Removing the handles for Lee two cavity blocks?

[Elkins45]

After a recent Craigslist spree I find myself the proud owner of a 1930's vintage South Bend 9" metal lathe. I have no idea how to run it, but that's a different story :)

I'm in the mood to hollow point one of my Lee two cavity molds. I have a four jaw chuck so I can mount the blocks with the cavity centered and run the reamer in with the tailstock. But I have to dismount the blocks from the handles first. It appears the pins are crimped in place and I am wondering if any of you creative folks have any tips on the best way to knock out the mounting pins? I know I can grind away the sides of the blocks or maybe drill thru from the top and punch them out but I have to think someone here has invented a better way?

TIA for any advice

[462]

I used a hand-held drill bit to carefully remove the peened area. If the pin doesn't fall out, gently tap the mould. Re-peen upon assembly.

[DLCTEX]

Yep. Remove the crimp, lube and use a plastic mallet to bump the mould and let inertia pull the pins.

[kenjuudo]

A pointy exacto knife will carve the aluminum very well, just slice out the peined area and a strong magnet will get the pin as you wiggle the handle.

jim

[MikeS]

Either drill out the part that's peened, or cut it out with a knife as folks above mention. One thought on reassembly, rather than repeening the hole, if while the pins are out you drill and tap the hole for a 10-32 setscrew, you can put the pins back in, and hold them in place with the setscrews, so anytime in the future if you want to remove the blocks again it's as easy as removing the 2 screws.

Another thing, while you have the blocks off the handles, you will notice that the holes the pins go thru actually stick up on the inside of the handles. If you gently peen them a bit, so the pins don't fit anymore (but not too much), then when reassembling the blocks to the handles, tap the pins into the handles with a hammer (and a pin punch to get them deeper into the hole), when you're done the blocks will be aligned much better, and you'll find that they close 100% better than before. If you needed to put them on a flat surface to get them to close properly, you won't need to do that anymore!