Miscellaneous examples of bullet mold alterations and repairs

A variety of examples of basic machine resurfacing, unique bullet mold alterations and repairs.

Pistol523H&G 22454 ( 2 cavity. 45 caliber. )Sprue side surfaced to remove cavity edge ding. Note fixed pin on cavity with set screw in the way of the traditional sliding pin location, this allowed both cavities to be modified to the Cramer type system. Meplat was enlarged to .312". Pistol541NEI 251 51 ( 6 cavity. 25 caliber. RN point style. )Note .020" difference in cavities in the two mold halves. This mold has the cavities off center of the blocks by a whopping .010". Mold still drops bullets reasonably well but I find this poor quality control unacceptable. Two 6 cavity molds recently ordered had the same cavity offset problem. The NEI 45 6 cavity mold also had the sprue sides of the blocks .005" different in height as well, a quick skim cut on the mill corrected that issue. Rifle552RCBS and Saeco ( )Milling on sprue side performed on these molds to shorten the base band creating equal drive band lengths to customers specifications. .065" and .090" removed from the molds. Pistol574Ideal ( )Milled sprue side to remove cavity edge damage Pistol575Ideal ( 38 caliber. )Broken handle pinned and TIG brazed with a very hard alloy to restore mold to functional condition. Pistol577Lyman 357446 ( 4 cavity. 38 caliber. )Sprue side milled to remove dings and irregularities. 598Lyman 429244 ( 2 cavity. 44 caliber. )Milled sprue side to eliminate gouges and depressed edge by pivot screw allowing sprue plate to lie flat. Rifle602Lyman 378674 ( 1 cavity. 38-55 caliber. )Single cavity modified with a sliding nose pin into an adjustable nose length mold casting between 245 and 295 grains. Both bullets shown in the picture are from this mold. Rifle636Lyman-Ohlen 494 paper patch ( 1 cavity. 494 caliber. )I took a 445599 and altered it to provide a 494 caliber paper patch bullet with an adjustable base length. Pistol673Lyman-Ohlen 452488/short ( 45 caliber. )Lyman 452488 converted to a full wad-cutter bullet by inserting a filler bar to replace the nose portion of the cavity. Rifle690Ideal 311413 ( 1 cavity. 30 caliber. )Vent lines were re-cut in this mold following the originals vents which were very faint. Rifle691Ideal 311291 ( 1 cavity. 30 caliber. )Venting added to this old Ideal mold to improve casting. Pistol692M-P 410-200 Cramer ( 41 caliber. )Factory Cramer type HP pins re-cut to proper draft to allow for easy bullet release. I also corrected the sliding pin fit so the pins would slide properly to ease casting. Rifle696RCBS 40-PP ( 1 cavity. 40 caliber. )RCBS 40-PP altered to provide an adjustable base plug. 706Bullet mold "MatchedSeaterAndTopPunch" ( )Matched set of Lyman style top punch and an RCBS seater stem for 500 caliber HP bullet. 707Bullet mold "H-and-GSpruePlates-small-holes_pic707" ( )Replacement sprue plates for H&G four cavity molds. These have much smaller pour holes at .120" than the originals which have .145" to ease breaking the sprue. 708Bullet mold "TopPunchGroup" ( )Lyman style top punches fit for specific HP cavities.