I acquired this old H&G 10 cavity S-55 mold that to say it was in bad condition was an understatement. I have never seen a mold so abused, but the bullet cavities were pristine. I should have taken before photos, but the sprue bolt holes were so badly stripped out and distorted that you could turn the mold upside down and the bolts would simply drop out. The mold block at the sprue pivot bolt was also cracked as well. The aliment pin recesses were wallowed out, so the blocks just rattled when put together. The wooden handles were cracked and broken.
Ever take on a project and then start to wonder why? That thought crossed my mind on several occasions. I really had my doubts if this old mold would ever cast another bullet. Maybe telling myself this mold is junk right now so if you ruin it no loss is what kept me going.
My first thought was a heli-coil to restore the threads, but with a crack in the block at the bolt hole and so little side metal that would be left on the block when drilled out for a coil I decided that just wouldn't be the best choice. I decided my best course was to fill the original sprue holes then drill and tap them back out. My welding experience with cast iron is marginal to say the least and I had zero experience with H&G's Meehanite mold block iron. I figured I had two choices with the iron, either use a nickle rod or silicon bronze for a filler. I decided on the latter since I had the bronze rods and I felt I would have a better chance of getting bronze down into the holes and I was more comfortable about using bronze to repair the crack.
Long story short my welding repairs seemed to work. I flipped the aliment pins to the opposite blocks and installed new modified stainless sprue bolts and set screws. I also filled the original cracked and broken wooden handles with epoxy. I gave the old mold a go and cast a couple of hundred bullets and my repairs are holding. I can't say I recommend these 6 & 10 cavity molds as they are really heavy. My next project involving this mold will be to make an assist to push open the sprue cutter, because cutting 10 sprues at once is a Butt Pain!