An acquaintence (who never used it) is passing on to me an unusual 15 ball gang mould, custom made for him by yet another acquaintance of ours who is now deceased (I have to qualify that bit about more and more people I knew all the time, what's up with that?!)
This was NOT intended for firearms use by the maker, although it MIGHT cast 12 gauge pumpkin balls 15 at a whack if the alloy used shrank enough? The balls to be cast by this were intended for a ball mill, making black powder.
The owner has given up his license to manufacture, had already made enough balls one at a time in a single cavity mould and so never needed to heat this one up. "New old stock", or perhaps more accurately, "untested prototype".
Tool is made out of stainless steel, it is at least somewhat magnetic, perhaps 400 series? Weighs about seven pounds, measures 6" long by 4" wide by 1-3/8" high. Cavities were milled with a .75" ball end mill, so should be close to .75" Dia, as cast size will of course be smaller depending on alloy.
Mould was intended to shear sprues by having the sprue plate shifted sideways with an arbor press or cam press of some type, which tool was never fabricated before the maker passed on, I will need to improvise something.
See some pictures below...
Might need some input on setting up to use this one after I get my hands on it. Pretty sure this isn't going to fit under my Lee 20 lb. pot, I don't have a suitable sized Rowell ladle on hand either. 15 x .75" lead spheres X about 1.3 oz. each = 19.5 oz. lead per cast...