So in a box of goodies I recently acquired is most of the pieces of a .38 358439 mold that I am hoping to save. It was badly stored and the outside of the mold looked pretty bad, however the baked on release agent or lube seams to have saved the cavity and a bath of evaporust cleaned it up pretty well. Luckly, though it was in pieces I was able to find the sprue plate, and sprew plate screw. On to my issue, the sprue plate screw was stripped and it is quite obvious that the lock screw is frozen in place and the PO forced the screw out for some reason. After the rust cleaning soak I tried the screw again and what I though was the screw breaking loose was actually my screwdriver bit breaking.
I now have the usual choices, heat and soak or drill out. My normal go to move would be to grab the propane torch and heat the offending part with a liberal application of penetrating oil, however I'm concerned with possibly warping or damaging the block. to hopefully avoid warping. I may put both halves in a vice to maintain some alignment while I focus the heat on the screw area.
Any thoughts or advice on removing this stubborn lock screw?
Once that's out of the way I plan to clean it up a bit more, get the rebuild kit for the hardware, get some handles and somehow find a replacement HP pin assy and get this back into service.