Nuuuuuuu :(

[unfy]

Finally ... a free weekend ... and the weather has been gorgeous.

Decided to relax and cast some bullets at work with that casting cart. Liking the cart, it could possibly be a bit taller though... but not really worried about it - casted for 5-6 hours without trouble.

The mold of choice for the afternoon ? The sweet 40 s&w hollow point.

Was getting through some of the lead bought from shooter ... had melted last ingot of the night with some some pewter (for tin!).... and had the mold in the pot to heat it up etc...

Well... one of the alignment pins fell out . Possibly when tapping it with wooden hammer handle etc,  I dunno.

I bugged the guy who made it for advice on reseating the pin, etc.  Figured maybe some thoughts here wouldn't be bad either.  Prolly just a normal iron pin in a hole in the aluminum - and prolly just a normal part of the lee mold it's based on and nothing custom (i dunno).

I do have the not-hollowpoint mold still.  And I can always cast some 00 buckshot too I guess... (if I can't get this fixed).

Waaaaaah!!! I like the HP mold alottttttt Waaaaahhhhh!!!


addenum: and the splatter in the pic ? some from the mold situation, but a fair amount from breaking the mold over the pot.  Really should break it over a paint / coffee can or some big metal bowl or whatever.

[shooter]

 I tell every one stay away from lee molds. they are the worst on the market,

   The aluminum will react to heat , it expands in uneven ways, you will get out of round bullets, and the pin holes will inlarge making the line up pins wobble in the holes, and causing off center bullets.( the 2 halves will not line up)

  I have over 50 sets of molds , and only have 1 lee, that's a 12 ga slug mold

[shooter]

I tell every one stay away from lee molds. they are the worst on the market,

   The aluminum will react to heat , it expands in uneven ways, you will get out of round bullets, and the pin holes will inlarge making the line up pins wobble in the holes, and causing off center bullets.( the 2 halves will not line up)

  I have over 50 sets of molds , and only have 1 lee, that's a 12 ga slug mold

  I open my molds over a metal paint pan, 

[unfy]

Metal paint pan is a great choice.  I'll grab one for next weekend.  Tnx shooter!

Still bummed about the mold though.  I figure the way to fix would be heat everything back up and then attempt to reseat the pin.  I dunno.

Annnnnd... I'll possibly break down and just buy a lubrisizer.  I dunno how much free time I have for playing with powder coat / plating - especially if I don't have a working HP mold

[unfy]

$200 for a lyman ? $170 for the RCBS ?

Nope. 

Nope Nope Nope.

Gonna just push'em through the lee sizing die already have and then pan lube.

edit: changed order of size / lube just in case someone wanted to be nit picky

[shooter]

I paid that much for a mold back in the 70,s a 6 hole Hensley and gibbs, the mold is just part of the deal. figure out a mold should pay for itself in a few thousand bullets,  You know how much lead I have and I go thru a lot, get good equipment the first time, and don't have to buy it again,

[unfy]

I paid that much for a mold back in the 70,s a 6 hole Hensley and gibbs, the mold is just part of the deal. figure out a mold should pay for itself in a few thousand bullets,  You know how much lead I have and I go thru a lot, get good equipment the first time, and don't have to buy it again,

I generally agree about quality equipment.  The only exception I have, at the moment, is the soldering station I'm using at home.  It's a chinese knock off but has been a trooper so far.  (And obviously all of the things I build myself aren't super high standards  )

Oh, and that large read out scale you picked up based on my curiosity is a cheapie

The Lee mold issues can probably all be addressed if you know how to treat the molds.  I don't normally run things hot, and I don't use a lot of strength when doing things... nor pound on them...  and this would be my first issue (letting it get real hot) ... sooooo.... I'm not willing to bail on Lee molds just yet.  That said - are they more finicky and more fragile than the not-aluminum molds ? Yup.


I've done some thinking here or there about the powder coating.  Wonder if the liquid based coating would work.  I think anglers sometimes mix the powdercoat with acetone and bathe the lure ... then bake ?  Something like that.  Wonder if that kind of coating is thick enough to be useful for bullets.  And I really need to stop messing around and build a proper jig.  Granted, that was gonna be a HP jig 

[unfy]

Erk at hollowpointmold.com (where I bought it from) offered to reseat the pin(s) for me free of charge.  Will be mailing it to him this week. \o/

Will probably cast some 00-buckshot in the mean time.

[unfy]

  I open my molds over a metal paint pan, 

While waiting for next bar of shooter's lead to melt...

Paint pan has been doing great.

In order to reduce noise for my own sake and for those around me, I lined the back and sides with gorilla tape.  It's made a huge difference!