Cured that Lee mold!

I bought a Lee mold for 44-40 cal. bullets and the fit of the sprue plate was entirely too tight once the mold heated up. It would spring up off the top of the mold and I'd get a lot of flashing on the base of the bullet. Tried loosening the sprue plate screw but it was having none of it. Pondered the problem for a while and went back at the screw and this time I put it in my lead padded vise and turned on it until it twisted off....which was part of the plan. It was either going to move or break. Mounted the mold in my mill and drilled out the screw then drilled it so I could tap it to 1/4 - 28. The screw hole in the sprue plate is 1/4 in. Tapped hole and put everything back together with a grade 5, 1/4 X 28 machine screw and it worked exceedingly better...except that the sprue plate screw walked every time I moved the plate. No problem, just more aggravation from Lee. Put the mold back in the mill, drilled a hole through the side of the mold into the sprue plate screw hole and tapped that for a 10 - 32 set screw. Installed the set screw and now everything stays adjusted. It's an aggravation but, Lee molds are cheap and it gave me something to figure out and do. The mold casts good bullets...you just couldn't cast many. Now it should be like shelling peanuts...but it will never be an RCBS or Accurate or even a Lyman mold.

Oh how I love my little home machine shop!!!