Mould mallets... What do you use and why?

[pworley1]

I turned a small bat about a foot long. It has been working great for year.

[frkelly74]

Ove gloves. Cut the sprue with my gloved hand, tip the cut off into my gloved hand to return to the pot. Open the mold and eject the boolits. Close the mold , check that it is all lined up and repeat.

[John Boy]

A wooden hickory hammer handle ...
Ditto

[Paper Puncher]

Ove gloves. Cut the sprue with my gloved hand, tip the cut off into my gloved hand to return to the pot. Open the mold and eject the boolits. Close the mold , check that it is all lined up and repeat.

Once I get the mold up to temperature.

I use a broken rung off an old maple chair when I can't cut the plate with just my hand.

[Green Frog]

Back about 1974 My Dad and I started casting together. We found a tack hammer whose head had broken off right at the throat, so we turned the leftover piece of hickory over and started using it. I think it is still usable but it's been replaced by a similar one from a finishing hammer. They work well and were free.

Froggie

[Wheelguns 1961]

I use one of those small souvenir baseball bats that they sell at ballparks. Works great, although it is getting a little beat up.

[labdwakin]

I've used pieces of doweling, broken hammer handles, rawhide mallets... doesn't matter what, long as it doesn't damage your mould and doesn't cost a lot, lol.

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

Pieces of old hammer or shovel handles.

[Ozark mike]

I just smack it against a piece of wood

[Rick Hodges]

Another Hickory Hammer Handle

[hollywood63]

Another Hickory Hammer Handle

Make it three

[megasupermagnum]

I cut sprue's by hand. My deerskin gloves are plenty to keep the heat out. Early on I played around with different mallets to open the sprue plate. All are clumsy, or at least I'm too clumsy to not hit the mold once in a while by accident. Even if you are more accurate than I, it can't be good for the spure plate or mold top. Opening by hand is so easy and gentle.

I do use a mallet to tap bullets out, very similar to the OP picture, a nice rubber/plastic soft end mallet by Estwing. It looked too big at first, but boy the thing is a joy to use. IME bullets that fall out of the mold are too hot. YMMV. I tried wood mallets and different things, but none work like this soft mallet. A nice rap or two is all it takes, even on sticking bullets. It's hard to get a mold to proper temp when bullets are sticking, and you are smacking away with a tiny wood mallet.

[Leadmad]

Large Philips head Screwdriver, the shaft sits easy in my gloved hand and plastic head doesn't damage the bolt head on the handles.

[MrHarmless]

I use a 2x2 piece of pine I shaped to have a handle-esque lookin' part. It's soft, but has enough weight to pop the sprue plate easily. It's taken quite a whacking so far, but it is breaking down over time. I consider it disposable.

[SciFiJim]

A hammer handle turned end for end and whack with the gripping end.

[Littlewolf]

i work in a concrete products plant and the guys are always breaking shovel and scraper handles so i snag em and cut em to 12" long, ive been using the first one for 2 years now one grain layer has slightly peeled but as "Preacher"(Clint Eestwood" said "Nothin Like A Nice Piece of Hickory"

[JM7.7x58]

There is a bush that grows around here. It has two names, the first is ocean spray, the other is ironwood. I make arrows with the two year old shoots. The larger sticks make good tool handles. The natives made digging sticks with it. We don’t have great hardwoods here in the Pacific Northwest, this bush doesn’t ever grow much bigger than my wrist, but pound for pound it is great hardwood. It also makes a great mold mallet.

[tinsnips]

Hammer handle . But I just bought one of those nylon hammers for Harbor Frieght.

[Iowa Fox]

I just use some odd shaped pieces of hickory I made when I was trimming up my hickory trees. Those branches really have some strange bends & curves.

[MDC]

Foot long piece of 1" oak dowel