]DesG
    Domani e troppo tardi

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