I was casting using some new soft lead that I bought. They were casting OK (Lee 6-banger), but the sprues seemed kind of hard to cut -- a lot tougher than with the hard lead that I usually use. The mold wasn't really up to temperature yet (boolits still a little wrinkled, but not bad.) Then, the handle broke off when I tried to shear the sprue plate. I had a devil of a time getting it all apart and getting the boolits loose.
I borrowed the sprue plate off a different mold and kept going. I'll call Lee tomorrow and see if they'll send me a new handle, or if I need to send them the broken handle, or if I need to send the whole mold back.
I added just a little bit of solder to the pot and stirred it, and the boolits didn't look any different but the sprues cut a lot easier. I really didn't expect that, but I'm not imagining it. I can still scratch them easily with my thumbnail; gonna use them in .38 Special target loads and see if they do better than the same ones cast with hard alloy.