Clean out your garage!

[22Short]

I had a Jeep stored in my garage since moving into this house. It's been awhile. I decided to clean out the garage, get the Jeep running and dispose of the HUGE pile of stuff that was taking it over. Today I went out to see what I had forgotten on the previously inaccessible storage shelves that were along the wall next to my old Jeep.


There it was! An odd looking box, about t 2 1/2 inches square by a bit over a foot long, plain cardboard color... There is a label for shipping from Hensley & Gibbs...


The postmark is from 1962. It cost 58 cents (!) to ship it to Cole's in Inglewood from San Diego. Ha!

Inside, wrapped in the original corrosion resistant paper is one slightly used but near mint condition H&G #50 four cavity mold, standard .358 diameter. With handles. :)


And I never thought I would have a real H&G mold.


Last month I found a mint Lyman (from when they made quality molds) #452374 in the same garage! Same minty condition. I do remember a non reloading friend giving me that one, before I got into casting. But the H&G is a mystery to me. Now to cast some fodder up for my Python! :Fire:

[Ben]

Kinda of makes me wonder what else is out there ?

[mstarling]

What a lovely surprise!

I have two H&G molds bought during the day ... a 4 cavity H&G 45 and a 6 cavity H&G 256. Used the 45 today. Still a wonderful working tool. Reminded me of what junk Lee molds really are.

In 1970 or 1971 I had gotten a money order for $32 to send H&G to buy the 256. Returning to Maryland on a trip to Florida I got the first of only two traffic tickets I/ve ever gotten. Had no money in my pocket, but fortunately had not endorsed or sent the money order and had to cash it to pay the fine.

I bought the mold a year later but went to graduate school shortly after that and packed everything away for quite a while. When unpacking the stuff 5 or 6 years later I found this box which contained the unused 256 mold and was very pleasantly surprised.

[462]

Can I stop by and rummage through your garage?

[plmitch]

Thats a great find there.

[plainsman456]

I don't even have to think about cleaning the garage,my wife tossed all the stuff I had in there out to the barn.
OHH,the barn is another matter.
That is a good surprise to find.

[Huntducks]

About time you found that H&G mold I loaded you.:bigsmyl2:

[geargnasher]

Can I stop by and rummage through your garage?

Can I come too? :kidding:

Gear

[TXGunNut]

Check under the Jeep, never know where that Ferrari got off to! :)
Oops, offtopic. Find any Star equiment?
Come to think of it, there's a big box under my loading bench that I didn't open during the Big Cleanup recently. Fun could start right after the coffee's ready tomorrow.

[Shiloh]

Can I stop by and rummage through your garage?

I could bring the American Pickers guys. We would be happy to take a few of these useless items off your hands. You could make a few bucks from this worthless junk. You take $25 for the jeep?? :kidding:

Shiloh

[mold maker]

In the midst of a recent move, I found a lost LEE Classic Press. I had since replaced it. Now I wont have to swap as many dies.

[22Short]

I am almost too embarrassed to tell you guys - I uncovered a Harley Davidson I had not seen in years as well! It's my 1980 FXEF 80 (Fat Bob) from long ago. I Stopped riding when they passed the helmet law here in California. I now see helmets that could double as head gear at a synagog... So it's parked in front of the Jeep for a good shining up!

The molds I found out there were given to me (although I have no recall at all about the cherry H&G mold) by friends and coworkers some time ago. I was not into casting. But then I stumbled across this site!

A security guard gave me three unused Lee six cavity molds, 38, 44 and 45 cal, along with a 20 lb Lee pot, dipper and ingot mold. All brand new. He had acquired them from an estate and did not cast.

My best shooting buddy was given and passed to me a really nice older Lyman 45 230 gr rn mold, as well as an ancient very small electric pot.

This is the best - A judge I have known for quite a while was moving. He gave me a Dillon 550, complete with several sets of dies, an electronic powder scale, thousands of H&G 68 bullets, too many primers to count, extra powder measures, big cans of Win 231, and the very best yet - a Dillon RL 1050 set up for 45 ACP with many many extras.

I retired at the end of March this year, and I am a busy guy.

I had a 22 foot roll off in the driveway so I could clean the detritus out of my man cave, thus my discoveries!

Guys, go through that pile of stuff, treasures await you! It bothers me to no end that I cannot remember getting that H&G #50 mold. By the way - whats the best way to warm it up? That's a big mold. My Lyman two cavity can just rest on the lead pot, dipping into the top of the lead for a bit. This one is way too big...

