I bought a mold for a .380ACP, thinking I would not be doing a lot of casting that size, went cheap and bought Lee (Buy nice or buy twice rule was ignored). After a few bullets, they are coming out oval as the halves don't line up. Lee site says lube can fix this. I'm missing something on that one, there is a mechanical problem and lube is going to fix it? They are free to wobble and may or may not be alined when closed. How would lube help? It looks to me that the halves are held to the handle by a pen on each side, possibly adding a screw on each side would fix it? Any tips?

I think what Lee's saying is to lube the guide pins that align the blocks. If they are dry, the guide pin can bind in the hole and not allow the blocks to line up properly, which would result in a somewhat distorted or oval bullet. Just be careful not to get any lube into the cavity.

I've used Lee moulds for years, along with Lyman and RCBS iron moulds... and the aluminum blocks do have their own peculiar quirks. One, they require a lot more heat to get a good, well filled bullet. They can also be difficult to get a good bullet from until they've has a chance to break in. It's also possible that you have a defectively manufactored block set... but I'd suspect the problem is more likely the blocks are not aligning properly due the the pins not sliding into the holes without binding.

Porosonik.

Thanks for the response Porosonik. The halves were misaligned enough that the base of the bullet looked like a figure eight and the nose, I guess you could say was hairlipped. I didn't see that any amount of lube would correct that. It was hit and miss sometimes they were somewhat in alignment and mostly not. Can you say junk? You can't ruin junk, so I figured I'd give it an attempt at fixing them and if it failed trash them. I clamped the halves in my drill press vise with the handles attached. I then drilled through the lip of the mold and into the handle on both sides and put a sheet metal screw in them. They now close properly. It was a simple deal, but the consumer should not have to correct what should have been done by Lee. Speaks poorly of Lee in my opinion.

Lee will replace it free . They have good customer sac. I have no problem with the ten I have.

That's kinda weird that your blocks would be that far off. As I understand it, Lee moulds aren't cut using a cherry like iron blocks are- they squeeze the blocks together with a hardened steel plug between them, and the cavity is formed under pressure. At least that's the way they do their round ball moulds. Maybe they somehow got the blocks seperated and mismatched- that way, somewhere out there somebody's got a mould that's mis-aligned as bad as yours... only in the other direction .

Porosonik.

I just molded around 6000 bullets of various sizes with lee molds no problem.

I also have Lyman and RCBS steel molds I pick the lee over them when I can.

If normal things don't aligned them send them back they well take care of you.

One of my recently acquired Lee molds that have the new style alignment pins like you normally find on custom molds had an alignment issue and required me to seat one of the pins in place. With the mold closed and lined up by hand I placed the mold on it side on the flat side of a small anvil and gently tapped the pin into place with a brass punch. It fixed the alignment problem and I haven't had any trouble with it since.

Sounds like maybe their QC is taking a nosedive. Ive never had such a problem with any of my Lee molds.

I have a 4 cav. Lyman 356404
You can borrow that and cast up a pile of them.

I never had a problem with Lee molds.

Dave

Neither have I.

Contact Lee as there customer service is great. I'm sure they will fix the problem.

Did you buy new for used?

I've been using Lee products since the 1970s and they are trouble free in my experience. I only moved away from Lee when I began to shoot double rifles as Lee does not make dies, etc., for the large English calibers. I still use the auto prime fore some small calibers and the auto prime 2 for teh big stuff, and won't use any case lube other than their product.
Cal

Its good to hear most guys have had good success with Lee molds. I like the look of their heavy weight 44 and 475 bullet shapes. And the price is very good.