Mold mallet/ Sprue Knocker

[wlc]

I use the cut off handle end of an old axe handle about 14-16 inches long. I don't typically have to hit the sprue plate and use a gloved hand there, but do have to tap the hinge pin of the handles at times to get all the bullets to fall out.

[Cmm_3940]

I've been using the same random ~1.5" piece of hardwood that I grabbed off the firewood pile for a couple years now. The bark is long gone. Just a tap on the sprue, and a few more on the hinge if they want to hang around.

[gmsharps]

A Hickory hammer handle works well. Also a rawhide mallet works but the price difference between the two the hammer handle wins out.

gmsharps

[bobthenailer]

Brownells , # 1 small 4 oz rawhide mallet
Been using the same one for over 25 years, it will last forever, I have made many 100K boolets with it!

[JSnover]

Just a common screwdriver; hold the shaft, knock the plate open with a tap of the plastic handle.

[SSGOldfart]

I use a pine casting box just tap the spruce plate on a removable cross piece I can't hold the mold with one hand and hit with the other I've only got one now

[LenH]

I have an 8 cavity H & G and their mold instructions advise to use a lead hammer. I found the instructions on this site and it works quite well.
I use it for all of the 4 cavity molds also. I have several Lyman 2 cavity molds but haven't cast with those in quite a while.

I've even used an ingot shaped like a half ear of corn. When it gets un usable just stick it in the melt.

Len H.

[Kraschenbirn]

Several years ago, I picked up two hickory-handled, 8 oz rubber mallets from the 'going out of business' sale of a small-town hardware store. I use one as a 'sprue knocker' and the other is on the 'spares' shelf of my tool cabinet with the price tag still attached...where it will probably be found when the contents of my workshop are sold off sometime after my demise.

Bill

[dpoe001]

i deal with hot metal all the time so i have real thick heat gloves

[tmc-okc]

Being a fairly new caster I - USED - a leather mallet to strike the sprue plate then the hinge bolt. Since I have become slightly more experienced I use the leather mallet on the hinge bolt after opening the sprue plate with my gloved hand. The process goes a little faster for me this way.
Ron H

[Wayne Smith]

I've got a couple of 4 cavity molds that, as they warm up, need to be knocked to break the sprue. I've taken to laying the end of the mold down on my towel so that the sprue plate doesn't swing. I use an old hammer handle that I bought years ago but did not fit my hammer head.

[Remiel]

gloved hand and a small wooden mallet

[tazman]

If casters have to hit the mold or the sprue plate for any reason tells me ... Inexperience!

I wouldn't call 40 years of casting inexperienced. I use a hickory hammer handle. Saves the wear and tear on my hands. My molds don't seem to have suffered any from the usage over the years either. Some of them have many thousands of boolits through them.

[M-Tecs]

Most of my 8 & 10 cavity H&G's came from a commercial caster. He first used a lead hammer and later a rawhide mallet. I use a rawhide mallet or a plastic rod http://www.buffaloarms.com/Detail.as...61427&CAT=3905.

I know he cast well over 1/2 million bullets with one of the 10 cavity 68's that I currently own. I have only cast maybe 20K with it. The mold and sprue plate are also like new.

Tazman - same as you I have been casting for 44 years. Only own a couple of single cavity for BPCR and a few doubles. Maybe fifty four cavity, a few five cavity, a dozen six cavity and about a dozen eight and ten cavity. Maybe if I am lucky in another 44 years I will no longer be Inexperienced

[ipijohn]

I use a 12" long 1" wood dowell that is wrapped with plastic electricians tape. Have used the same one for many years. I am not as old as some of you folks, but I have been casting this way for 50 YEARS.

[rototerrier]

Gloved hand and a scrap piece of pine if I need to get the boolits to drop, which I usually don't. Most of my molds drop pretty well.

[N4AUD]

A maple mallet I turned on a lathe.

[Ola]

Well this is surprising. I thought that everyone here in CB have stopped beating the molds long, loooong time ago. I read about the welders cloves -trick here some years ago, tried it and never went back. Just because it is more convenient and way faster. I just hate juggling around with a hammer or stick.
---
Disclaimer: The next is NOT the "best and only correct way" to cast bullets. Just an example.
---
This how I cast at the moment, the technique seems to be "evolving" a little all the time:

1. I hold the mold in the left hand and operate the valve with right hand (RH).
2. Cut the sprue with RH
3. Dump the sprue on the RH and toss it in the pot
4. open the mold and let the bullets drop into water
5. close the mold
6. close the sprue plate with RH
7. repeat

I do this cycle as fast as I can because the purpose is to get more bullets to shoot. There is only a little pause, between (1) and (2), if necessary (usually not). The reason for (3): I use 6 cav that will empty my Lee pot way too fast: putting the already hot sprues back in helps to keep the lead level and temperature up.

The positive side effect is I'll never let the sprue solidify so much that I have to beat the sprue plate.

And if the bullets do not drop when you open the mold: "Leementing" is the right way to proceed.

[labradigger1]

I think an important fact is being overlooked.
It is my opinion that single and double cavity molds (especially aluminum molds) open easier and drop boolits easier than multiple gang molds.
Bhn plays a HUGE part in how easily the sprue plate parts off the sprue.
Hollow point pins play a huge part.
I have many 4 gang Lyman molds and brass noe molds and I lightly whack them with my whacker.
Ymmv but my preferred method and being right handed is,
Hold the mold in my left hand and whacker in my right.
Place mold under bottom pour spout with left hand and raise the pour handle with my right while still holding the whacker.
Move the mould to one of two wooden trays and place it on the edge of the tray to allow sprue to harden and to give my hand a break from holding the direct weight.
Next I whack the sprue plate and release the sprue into the sprue/cull tray. I never drop the sprue back into the pot because sooner or later you will get splashed.

Then I move the mold over the boolit tray and turn upside down and whack the hinge rivet and drop the boolits.
It is very important to me to not have any wasted movements in casting. The whacker never leaves my right hand and the mold never leaves my left. Everything is one fluid function.
Less time casting means more time loading and shooting.
If whacking the mold works for you then whack it,
If opening with gloves works and the boolits release then use gloves.
There is no right or wrong the way i see it, do what works for you and enjoy the process.
Lab

[jmort]

In the immortal words of Deng Xiaoping, "It doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice."