Lee Mould

Ben

Ben

Moderator
Staff member
A few days ago, I ordered from Midway a Lee, 30 cal. , 170 gr. flat double cav. mould.
The mould arrived and I cast with it.
.307" on the bands,it produced a gas check shank that would barely allow a gas check onto the shank.
A nose that miked .297".
I thought ... " NOPE ", I'm not fooling with this piece of junk.
So, back to MidWay it went for a refund.

Ben
 
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RBHarter

RBHarter

West Central AR
I seem to have the opposite luck . I replaced a 358-200 that went AWOL this one casts an extreme .366 . Average looks like .363x365 . That'll be rough in the 358 Win but should be ok in the 38/200 ........
Actually I think I might have the alignment pins hanging a little as the gas checks seem to slip on solid .
I did have to deburr the mouth of the sizer die as it didn't like the checks sized nose first .

No sense keeping a tool that won't do what you need it to .
 
Ben

Ben

Moderator
Staff member
I will say this......

MidWay was much easier to work with than Titan on a defective mould ! !
 
Ian

Ian

Notorious member
Dangit, Ben, I could have used that mould, it would have been the cat's ass for powder coating sans gas checks for a bunch of different .30-cals. Yep, I will NEVER buy anything from Titan after your experience with them. Midway and some other places actually stand behind their products and don't act like one $20 defect return is going to bankrupt them.

Someone mentioned in a thread a day or two ago that Lee must single you out for all their garbage/out of spec moulds, I'm starting to believe they have your credit card number linked to the mothership! "Quick, he's buying from Midway this time, get Carl out of bed and forward the tracking number, we'll hotshot a defect to him and intercept the package at the Montgomery UPS hub at 0200! Yeah, that undersized one from the OJT session with the new operator on lathe #4 will do nicely. Make sure to put a Shirley sticker on it!"

I must be livin' right because they send almost all of their good ones to me....knock on wood!
 
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Ben

Ben

Moderator
Staff member
Ian said:
Dangit, Ben, I could have used that mould, it would have been the cat's ass for powder coating sans gas checks for a bunch of different .30-cals. Yep, I will NEVER buy anything from Titan after your experience with them. Midway and some other places actually stand behind their products and don't act like one $20 defect return is going to bankrupt them.

Someone mentioned in a thread a day or two ago that Lee must single you out for all their garbage/out of spec moulds, I'm starting to believe they have your credit card number linked to the mothership! "Quick, he's buying from Midway this time, get Carl out of bed and forward the tracking number, we'll hotshot a defect to him and intercept the package at the Montgomery UPS hub at 0200! Yeah, that undersized one from the OJT session with the new operator on lathe #4 will do nicely. Make sure to put a Shirley sticker on it!"

I must be livin' right because they send almost all of their good ones to me....knock on wood!
Click to expand...


Ian,

That's funny ! ! :):):)

Ben
 
quicksylver

quicksylver

Well-Known Member
Got to say ..we must be the most optimistic group of guys around....a 50/50 chance of getting something that works is just fine with us and just because it hurt the last ten times I hit my thumb with a hammer doesn't necessarily mean it's going to hurt this time..ya right..;);););)

But we keep doing it...why?...because I believe we are dedicated problem solvers...if we can't fix a defective mold..maybe we can get the company to wake up and do it right...

On a brighter note we have a safety net that allows us to get side tracked trying to make things right... we have Al and Tom ...real people who listen and care...
 
3

300BLK

Well-Known Member
Ian said:
Dangit, Ben, I could have used that mould, it would have been the cat's ass for powder coating sans gas checks for a bunch of different .30-cals.
Click to expand...

Buy an Ideal 308291 or U311291 and you'll be in Heaven.
 
O

Ole_270

Well-Known Member
I just bought two Lee molds for a new Sig 1911. The 2 hole H&G 68 clone was the most picky mold I've ever come across. Everything had to be just right but then still had rounded edges, and knock the heck out of it with a stick to get it to release. Took a couple hours scoring vent lines and lapping cavities to get it usable. Cast 500 bullets in 3 hours afterwards.
The 6 cavity 200 gr RF mold was a completely different story. First mold fill was usable and dropped before I even got it completely open. This one is a joy to use. I did find a few out of round bullets in the short casting session, bigger at 90 degrees to the part line all the way to .457. I'll have to play with it a bit to find out if it's a single cavity out of round or if I just didn't get the mold fully closed on a fill or two.
That double cavity sure makes me appreciate my NOE and Accurate molds!
 
Reed

Reed

Active Member
I have the same luck as Ben with Lee moulds. Small nose, stingy little gas check shank, undersized bands. Not to mention egg-shaped bullets and locator buttons/studs that fall out. Ian, if you really want some undersized moulds, I have a C309-150F, C309-200-R, and C324-175-1R, that could be had for the shipping. I'm done. Same goes for a very undersized 6 cavity TL356-124-TC. Nice-working mould, but cavities are different dimensions, out-of-round, and did I mention, undersized? Saved my pennies and just ordered a good 5-cavity from Accurate to replace it. Will do the same to replace the others I've mentioned as my reloading budget allows. These moulds are well past the point of returning them. I've Beagled them, staked the locators, tried enlarging one, and have discovered they're not worth my time. Someone with better tooling would probably have better results. I like some of Lee's other equipment, but I've told my wife to beat me in my sleep if I ever consider buying another of their moulds. PM me if interested.
 
KeithB

KeithB

Resident Half Fast Machinist
I've had much better results with Lee's 6 cavity versions than with their 2 cavity versions. And yes, there are LOTS of better molds out there. You pretty much get what you pay for.
 
quicksylver

quicksylver

Well-Known Member
I have to say that I did manage to get them on a couple of good days when I got my Lee 312 155-2R and 160-TL...good molds fine shooting bullets..two out of the eight I got from Lee is not bad for them....obviously I'm lowering the bar here..
 
I

Intheshop

Banned
My last Lee (7mm,not soup can) is one of those....oh,how you say?dang near perfect fit.Little bump on the nose,as cast body,lube to just above GC.

Needs a new sprue plate,being a bit Lee'ish but,other than that...alls good.It's one of those that keeps me going back to Lee?
 
Ben

Ben

Moderator
Staff member
Of late, purchasing Lee bullet moulds is a dice roll.
......A not so good dice roll for me.

Ben
 
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