Methinks this draft of the Lee-ment is all I can find. Possibly we can critique it, a thread of all the tricks..

For sure Lee molds are inexpensive- and with that cost comes production shortcuts that limit the life of these molds. A little tuning negates the premature wear these shortcuts cause- and well worth the time if said mold shoots in one of your guns. I recently ordered two 45/70's in 340 and 405 PB for a friend's gun and thought I'd pass along how I hone them.
I first cast some bullets with a new Lee mold do see if the dimensions are correct and useable. I've had two over the years that weren't worth tuning up- one undersize and another's bore ride 3 thou over- even with plain ww.
First the spruce plate comes off- one of the molds so tight it required clamping up and a mild rap on the screwdriver head to break the self tapping screw free. Appears Lee drills the hole and drives the screw home for a ridge of metal raises off the mold surface. Prevents exact spruce flatness to the mold top surface and starts a wearing process- easily corrected. I take an RCBS case chamfer tool and ream/countersink the hole top. Could do same with a over size drill bit slowly with care. Just enough to remove the ridge. Take the fine toothed file and go around the mold face top edges working down and away to make a beveled edge- mostly for the left and front sides, the direction of the spruce while cutting. These sharp corners will score the spruce plate and start the premature wear out. Next take the RCBS chamfer tool and do the hole attaching the spruce plate- beveling the surface that faces the block face. Just a few turns to remove the sharp edge, as I've seen some with a raised edge here. Not good for long term wear.
In the case of 45 molds the spruce needs metal removed to allow that plate to clear the bullet base while open. I grind area off that would cover the bullet base while dropping the bullet. Easy bullet drop is the goal and at times the spruce against the bullet base will hang the bullet up. Hone the outside edges of the spruce and particularly the ground off area. Smooth-- so no sharp edges can 'eat' the mold face, probably the worst wear feature of Lee's. Now to polish the block face and spruce. I use a flat piece of steel, a holdover from charging lead bullets for firelapping. Any hard flat surface will work- some use plate glass. A polishing of the surfaces is all that's needed here- no measureable metal is removed. J&B bore paste or similar works well. Chrome cleaner or the like- even toothpaste with a little oil will lap the surfaces. The goal that the aluminum face and steel of the spruce don't gaul or wear each other. Polish in a circular motion. Take your finger and feel and the edges and contact areas-- smooth is the thing promoting mold life. Check the mold face for any raised areas around the spruce screw hole. A lite filing with a fine toothed file again used carefully on the raised area works vs excessive lapping is preferred- just take care to file flat. Usually very little is need if at all after the countersink. Repolish the face- making sure all appears flat, raised areas around the spruce would appear bright if not flush.
Now for spruce screw height. I like to lock them down so they don't come loose casting. Simple to do. Take the screw with spacer and tension washer and turn into the hole- note the feel for they don't bottom out and stop via the spacer height. The goal is making the screw bottom without binding the plate. Add hard lead shot, alloy, even round balls of aluminum foil- what have you INTO that hole. Adjust to make the screw to bottom out against that material without undue tension to the plate. Takes some fiddling- but easily done and eliminates all face and spruce wear. Get too much in- just use a small drill bit by hand and turn a little out. Adjust tension for free spruce plate movement and flat fit against the block face to eliminate light showing between the two- best you can. An option decribed below will eliminate all light showing, resulting in ideal fitup. Probably isn't necessary to have a perfect fit as often a minor amount of intolerance here doesn't usually hurt bullet quality.
In the initial casting session- did the bullets hang up requiring more than one rap on the hinge pin to drop? If so, a lite polish of the cavity should help. The forementioned 45's I did are held at the base before the removal of the excess spruce plate material which partially covered the bullet base. Clamp the blocks together litely with a small c clamp or similar and charge the cavity with your polish used previously. Make a tight fitting cloth scag out of an old bore brush-- taking care to protect the mold from the steel tip of the brush. I usually snap that tip off with a pliers- bending back and forth to snap off. Put some polish medium down the cavity and insert the scag mounted in a hand drill. This cloth plug shouldn't show out of the cavity for a clean edge on the bullet heel is desired. Run the drill for around half a minute- less if using courser abrasive that JB. Just a lite polish is all that needed.
Now run a trial casting session. Clean up with hot water and detergent, dry and coat with mold release. Do the face of the blocks and both sides of the spruce plate. I use a isopropy alcohol graphite agent marketed by mold makers. Coat the cavity with same, lube the block pin and edges per Lee instructions and run some bullets. Bullet drop shoud be on opening or with slight tap to hinge bolt.
Took longer to write this up than it does to do a couple molds. By doing this-- you eliminate wear provided you keep the spruce hole cut free of alloy and lube the block alignment points. And what's a little time vs trouble free operation and long mold life?

Options to Refine the Lee Cast Mold.

A hold down finger to keep the spruce plate perfectly flush is easily done. Drill a short depth hole on the right block (one without spruce screw hole)- on the left center side of the upper side of the block. Mate the diamenter of hole to what your attaching the finger with- a short self tapping sheet metal screw or similar- even a short shanked rivet. Take care of course not to go too deep. Metal is usually fairly thick here and excess height of said attachment screw can be taken up with a flat washer or screw nut. Take a piece of coat hanger wire or similar and bend one end around to form a slot the screw can bear against. The idea is to bend this steel wire up and above the spruce plate to a height of say 3/8 ths of an inch. Then make a bend heading the wire down to impact with the spruce plate. This contact point holds the plate flush with the block. At this point make another bend in the wire going straight up. Cut off excess wire- and be sure to lube this contact point with same lube used for mold pin.

Work this area for way you did it. <<

I note the ending or last paragraph is incomplete. I had a condensed version somewheres... it might turn up. 'Puter crash this summer.....

I'll look again.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by aladin:
[QB]I note the ending or last paragraph is incomplete. I had a condensed version somewheres... it might turn up. 'Puter crash this summer.....

I'll look again. I see this is the old version-- which mostly is still applicable.