Mold mallet/ Sprue Knocker

[Cherokee]

I use a hickory hammer handle when I need to, just tapping the handle bolt...never the mold !

[btroj]

I used a hammer handle until last year when I started using a gloved hand. I still use the hammer handle on the hinge pin when the bullets don't drop free.

I dont know know that there is a right or wrong, just a matter of preference.

[Bullwolf]

I like to open my sprues using a gloved hand. I don't have any moulds bigger than 6 cavity ones however. If I had a few big 10 cavity H&G moulds I might sing another tune.

I've used both the common gray lined leather welding gloves, and the brown leather ones when casting and smelting.



My hands are somewhat large, so I like try on a few pair of gloves and make a fist while wearing them looking for a pair that fits well. The bigger gloves don't seem blow out seams as much, tend to last me longer, and give a better range of movement. A pair of welding gloves that fit too tightly are neither comfortable or dextrous.

If I really need precision or dexterity for something, I just briefly remove one glove (like to take a picture)

It's a roll of the dice for me with Harbor Freight. Sometimes the product is good, and other times it's low end. I have bought welding gloves from HF in the past, but the last few pairs I've purchased have come from elsewhere.



The gloves are very convenient for me whenever I have to grab anything hot. Like picking up a warm ingot off the hot plate, grabbing a hot cast iron pot handle, or in just case of an oops.

I have a bad tendency to pick up still hot boolits thinking hmm they cant still be all that warm can they....

If I didn't wear gloves I would have to tap the mold open with something. That seems like it would be harder on the mould, and my casting rhythm. It would throw my cadence off too.

While I don't whack my sprue plates open, if I was going to, I think I would probably use a rawhide mallet rather than a stick. I don't think I would wear out a rawhide mallet very quickly, and it seems gentler to me somehow.

I'd likely chip a stick away to nothing hitting a piece of metal with it over and over, and have to replace it constantly. Maybe I could generate my own flux this way.

Sometimes I'll use a round dowel to gently tap the hinge bolt on a mould when it needs a little assist to help release boolits. (like when casting with HP moulds) I've seen folks use rawhide hammers, rubber hammers, lead, and wood and such for this as well.

Ive been using the same round section of closet dowel for many years now for this, and it shows no signs of appreciable wear yet. I'm more prone to lose it before I wear it out tapping on the hinge bolt at this rate.



Usually I keep a few restaurant chop-sticks on the casting table for picking spots of lead spatter off the mould & sprue-plate. A used piece of old plywood helps keep cast lead shrapnel off of my wooden picnic casting table.



- Bullwolf

[Gar]

I am using a piece of hard wood turned to 1 1/2" on the lathe with an end cap made of 1 1/2" PVC pipe slipped over the first 2".
Depending on the mold, I also a gloved hand if the mold is one or two cavities and up to temperature. On the four to ten cavity molds, I stick with the mallet.

[TXGunNut]

Been using a soft wood RCBS (I think) mould whacker for awhile, not holding up very well and the splinters add to the mess. Thinking pretty seriously about adding NOE's mallet to my next order.

[BustemAgain]

Nothing I have used compares to a 6oz Garland rawhide mallet. Non marring, non splintering. Seemingly willing to last forever. Made in the USA. I often wonder how I got along prior.

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

Pieces of broken hammer or shovel handles. I cut them up into pieces 10 - 12 inches long, and store them with my casting equipment. If I get to heavy on stock, they burn well in the chiminea.

[tazman]

"When some one states that they use any kind of implement to move the sprue plate, that does not say how much speed or force they use. To assume that they are hitting home runs with a bat of ash is a bit wrong to say the least..One should not have to explain himself to anyone but I'll play along on this one...If that says that I don't know what I'm doing, then I'm ready to sign up for the remedial classes. Give me the time and place.."

Who said any of that? No one. Touchy touchy. Why so serious? This was a friendly discussion, that you, for reasons unknown,devolved, and managed, once again, to mention that that worked as a bouncer. Got it.

In defense of cajun shooter I refer you to post number 14 in this thread where the poster said anyone who used an implement to strike a mold or sprue plate for any reason was inexperienced. I found that statement a bit of a stretch myself.

[RogerDat]

Just a thought but an impact driver can loosen a nut with less "force" than one would apply steadily with a breaker bar. A gentle rap might be less stress on mold than a hard press from a gloved hand. Just speculation and as long as the force is within tolerances of the mold should not matter. Sort of like driving 55 or 60 on tires rated to go 100 mph, neither speed is going to hurt the tires.

