Ten cavity moulds

[locutus]

Does anyone know of a source for good used Hensley and Gibbs ten cavity moulds?

TIA

[Bret4207]

Ebay, Auction Arms, etc. That's about it these days. I suppose you could place ads in the Rifleman, Handloader, etc.

[Shepherd2]

In addition to what Tpr. Bret said also watch for them at gun shows. I ran into a vendor selling moulds at a show this spring that had a couple and claimed to have about 30 more at home. Those are some big, heavy moulds.

[johnho]

I recently got a 10 cavity 50BB and it sure is heavy and takes a long time to heat up. I would not get another one this big. I also have a 68 8 cavity and it's much better and easier to work with, at least that's my opinion. Like already said, Ebay is a good source but 10 cavities don't come up very often.

[Sky C.]

What mold(s) specifically are you looking for?

[BLTsandwedge1]

I was fortunate enough to find (on Ebay) a 6 and a 10 cavity- both H&G .358 WC. They're simply outstanding. I use them together- heat is a challenge if you don't have a hot plate to place the rotating moulds on. The plate only needs to be set at 200 degrees or so- just enough to keep the big blocks from loosing heat. Once they loose heat, it's a bear to catch one up to the other. After setting up- bringing the moulds to temperature, bringing 20 pounds of alloy to temperature (hot- about 900 degrees for a lightly frosted bullet) and bringing 10 pounds of resupply alloy to temperature (I use two pots), one hour of uninterrupted casting yielded me about 1,200 WCs- after culling. That was last year- I've used them since but not to that degree. For those of us that don't have much time to cast, the big boys are super.

Regards.........

[anachronism]

Makes my back ache, just thinking about it...

Bob

[Texasflyboy]

You can occasionally find used H&G 10 cavity molds on Ebay or Auction Arms as the others have pointed out. Gunshows are good also...

Having collected H&G molds for 15 years now, I can tell you from personal experience that if you are a hobby caster with the typical 10 or 20 pound lead pot, the 10 cavity mold is not ideal for your situation. A better fit for your pot would be a 4 or 6 cavity mold. Lighter, easier to use, and easier to keep at the right temperature.

H&G 8 & 10 cavity molds were mostly made for commercial casters using large lead pots that held 50 -300 or more pounds of lead. This was in the day before autocast machines. 10 cavity was the only way to make production worthwhile. It's no coincidence that H&G stopped making 10 cavity molds in 1994 when demand fell off after auto cast machine became more and more affordable. I say mostly made for commercial casters, because the largest buyers of 8 & 10 cavity molds were businesses or government agencies (Local Law Enforcement agencies were big purchasers of 8 & 10 cavity molds in the 50’s & 60’s). Thanks to them we now have a source for buying all those unused molds.

I once visited a very old commercial casting facility here in Texas, and by then they had converted over to autocast machines. But back in the corner were the old manual pots. I was allowed to borrow one (the owner would not sell it) and manufacture a duplicate. It holds about 200 pounds of alloy and can easily take the 8 & 10 cavity molds and make the casting session easy and enjoyable.

Link to Casting Pot

It was only after I had this pot that I was able to realize the production potential of the 8 & 10 cavity molds. The pot takes about an hour to heat up, and when ready, I can cast continuously for about 3-4 hours before I either become too tired or run out of alloy. My typical casting session produces about 1500 H&G #34's (225gr. LRN) and about 800 #503's (The "Keith" 250gr .44 bullet). Production rates vary depending on my attention span and enthusiasm for casting on that day.

I much prefer to cast with the 6 cavity molds when I need #68's (200gr SWC for .45ACP) or 43's (The "Keith" 173gr .38 Bullet).

Casting with an 8 or 10 cavity molds frequently will produce ham sized arms. They already weigh a lot before you pour lead inside, and adding 8 or 10 150 to 250 grain bullets makes them all that heavier.

If you have to have a ten cavity mold, and you can't wait, then you can try Ballist-Cast. Their webpage shows 6 & 8 cavity molds, but maybe they can make you a 10 if they still have the tooling, they bought out H&G’s tooling when they closed their doors. To convert the H&G numbering system to Ballisti-Cast's simply add 600 to the H&G number. For example, H&G #34 becomes Ballisti-Cast #634. So on and so forth.

If you need a resource for H&G molds, visit my webpage at:

Hensley & Gibbs Mold Chart Reference Page

[locutus]

thanks to everyone who responded.