Lee 6 cavity Fail!

[Thompsoncustom]

Got a nice new lee 6 cavity mold in today and everything seemed to be going good than all of a sudden the sprue handle broke. So I'll have to call Lee and see if they'll send me a new one or if i'll have to send the whole thing in.

Is it common for the handles to break, wasn't the wood it was the metal part that pivots.

 

[243winxb]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?132213-Broke-the-sprue-handle-on-my-new-Lee-6-cavity-mold Let me guess, Yes?

 

[flipajig]

I have several 6 cavity molds and I did break one once.
Lee replaced it very fast at no cost to me (great company). To remidy this I preheat my molds on a hot plate (from a old coffie pot) so when I start casting I will fill 2 cavitys after a couple fills I will move to 3 fill a couple more tiles and move on to 4 cavitys and so on until your spruce plate is hot enough. For a smaller Boolit you have to cast at a fairly fast pace to keep your mold hot for the larger Boolits I have to cast at a slower pace.
Flip

 

[Reefinmike]

yeah, they are soft wood, best to get the mold nice and warm before casting up. you can always let it cool down for a minute or two, but heating it up again is a PIA. With my lee 10lb bottom pour pot, I fill it to the top, set my mold on top and then drop lead scraps in the pot until molten lead has full contact with all the mold directly over the pot. Let it sit ten minutes or so, as long as lead on the bottom slicks right off and a drop of water boils right off(dry mold, of course away from the pot) im good to go. I may get a few batches of frosty bullets this way, but they never hurt nobody. plus I never have hard to cut sprues! The one time I have dealt with lee for a broken return spring on my safetyprime, they sent the tiny part out in a big padded envelope express mail, I think it was three days from when i sent the email and when the package was in the mailbox.

 

[KansasSasquatch]

I hear with the 6 cavity moulds it also helps to lube them with a tiny amount of liquid alox. I don't know how much that helps as I only have 2 cavity moulds.

 

[StrawHat]

The six cavity molds need to have the sprue plate shut completely before pouring. Also cut the sprues while they are still soft. I find a gloved hand works well for swinging the sprueplate.

Lots of info on the boolits site for using the Lee molds.

 

[rsrocket1]

Actually operator fail, but it's understandable

Don't despair, it's pretty common to break the sprue handle bar by forcing it when you don't close the sprue plate completely. While I haven't broken the bar myself, I have had occasions when I did not close the plate completely. It's pretty obvious when you make that mistake, the handle will have a lot of play before contacting the block.

Not to worry, all you need to do is to wedge a flat blade screwdriver between the mold block and the part of the handle that pushed against it. The added leverage will allow the sprue plate to cut off the sprue without breaking the handle.

Don't give up, the 6 cavity molds are awesome, you can really crank out bullets with them. 2 weeks ago I did this in just about 2 hours, 875 bullets:

 

[kerreckt]

My experiences with the Lee 6 cavity molds have been good ones. Like anything else there is a bit of a learning curve but once you get the mold at the right temperature and your lead at the right temperature you can really crank out some bullets. Once I have everything right I never want to stop because it is so satisfying to make so many bullets so quickly.

 

[blarby]

Don't despair, it's pretty common to break the sprue handle bar by forcing it when you don't close the sprue plate completely.

True.

I've broken three of them.....

With that said, its such a common occurence, that you think they'd make the sprue handle tang go all of the way through the wood handle- not a nib.

 

[Reefinmike]

just to hear myself talk- I love the six bangers, I can pretty easily cast 600-650 bullets an hour using my 158gr lswc .358 mold or 230gr ltc mold. A couple weeks ago I busted out 3200 230gr 45's in 6 hours with a few short breaks. that 110# of lead went real quick, only had 4 or 5 bullets that I had to throw back in the pot.

 

[Thompsoncustom]

The sprue plate appears to be fully closed and flush with the other side. I'll send off some pics and I'm sure lee will take care of me. Ya in the little casting I did it really seemed to crank out some bullets compared to all my 2 cavity's.

 

[buckbrush]

usually breaking the sprue plate handle is from running your mould to cold. Your sprue puddle should remain molten for a few seconds before solidifying if your mould is hot enough.

 

[splattergun]

I hear with the 6 cavity moulds it also helps to lube them with a tiny amount of liquid alox. I don't know how much that helps as I only have 2 cavity moulds.

Lee says don't use liquid alox, use the alox stick.

Gulf wax works too.