New Mould Questions

[The_Shadow]

You can also check with Erik of Hollow point Mold Service http://www.hollowpointmold.com/
He has some of the new style LEE 2 cavity molds converted to HP's $99

[Ramjet]

Steve the transaction went smooth and I think I had the mold in hand within two weeks from order date now that was on an in stock mold. He sent me pay pal invoice wella.

I will also say this Lee molds are Ok for the money and seeing they from my neck of the woods I support them however there is ZERO comparison between the Mihec and Lee molds the MiHec are that good. I own a bunch of molds from different makers these are some of the best.

[Oreo]

  I sure would like to get my hands on one of those!

Steve, I'm pretty sure Mihec (the mold maker) still has some extras available. If you want one you need to register over on Cast Boolits forums and send a PM to Mihec telling him what you want and providing him with your PayPal email address. Mihec will send you an invoice for payment (about $160 iirc). Once you make payment it will take a few weeks for the package to make it from Europe and through customs. The time to buy is now though. When they're gone there's no telling when or if there will ever be another production run.

[Steve4102]

  I sure would like to get my hands on one of those!

Steve, I'm pretty sure Mihec (the mold maker) still has some extras available. If you want one you need to register over on Cast Boolits forums and send a PM to Mihec telling him what you want and providing him with your PayPal email address. Mihec will send you an invoice for payment (about $160 iirc). Once you make payment it will take a few weeks for the package to make it from Europe and through customs. The time to buy is now though. When they're gone there's no telling when or if there will ever be another production run.

  Thanks, I sent him a PM this morning asking if there were any of these moulds left, anxiously awaiting a reply.

[Steve4102]

You can also check with Erik of Hollow point Mold Service http://www.hollowpointmold.com/
He has some of the new style LEE 2 cavity molds converted to HP's $99

Thanks, I have one of Erik's moulds, nice.

http://10mm-firearms.com/reloading-10mm-ammo/my-new-mold/

[The_Shadow]

Cool but the picture you show is of the older LEE mold design here is the "NEW" style...

[Steve4102]

  Yup, mine is of the old design. 
I have a New design Lee 6 cavity 175gr TC mould that is now on my desk as a paper weight.

It makes beautiful bullets and is very fast, problem is that all my bullets drop at .400.  Occasionally I will encounter an odd ball that measures .401, but even that is to small for my needs.

I have tried to increase the size with various methods, temps and alloys to no avail, it just drops them too small.

I wonder if Erik's new design HP moulds are running small as well?

[DM1906]

  Yup, mine is of the old design. 
I have a New design Lee 6 cavity 175gr TC mould that is now on my desk as a paper weight.

It makes beautiful bullets and is very fast, problem is that all my bullets drop at .400.  Occasionally I will encounter an odd ball that measures .401, but even that is to small for my needs.

I have tried to increase the size with various methods, temps and alloys to no avail, it just drops them too small.

I wonder if Erik's new design HP moulds are running small as well?

Wanna sell your "paperweight"?

[Ramjet]

Steve, a lead like linotype would drop larger in diameter probably .401-.402

[Oreo]

Yea but who wants to cast pistol boolits out of linotype? That dog won't hunt.

The mold can be salvaged a couple ways. I'm no expert on how so I won't try to give details but one way is using something to keep the mold halves separated a bit during casting. This produces an oval boolit which is made round again in a sizer. The other way is to cast a boolit and then apply a polishing compound to it and spin it in the mold cavity with a drill. This polishing hones out the cavity a thousandth or so and can be done repeatedly to enlarge the cavity as desired.

My favorite way is to just buy MP molds. They come cut to glorious perfection the first time.

[Steve4102]

Yea but who wants to cast pistol boolits out of linotype? That dog won't hunt.

The mold can be salvaged a couple ways. I'm no expert on how so I won't try to give details but one way is using something to keep the mold halves separated a bit during casting. This produces an oval boolit which is made round again in a sizer. The other way is to cast a boolit and then apply a polishing compound to it and spin it in the mold cavity with a drill. This polishing hones out the cavity a thousandth or so and can be done repeatedly to enlarge the cavity as desired.

