labdwakin
01-09-2017, 01:55 AM
I've been doing other things for the last couple of years and haven't been in here. I went into chat this morning and started talking to Mitch knowing that I knew him but couldn't quite place him. Then it hit me... I had talked to him many times on the phone while my dad was sick and afterwards. We both keep bees and had a lot in common so it was great to find him again.
That conversation got me to thinking so I went over to the tub of greasy oily mould blocks that I had salvaged after my reloading room burnt in 2013 and pulled out my two Saeco 4 cavity moulds. The 067 is a truncated cone .452 mould that is my all time fave boolit for 45 ACP and 45 Colt. The 382 is a .358 mould that's a nice little Elmer Keith SWC design.
I got the soda blaster out, MAPP torch and wire wheel out and went to work. Heated up the mould with the torch and turned all the oil residue into carbon then blasted it all off with the soda blaster. Finally, I cleaned it the rest of the way up with the wire wheel and sat down with a 20 lb pot full of alloy to give it a whirl... I cast just almost 1,000 of those little devils for the first time since the fire. The 382 mould came through the fire like a champ... didn't need any soda blasting or anything. wiped it off with alchohol and it'll be ready to cast when I am.
For the last 3 1/2 years since the fire, it seems like I've just gone from burying one loved one to the next and fed a few cows in between. So many people are now gone that were still alive when it happened. And here I sat feeling sorry for myself and not getting off my dead *** and doing something.
I said all that, to say this: Three and a half years later, I still choke up and feel very humbled by the outpouring of support and help that this group offered me. What I didn't say then was that that reloading room represented half my life savings and since I gathered most of it up I had become disabled and no longer able to acquire that stuff like I had before. It's been slow and painful, but I'm getting there. From the bottom of my heart, thank you all. I hope to be able to help someone someday like you helped me.
That conversation got me to thinking so I went over to the tub of greasy oily mould blocks that I had salvaged after my reloading room burnt in 2013 and pulled out my two Saeco 4 cavity moulds. The 067 is a truncated cone .452 mould that is my all time fave boolit for 45 ACP and 45 Colt. The 382 is a .358 mould that's a nice little Elmer Keith SWC design.
I got the soda blaster out, MAPP torch and wire wheel out and went to work. Heated up the mould with the torch and turned all the oil residue into carbon then blasted it all off with the soda blaster. Finally, I cleaned it the rest of the way up with the wire wheel and sat down with a 20 lb pot full of alloy to give it a whirl... I cast just almost 1,000 of those little devils for the first time since the fire. The 382 mould came through the fire like a champ... didn't need any soda blasting or anything. wiped it off with alchohol and it'll be ready to cast when I am.
For the last 3 1/2 years since the fire, it seems like I've just gone from burying one loved one to the next and fed a few cows in between. So many people are now gone that were still alive when it happened. And here I sat feeling sorry for myself and not getting off my dead *** and doing something.
I said all that, to say this: Three and a half years later, I still choke up and feel very humbled by the outpouring of support and help that this group offered me. What I didn't say then was that that reloading room represented half my life savings and since I gathered most of it up I had become disabled and no longer able to acquire that stuff like I had before. It's been slow and painful, but I'm getting there. From the bottom of my heart, thank you all. I hope to be able to help someone someday like you helped me.