Boils down to can't argue with it works, not sure I would tell someone else how the "should" do it without marrying them first.

[BethelHntr]

Using a old broken hickory axe handle I cut down, Works good.

[FISH4BUGS]

Casting - the only thing that touches any of my molds is a gloved hand cutting the sprue - Period!
If casters have to hit the mold or the sprue plate for any reason tells me ... Inexperience!
If one has to whack the sprue plate to cut the sprue - casting too cold
Some bullets will not drop from the cavity. When this happens - Tap the handle bolt or Tap on one of the handle arms with the front end of a hickory hammer handle

Jeez...I guess my 40 years of casting doesn't count towards experience. I use either a neoprene rod from Buffalo Arms or one of 3 1lb lead hammers that I bought from this site. I cast mostly with H&G moulds that I accumulated over many years and I wouldn't ever think of mistreating one by pounding on it.
The sprue cutter is designed to be hit. WHAT you hit it with is the key.
You want to try a gloved hand on a 10 cavity H&G? Be my guest.
Inexperienced?

[dikman]

Obviously, after 40 years you still haven't learned anything. (Sorry, just joking).

I think that particular comment is irrelevant, and could give newcomers the wrong idea. There are no hard and fast rules laid down that say this is how casting must be done. There are guidelines, if you like, and recommendations from people based largely on their own experiences, usually learned the hard way, but that is all. I wouldn't dream of telling someone that they are inexperienced simply because they don't use a gloved hand to cut the sprues.

No different to calling someone inexperienced because they don't use a bottom pour, or don't use a PID.

[BruceB]

"Inexperience"..... yeppers, maybe after I reach fifty years' worth of intensive casting,(next year, in 2016) I MIGHT "see The light".

For the present, however, I'll just say that I have NEVER used "a gloved hand" to cut a sprue, and also that I have NEVER harmed a mould in any way by using an "impact instrument" to cut the sprue.

That last statement covers my "inexperience" with well-over 100 moulds of most descriptions.... I still have around sixty-odd. Only very recently have I ventured into using Lee 6-cavity moulds. and I am not at all impressed with them. Must be my "inexperience".

Not to worry, just poking a little fun. Not really offended at all, at all.

[Doggonekid]

I use a two sided craftsman hammer. Nylon on one side and rubber on the other. I will cast up to 4 different molds at a time. My sprue plate is hard enough that if I used my hand I would probably have a sore hand after a half day of casting. I use my gloves to close the sprue plate back into place and my boolits fall out easy. Every now and then I need the rubber hammer side to tap the hinge bolt a little to have the boolits fall out. I am careful and have never damaged a mold in 40 years. This is what works for me.

[therealhitman]

C'mon JohnBoy, be a man! Knock off that girly "gloved hand" crapola. Once you get really experienced you learn the only right way is to hold the mold in yer teeth, work the ladle with the left hand and use the right ta pull out yer manhood and smack that sprue plate with it like a real boolit caster! Give it time, you will toughen up.

[jmort]

I love comments like "I never used a gloved hand." So what? Why not try it before dismissing it ... out of hand.

[Duckiller]

I don't cast fast. Let the sprue get hard before I cut it by hitting the sprue plate with a replacement hickory handle that I bought for just that purpose many years ago. I have tried moving the sprue plate with a gloved hand. It is easier with my hammer handle and if the boolits don't immediately drop from the mold I have hammer to tap the pivot bolt.

[dikman]

I'm with you mate. Already having the hammer in my hand is efficient and saves time.

Mr. Mortimer, did you just make a pun? (gloved hand....out of hand) .

[georgerkahn]

I chanced seeing one of these (the H&G hammer: see #49) on Fleabay, bought it on impulse, and it turned out to be one of my BEST ever acquisitions. The only "problem" -- perhaps good one -- is that the soft lead really looks beat up, so much so that I recently bought a 2nd. I retired all my hammer handles...
BEST!
georgerkahn

[youngmman]

I GENTLY tap the sprue plate with a rawhide leather mallet. Last almost forever. Perfect weight and gets the job done.

If you preheat your molds on a hotplate to almost casting temp (as recommended by many on here) B4 starting, your sprues will cut perfectly with just a nudge. AND........your boolits will drop perfectly from the 1st one! No more throw-backs from cold mold wrinkes/poor fills.

Same here, I've never used anything else and seldom, if ever, requires more than a tap.