My favorite way is to just buy MP molds. They come cut to glorious perfection the first time.

This is the route I am on.  He got back to me and said he has the 190 and 200 available. 
Your design, is the 190 a .403 as well?  The diagram is cut off and does not show that dimension.  The 190 is 4 cavity as well, yes?

If it is, that is what I will get.

[DM1906]

Linotype is fine for low-power target bullets. They cast very hard, but are also light weight.

Casting with an "open mold" is bad ju-ju. Not only will the bullets cast "oval", they won't be concentric (just as bad or worse than undersize). Add to that, any outflow will cause mold flashing, which makes the bullets essentially useless, and can permanently damage the mold.

I like the Lee aluminum molds, and tend to "customize" them in various ways to get the exact bullet for my needs. I use the bullet-drill-compound method as well, but with a 6 cavity mold, it's very meticulous work to get the cavities all the same. Aluminum takes very little working to enlarge them, and you can't make them smaller once that line is crossed.

[475/480]

I have used aluminum ac tape (the kind they use on ac ducts-- thin aluminum tape) on Lee moulds to increase the diameter of the boolits.
Just put a small strip on the bottom portion of the mould and it will increase the diameter .001-.002 and stays put after many hours of casting. It will be out of round but sizing will correct MOST of that problem.


Sean

[Oreo]

Yea but who wants to cast pistol boolits out of linotype? That dog won't hunt.

The mold can be salvaged a couple ways. I'm no expert on how so I won't try to give details but one way is using something to keep the mold halves separated a bit during casting. This produces an oval boolit which is made round again in a sizer. The other way is to cast a boolit and then apply a polishing compound to it and spin it in the mold cavity with a drill. This polishing hones out the cavity a thousandth or so and can be done repeatedly to enlarge the cavity as desired.

My favorite way is to just buy MP molds. They come cut to glorious perfection the first time.

This is the route I am on.  He got back to me and said he has the 190 and 200 available. 
Your design, is the 190 a .403 as well?  The diagram is cut off and does not show that dimension.  The 190 is 4 cavity as well, yes?

If it is, that is what I will get.

These were only made in 4-cavity. The only difference between the 190gr and the 200gr is that the 200gr cavity is cut a little deeper so as to drop a longer heavier boolit. They all seem to drop about 5gr heavier then spec regardless of alloy. The 190gr molds are quite a bit more popular. And yes they actually drop .4035". That should be large enough for most 40cal pistols.

[Steve4102]

Yea but who wants to cast pistol boolits out of linotype? That dog won't hunt.

The mold can be salvaged a couple ways. I'm no expert on how so I won't try to give details but one way is using something to keep the mold halves separated a bit during casting. This produces an oval boolit which is made round again in a sizer. The other way is to cast a boolit and then apply a polishing compound to it and spin it in the mold cavity with a drill. This polishing hones out the cavity a thousandth or so and can be done repeatedly to enlarge the cavity as desired.

My favorite way is to just buy MP molds. They come cut to glorious perfection the first time.

This is the route I am on.  He got back to me and said he has the 190 and 200 available. 
Your design, is the 190 a .403 as well?  The diagram is cut off and does not show that dimension.  The 190 is 4 cavity as well, yes?

If it is, that is what I will get.

These were only made in 4-cavity. The only difference between the 190gr and the 200gr is that the 200gr cavity is cut a little deeper so as to drop a longer heavier boolit. They all seem to drop about 5gr heavier then spec regardless of alloy. The 190gr molds are quite a bit more popular. And yes they actually drop .4035". That should be large enough for most 40cal pistols.

  It's not lookin good for me to get one of these. 

I sent him a PM and he replied with 190 or 200.  I replied 190 along with my PayPal email address.  Bin about a week with no reply.  Darn, I was so looking forward to one of these.