Mold Question?

[EMC45]

I was given a mold yesterday at work. It is a Lyman single cavity. On the outside it says 429421 and underneath that it says 621. I know it is a 44 mold and it looks to be a Keith design. On the box it says use handles marked small. I am about to borow a set of RCBS handles from a buddy for a different project and was curious if they would work on these too? This mold is tiny! It has the instructions with it and all. Not sure what the vintage is, but they were advertising a Lyman 45 sizer, so I'd venture to guess it's no spring chicken. It has a flash of surface rust in one block in the lube groove area. I am gonna 0000 steel wool it and lube it to store until I get my handles. Thanks.

[MT Gianni]

Current Lyman handles come in 2 sizes, one that fits the double cavity and the large single cavity molds and one for there 4 cavity molds. Previously Lyman made single cavity molds that fit a smaller "single" handle. This is what you have. It is the original keith design, 621 is the cherry # that should be on both halves. I think the name change from Ideal to Lyman was late 50's or early 60's. An RCBS handle will not work. A lee 6 cavity handle can be drilled to make it fit as I recall. Gianni

[garandsrus]

EMC45,

I am not sure if the RCBS handles will work... There is a difference in size between the Lyman and RCBS slots. You can't use stock Lyman handles with RCBS molds, so I would guess that the RCBS has the smaller slot. Using the handles with the Lyman, while they will probably fit, may have more vertical play than you want. You might be able to shim them though.

John

[MtGun44]

I think I read that the #621 would be a number to keep the matched halves
together during production, only run up to 999 and then restarted. The
cherry is 429421, sometimes with letters that can mean over or undersized,
and in some cases the outside vendor that supplied the cherry.

Bill