Lee Precision Melter question

[Loki610]

Alright i gave it another try this morning, much warmer today only -3c. Really starting to regret buying the small Lee precision melter, way too small to warm both the lead ladle and mold. Might have to sell it and upgrade to the 4-20. Got it to work anyway, the clean warmer mold worked much better, no wrinkles at all! made 194 keepers and 9 rejects in less than an hour. This is just range scrap from the PPC range.

 

[anchor3593]

Using two pots works very well - a little one to premelt ingots - I just pick it up and tip it into the larger bottom pour pot. This prevents wild temperature swings - keeping the process regular.

Fluxing the pot is way over-rated - it mostly just smokes the place up.

I use a little aluminum garden spade-scoop to cut sprues into - easy to slip them back into the mix while they are still hot.

The Lee six cavity is great for turning out lots - my personal best after culling is 190 lbs in one day - no break.

Weigh a few - if they vary much, you likely have lead on the mould faces.

Castboolits would have lots of tips for cleaning etc.. I wonder if the vinegar/peroxide mix would clean them up nice.

It takes far less tumble lube than might be expected - unless you are running them to very high pressure/velocity.

 

[kjohn]

Loki610: Good looking bunch of bullets! I love casting. Those 6-cavity tumble lube molds are the cat's a.... meow. I remember how thrilled I was when I made my first bunch. I cast rifle and pistol, all Lee molds. I have one Lyman mold. It works fine too. Have fun!!

 

[Loki610]

Cast some boolits for buddys muzzleloader yesterday and Decided I had enough of that ridiculous 4lb pot! Sold it to him for $20 and ordered the Lee 4-20 and 2 - 2cavity molds from the fsreloading site. Cheaper than buying the pot at wholesale here!
Pleasantly surprised with the accuracy from my first patch of 158grn SWC, at 50 yards I got 12 shots into a 8" target face from my S&W.
Now I cant wait to try the 105gr SWC and 148gr WC

 

[Ed Smurf]

I cast roundballs for my ML using a Lee 2 cavity mold. I heard that you coat the inside of the mold with lampblack...I put the mold over a candle which deposits the soot . Is this method OK or are there more modern (better) ways. My RBs come out perfectly shiny once you are at right temp.

 

[ted_dent]

x2 on the oily mold. Lee molds need a good scrub and sometimes a polish before they will fill properly. The six cavity ones are better though in my experience. I think every melter will be set different to get the right temp. My 4-20 drip-o-matic is making frosties by #6 on the dial.

I set my Lee 4-20 melter at 7 and it works just right without frosting the bullets. Are you casting with one mold or two? If you only use one mold and cast continuously it will heat up to the point where the bullets will begin to frost. I use two 6 cavity molds alternately in this rhythm - pour the first mold, set it down, pour the second mold, set it down, cut the first sprue & drop the bullets, pour, set it down, cut the second sprue, drop the bullets, pour, set it down, etc. You could alter this to pour, cut sprue, drop bullets, set it down & repeat with second mold and that would also work.

I find with the Lee molds the key is to give the mold a chance to cool down a bit between pours. The two mold system also greatly increases production because you never have to wait to do a pour. I have a friend who actually uses three molds in sequence. It works but he has to go like hell to keep the molds from cooling down too much and if casting larger bullets like 44s or 45s the lead level in the pot really drops quickly.

However, the 6 cavity molds crank bullets out like there's no tomorrow. I used to use two cavity but switched over a couple of years ago to the Lee 6 cavity and have never gone back.

 

[hunter64]

I made a PID controller to control the temperature of the pot to within 25 deg. F .

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=480814&highlight=pid

I preheat the mold on a hot plate and start pouring after the temp is up to where it needs to be for which ever mold I am using. As I start to make bullets I carefully start to regulate only the mold temperature by how quick I refill and dump the bullets from the mold. With the PID controller taking care of the pot I can really crank out the bullets with very little reject rate.

 

[leverboy]

I set my Lee 4-20 melter at 7 and it works just right without frosting the bullets. .

You know, I should probably experiment more with lead temp. Like you say, I may be getting frosted bullets because of an overheated mold, and yet my alloy is still not hot enough. I just got this melter and have not used it that much yet. Thanks for the tip!