Old Lyman mold differancesI

[old turtle]

I picked some old Lyman molds at a gun show. The molds are in excellent condition but were missing the screws for the handles. I ordered single and double cavity repair kits as I also wanted to replace the sprue plates with the new thicker plates. The first problem was the single cavity mold (marked Ideal) was smaller than new molds. Also the two cavity molds had a different spacing of the cavities making the new sprue plates useless. I wanted to use wave washers on the old thinner plates so a trip to Lowes hardware boxes was in order. I found that 6mm plain washer and 6mm wave washer worked very well on the thiner plates. The 6mm wave washer is a little larger in outside diameter which I like better than the Lyman wave washer. Inside dia.was perfect. The next problem was the handle screws. The heads on the old Lyman screws of which I had a couple, was .250, the new screws are .260+ which required being filed down to fit. Allen head screws were much larger. Fortunately the lock screws for the sprue plate screw were there and in good shape as the old molds use a number 8 by 36 thread. This set screw (36 thread) is hard come by. The molds cast some nice old rifle boolits. I hope this is of help to anyone who may wish to pick nice old molds.

[MT Gianni]

To add to this, the older sc molds had their own handles and don't line up well with the modern 2 cavity handles.

[Catshooter]

Old turtle,

First, welcome to the forum, it's a great place.

The set screw that locks the sprue plate screw is a 10 x 32, easily available. The screw that holds the sprue plate to the block is a 10 x 36. Now that one is a bear to find.

I never have found a source for the 36 pitch, good thing Lyman still makes that exact screw.


Cat

[bhn22]

And the sprue plate hold down screw on the older 4 cavity moulds is different than the one supplied with the mould rebuild kits.

And my all=time favorite: the handle screws are the same length & thread pitch, but the screw heads are larger on the new moulds. I have decided that this was intentionally done by Lyman, just to piss me off.

They can sleep well at night- it worked.

[jdgabbard]

And the sprue plate hold down screw on the older 4 cavity moulds is different than the one supplied with the mould rebuild kits.

And my all=time favorite: the handle screws are the same length & thread pitch, but the screw heads are larger on the new moulds. I have decided that this was intentionally done by Lyman, just to piss me off.

They can sleep well at night- it worked.

I had the same problem with getting screws for my handles on a mold or two... I ended up just chucking them up in a drill and using a file on the head to turn them down to size...

[bhn22]

I had the same problem with getting screws for my handles on a mold or two... I ended up just chucking them up in a drill and using a file on the head to turn them down to size...

That's about all a guy can do. For a "Rube Goldberg" touch, try chucking the screw in a cordless drill, then use a dremel with a grinding wheel rotating in the opposite direction to speed up the process. It just takes a few seconds to do.

[rintinglen]

That's about all a guy can do. For a "Rube Goldberg" touch, try chucking the screw in a cordless drill, then use a dremel with a grinding wheel rotating in the opposite direction to speed up the process. It just takes a few seconds to do.
No one in his right mine would let me within 10 feet of two power tools.:kidding:
unless he was looking for AFV footage.