Finally got around to casting up a batch of bullets from my mold. I had previously just cast up a few to see how they looked. Using a lead mix of WW's with a few lbs of Lino thrown in I cast up a nice pile of good looking bullets.

The problem came when I started to lube & size them. Every bullet I sized indicated the mould halves were not lined up correctly? I properly prepped and lubed the mould before starting. I closed the mould and used a toothpick to feel around the circumfrence in the cavity and got a definite "catch" at the seam line on both sides.

Did anyone else have this problem? Is there something I am not doing? I thought the Lee dies were lathe bored and this should happen unless they mismatched halves?

Neal in AZ

Hi Neal! I also just tried my Lee mold. The bullets were .0015 out of round. (.3575 on the big side to .356 on the small.) Perhaps my old equipment or my inability to correctly use would explain it. I also wonder how something lathe bored would be out of round. Dale

Out of roundness on a lathe bored mold is caused by the mold halves not aligning perfectly. 0.001" misalignment causes 0.002" out of roundness.

I just measured some of the samples that Lar45 was kind enough to give me. Out of roundness on his mold was 0.001" or less. Diameters were all over the place, though, some 0.356", some 0.359". I've always wondered how Lee could lathe bore 6 cavities and have them all come out the same diameter. Now I know.

I would contact Lee about this. If the two halves are not lineing up then maybe the blocks got mixed up??

I am happy to report that mine shoot better than a reasonable man would ask for. I don't worry about a lot of the things you guys worry about. If they shoot well, it's good enough for me. I only start measuring stuff if they don't shoot well.

You might check out the alignment pins with a loupe. It's quite possible that they are not making full contact. You might also open the screw holes in your handles just a hair. I ran into a set of handles in the long ago that took that treatment for the blocks to align properly.

HI all
I was thinking that I got the only one with alignment problems.

Mine was .003 out of round, right out of the box. So I just boxed it back up and sent it back to Lee, 8 days later I received it back and it was right on the money as far as roundness goes.

I am sure I could have fixed it myself but I am tired of working on Lee molds. They guarantee roundness to a .001, so I held them to it .
Good Luck

I cast about 200 with mine. Shot them in a 357 max and a 35 rimmed Rem. Shot just fine and looked normal when I sized them. If they shoot OK who cares if they are .001 or.002 out off round. The sizer takes care of that. Just my thoughts. I've only shot about 30,000 cast bullets. Papalote