nitesite
Member
Hi, y'all.
Yesterday I was looking for powder (again unsuccessfully) in some local stores and came across a Lee 2-cavity TL 9mm 124 RN mould for $23.00 OTD so I figured I'd give it a whirl.
I like the 2R ogive radius because my CZ75B has a pretty tight throat with a typically CZ short leade, so the rebated ogive shouldn't contact the lands when loaded to normal OAL.
It was a wonderful October afternoon when I got the mould cleaned and lubed and smoked, and I set up the 4-20 bottom pour furnace out on my front porch to spend a couple hours relaxing. Sunny and temps in the low sixties... just real nice to be outside watching the dogs and horses and casting boolits.
I noticed a couple interesting details about this Lee 2-cavity which appear to be "upgrades" to the older "original style" 2-cavity Lee mould I once borrowed. The Lee 2-cavity now sports steel alignment pins much like their 6-cavity moulds. The older 2-cavitiy ones had a screwy alignment setup which was pretty sloppy consisting of two steel bars on one half which fit into two V-grooves in the opposing aluminum block . Here is what I found on the new production mould.
And the cheap handles on the "old design" used to be held in with roll pins which could not be driven out so as to allow repairing the handles. Now, this "new design" exhibits allen-heads which must mean they are threaded screws. I thought it was interesting. But, for $23 bucks each I'm never going to try swapping handles onto other blocks.
I spent a little over two hours while drinking several beers and made 532 bullets. And the 4-20 never dripped a single drop. And life was pretty OK.
I very rarely had to tap the handle for the bullets to drop out, and then it was only one gentle rap. Ninety percent of them simply fell out on their own. The bullets filled out nicely and the sprue cuts were real smooth and clean and the bullets measure 0.3565" across the board from straight wheel weights.
This is about 45-minutes into the first hour and it all turned into just a lovely afternoon.
Yesterday I was looking for powder (again unsuccessfully) in some local stores and came across a Lee 2-cavity TL 9mm 124 RN mould for $23.00 OTD so I figured I'd give it a whirl.
I like the 2R ogive radius because my CZ75B has a pretty tight throat with a typically CZ short leade, so the rebated ogive shouldn't contact the lands when loaded to normal OAL.
It was a wonderful October afternoon when I got the mould cleaned and lubed and smoked, and I set up the 4-20 bottom pour furnace out on my front porch to spend a couple hours relaxing. Sunny and temps in the low sixties... just real nice to be outside watching the dogs and horses and casting boolits.
I noticed a couple interesting details about this Lee 2-cavity which appear to be "upgrades" to the older "original style" 2-cavity Lee mould I once borrowed. The Lee 2-cavity now sports steel alignment pins much like their 6-cavity moulds. The older 2-cavitiy ones had a screwy alignment setup which was pretty sloppy consisting of two steel bars on one half which fit into two V-grooves in the opposing aluminum block . Here is what I found on the new production mould.
And the cheap handles on the "old design" used to be held in with roll pins which could not be driven out so as to allow repairing the handles. Now, this "new design" exhibits allen-heads which must mean they are threaded screws. I thought it was interesting. But, for $23 bucks each I'm never going to try swapping handles onto other blocks.
I spent a little over two hours while drinking several beers and made 532 bullets. And the 4-20 never dripped a single drop. And life was pretty OK.
I very rarely had to tap the handle for the bullets to drop out, and then it was only one gentle rap. Ninety percent of them simply fell out on their own. The bullets filled out nicely and the sprue cuts were real smooth and clean and the bullets measure 0.3565" across the board from straight wheel weights.
This is about 45-minutes into the first hour and it all turned into just a lovely afternoon.