[10x]

Are you sure that was your garage you were going through?

[22Short]

Uh oh..........

[part_timer]

Are you sure that was your garage you were going through?



Now that is funny.

[crabo]

Get a hotplate for warming your molds.

[22Short]

One 1000 watt plate now on order.

[imashooter2]

A can of brake fluid... A couple feet of heater hose... A half a box of 8d nails... I can see that.

But how does a man forget that he has a 4 cavity H&G mold in his garage? :shock:

[10x]

A can of brake fluid... A couple feet of heater hose... A half a box of 8d nails... I can see that.

But how does a man forget that he has a 4 cavity H&G mold in his garage? :shock:

That is why I suspect it may not be his garage....

[Dennis Eugene]

Ok, you got me I spent all of my 3 day weekend cleaning my garage. On one hand my wife is very happy and proud of me on the other hand I just walk around mumbling to myself. 3 whole days and I never found so much as a long lost Lee mold more or less a H & G or a long lost Harley. Thanks but in my case next time you can keep your stories of your good fortune to yourself and save me from myself. :wink: Dennis

[9.3X62AL]

You've inspired me. I have at least 200 rounds of cast 30-30 WCF loads I haven't seen since we moved here 3 years ago. Gotta be out there somewhere.

[evan price]

Wow, that sure beats my story of moving the stove a couple weeks ago and finding a couple 311-93-1R's under there, or vacuuming my truck and finding a couple TL-429-240-SWCs under the seats. A Whole Mold??? Wow!

[Lloyd Smale]

I call dibbs on any old corvette or harley you find in there!

[mold maker]

I wish you guys would return the things I loaned ya. Maybe you forgot, but I remember, I think.

[largom]

I gave up looking for the things I have lost/misplaced. Maybe one day I will stumble upon them. My garage is a 40X64 pole-barn, just too big to clean up.

Larry

[22Short]

Sorry Dennis :groner: but look at the garage - your cave - now! It took me a good week to uncover mine. I had a 22 foot roll off in my drive, and would have had it done in two days max, but I had help. SWMBO was right there "assisting" so I did not throw out any "treasures". And her sister was on the way to stay with us for a week. Bad timing on my part, but I could not stand it any more. As for the H&G mold discovery, apparently I did not know what it was when I put it on the shelf. I only became a caster for real in the last two years.

Now I am thinking I need a nice glass case to display them in when they are not in use! Then i could admire them right in the house....:p

[Dale53]

My story cannot begin to compare to the O.P. However, a friend and I set up a time (yesterday) to smelt a quantity of scrap lead. I have run out of soft lead to mix with my enrichment alloy for pistol bullets.

We had a very tiring time (the weather has been beastly hot and frankly I have been doing so little physical work that I am out of shape) but smelted 300+ lbs of nice clean, shiny ingots. I had all of the scrap lead in it's various permutations (lead pipe, lead cable sheathing, roofing scrap, as well as radioactive barrier sheeting (not radioactive but radioactive barrier) from the walls of X-ray labs.

My buddy did the heavy lifting (cutting, breaking, and bending with an axe) so that we could get the materials in my cast iron dutch oven.

Now, my find - I discovered well over 100 lbs of linotype underneath the scrap lead. So, our work "liberated" not only the scrap lead but the linotype.

I went to bed tired and woke up feeling VERY good about the work we had done yesterday.

I think I'll celebrate by taking my wife out for a stone fired pizza for lunch.

FWIW
Dale53

[dverna]

I "lost" the Star Lubri-sizer I purchased 40 years ago when I started casting. My ex assured me it was not in the basement. She has moved since then so maybe it got packed into the scores of other boxes that never get opened after a move.

I know I would NEVER throw that out so it is "lost" somewhere.

She did find my old Co-Ax press that I had not used in over 25 years and it is up and running.

Heck, I thought I had lost a brand new Beretta 92 (for over 2 years) until I found it buried under a bunch of stuff in the "junk room".

Don

[Harter66]

Honey had me out cleaning up over the weekend too. I did uncover a half a 3 gal bucket of random bench/salvage/range brass and all of the brass for the 32 Rem.and a box of Seco ingots about 40# worth. No lost moulds though.

[shooterg]

Found an AR15 lower I thought was lost or stolen in a box of motorcycle parts 2 years later. OOPS !

[imashooter2]

The only thing I ever find when I clean up is bench top...

[Fishman]

I think I may see a small upside to Oldtimers disease. . . :)