Lee Moulds

[tacfoley]

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

[thibben]

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

[DesG]

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!

[thibben]

Des,

Agree, as a water displacing oil its OK. . (Caveat, not on molded connectors etc.)

Terry