A ? on the old Ideal Reloading Tool w Mold - sprue plate

[bedbugbilly]

Just curious if somebody who is more familiar than I with the old Ideal reloading tongs that have the mold on the end . . .

Every once in a while, I've run across a set of tongs - various calibers - where the sprue plate is missing on the single cavity mold on the end. I'm not that familiar with all the tong # - I know some have a priming set up on the end of the mold on some of them . . . others are just a squares mold block.

If a set of tongs is missing the sprue plate . . . can a Lyman or similar single cavity sprue plate be adapted very easily . . . or is it a case of starting from scratch and making one? I'm not talking about "collector tongs" as I know folks want them "original" but on a set that would be used - the mold to cast and the tongs for loading - is there a modern replacement that can be easily modified to work or is it a case of having to have one "custom made"? Are all the mold blocks "created equal" dimension wise, or do they vary depending on caliber? I'm guessing that if different, it would be a case of several different sizes - mold block and tong wise - that would have been adapted to various calibers?

[.22-10-45]

The sprue cutters on my Ideal tong tools are smaller than the normal S.C. plates.

[catskinner]

Lyman single cavity sprue plate might fit but can't say for sure. It is not that difficult to make a sprue plate. I"ve made them using a hand drill and a file. Used a 84 degree counter sink to cut the sprue hole after drilling a pilot hole.

[Bent Ramrod]

Check out "Sprue Plate For .44 S&W American" on this section. The sprue plates for the Ideal No 4 and No 6 combination tools are like those on the old integral-handled Ideal molds; nothing like the ones on the separate block moulds of today. You'd have to do so much work redoing a Lyman sprue plate to make it fit that you might as well start from scratch.

The various vintages and design modifications of the Ideal loading tools has been pretty much worked out on the ARTCA website and in their quarterly Journal.