"New" to me Lyman mould

[pjh421]

The screws to my Lyman 4 cavity 357446DW mould came in yesterday so I ground and drilled a pair of Lee 6 cavity handles someone here advised me to get. I have never used this mould but have had it since 1995, just sitting around. I've got an H&G 51 four cavity that does the same job but I just wanted to give the Lyman a try. It's got a thick replacement sprue cutter with a trough like the H&G. Once I got everything scrubbed with brake cleaner and lubed it with Bull Shop's plate lube, I put the handles on and the darn thing wouldn't close all the way. This looked pretty strange. The ends appeared to be touching but there was a gap in the middle when held up to the light. A lesser man would have cracked under the pressure but since I am a faithful student of the Cast Boolits forum, I bravely disassembled the mould. I wasn't looking forward to it but I knew that I had to drive the alignment pins back in a little. I picked up the nearest tool that was handy, a 6" dial caliper...just kidding. I made a drawing and recorded the pin positions and amount of protrusion...then I whacked them with a brass mallet! At first they wouldn't move so I sprayed some Kroil on them and went inside to eat lunch. After that they were driven in just enough so that I saw no light between the blocks when closed. I have a piece of 3/4" boiler plate that I surface ground. I spread out some 400 grit wet-or-dry and gave the mould top and the sprue cutter bottom a few strokes before reassembling. I cast a few and they looked good but were hanging up so one of these days I'll make some laps and try to smooth the cavities as best I can. Does anybody else here have this mould? It drops at .359" and weighs real close to 158 grains with straight WW. In fact, one of them was dead on. The design is a SWC with 2 round grease grooves and, of course, a crimp groove. The nose is kind of square with a .249" meplat and the length is about .688". Its a good looking boolit but I wouldn't want to have to do a speedy reload with it. Any idea what the "DW" means?...because the first time I held it up to the light I figured it meant "doesn't work". Thanks everyone for all the good advice.

Paul

[floodgate]

ph421:

We've got a "Sticky" on Lyman codes up somewhere, but to answer your question, the "DW" is a code they use for quality control to identify the exact cherry used to cut your mould. It was the fourth (A.., B.., C.., D.., etc.) #357446 cherry made for them by outside supplier "W"; we don't have the ID of that supplier.

Floodgate

[pjh421]

Hey Thanks Floodgate. You always know the scoop. I'm one of those guys who likes to know everything about what I'm using, not just 'you pour lead in here and boolits come out there'. What does your avatar mean?

Paul

[floodgate]

pjh421:

"NOV SHMOZ KA POP" seems to have echoed in other folks' minds here, too - tells how old some of us are. Someone looked it up on a "toon" website a couple of weeks ago, but I've lost the reference and can't find the post now; but it came from a Gene Ahearn strip "The Squirrel Cage" and first appeared Sunday, June 21, 1936, with the little hitchhiker thumbing his (wrong) way back up the road. It may have been picked up and inserted in other strips of the time, as each of us remembers seeing it in a different one; my recollection is that i saw it in "The Little King" in the late '30's. Just a nonsense phrase, but it sure did stick in a lot of minds!

Fg

[Bent Ramrod]

I wondered about that avatar too, Doug. Thought it might be from the Thimble Theater from the drawing style, but never heard the phrase before.

"Notary Sojac" and "OXO WOW MOM" are about as deep as I've gone into comic strip linguistics :mrgreen:.

[pjh421]

http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&langpair=de%7Cen&u=http://lambiek.net/artists/a/ahern_g.htm&prev=/translate_s%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3DNOV%2BSHMOZ%2BKA%2BPOP %26sl%3Den%26tl%3Dde

Check this out.

Paul

[Bent Ramrod]

Great link, pjh421! Thanks!