DGW Brass mold

[kingsax26]

hey all.... the other day i was at a garge sale and came across a .315 cal brass bullet mold from DGW.... yay! i paid 5.00 for it lol. anyway....i just had to go home and use it .....my question is...how in gods name do you use it without having to wear oven mitts? that thing gets really really hot...also...i am having a really hard time getting the balls to drop from the mould.....any suggestions?

 

[Billnpatti]

Yes, the handles do get hot and there is nothing you can do about that except use gloves or oven mitts. I know of one person who used small (approx. 1/8 inch) cotton cord like is used on venation blinds to wrap the handles. The handles will still get too hot to handle with bare hands, and gloves will still be needed, but will be a bit cooler than non-wrapped handles. To make the balls drop out freely, make sure the mold is clean, then smoke it thoroughly with something like a butane lighter or candle. A clean mould that has been smoked will drop the balls with only a tap on the hinge with a stick of wood. You should only have to use a firm rap to free the ball. If you have to beat on the mould, your cavity is not cleaned and smoked properly.

 

[mooman76]

That's probably why they don't sell so good. I had an old aluminum mould with aluminum handles years ago and made wooden handles to go over the metal. I have one of the brass moulds too. I got only cause it was cheap and I thought they were neat. It's really best if you are going to do much casting at all to get one of the more popular ones or a Lee.

 

[bpd303]

Yep as said a well prepped mold should drop the cast out without beating on it. I had some fuel line that fit over the handles and insulated them just fine. It always pays to use welders gloves when casting for safety sake.

 

[George]

I have one of those molds in .530" and have had good luck wrapping the handles with leather. It stays reasonably cool as long as you make balls at a slower pace. It's a bag mold, I don't use it to make a large number of balls. Throws a good ball.



Spence

 

[Paul_R]

I would think you could rig BBQ handles to that.

Heck they even come in brass!

 

[cynthialee]

if you are casting you should be wearing thick work gloves to protect against lead splash. If you are wearing a proper work glove it shouldn't be too hot to handle.

The BBQ handles are a good idea, should cut down some of that heat.

 

[kingsax26]

I WAS WEAR4ING OVEN mitts...the darn mold would ahve been to hot to handle with gloves on...it was almost too hot for oven mitts lol...also...is there a better to remove the sprue other than using the mold? i thought it left the sprue a little large .... :hmm:

 

[George T.]

The key is to go slow. The leather and BBQ handles are good ideas. Perhaps leather over them. I started out with one of those and I think I had a Lyman in the mail in about 30 balls. Lee's were not out then! Geo. T.

 

[Rod Lassey]

I agree---got to go slooow with any type of early mould. Like heating on a campfire, pouring the 6 or 8 balls that your ladle will hold, setting the mould aside while you add lead to the ladle and wait for it to melt. Not dipping from a full pot, and definately not using a self-pouring electric pot. This goes for any of these type of moulds, whether iron or brass---Dixie, Callahan, Rapine, Smiling Fox, or original. I wrap the handles of mine with leather and rawhide.

Rod

 

[Eljay]

You might think "welders gloves" rather than "oven mitts".

 

[M. De Land]

Eeeeeeh Gad, I like to cast all manor of projectile with a good electric pot and wood handled molds but could really learn to hate it if I had to make all the lead balls with that mold over a camp fire. :rotf: Mike D.
Here's my set up for casting indoors in the winter. Squirrel cage fan in the back sucks air into he hood , out the back and out the window.

 

[MacRob46]

Eeeeeeh Gad, I like to cast all manor of projectile with a good electric pot and wood handled molds but could really learn to hate it if I had to make all the lead balls with that mold over a camp fire. :rotf: Mike D.
Here's my set up for casting indoors in the winter. Squirrel cage fan in the back sucks air into he hood , out the back and out the window.

Neat set up and absolutely necessary to run balls indoors. Get those lead fumes out!

I don't know if the brass molds have changed over the years, but I have one that I got when I bought my first C & B revolver 45 years ago and it would not cast a decent ball whatever I did with it. They seemed to me to be more for displaying in cased sets than actually using. If you are going to cast in quantity then you need a gang mold or at least a dual cavity mold. If you are running a few balls at rendezvous then a bag mold is just fine. Those are all good ideas for the handles. The mold, as we know, has to be hot enough to cast good balls and that means heat on the handles as well as in the cavity area when using bag molds, etc.

 

[Billnpatti]

I have one just like the one in your picture. Mine is a .36 caliber mold that I picked up at a gun show at a very reasonable price. I used it to cast a few balls just to try it out. I think I had cast about 5 or 6 balls when I decided that the reason it was called a "bag mold" is because it's best to just leave it in your bag. That was my one and only time I ever used it. Now it lays in the back of one of the drawers in my gun tool cabinet. I ask myself "Why burn your hands when you can cast with Lee?" If I ever trade/sell my .36 cal. rifle, I can always use my bag mold to sweeten the deal.

 

[Many Klatch]

Straighten the handles out and stick corn cobs over the handles. That will cool things down.

I use big leather welding gloves and welding sleeves when casting, even the big woodend Lyman handles get too hot to hold barehanded after a 100 ball or more.

The brass molds are fun to use but not sure that they are what you want to run a lot of ball. BTW, you might as well just get good sidecuts to remove the sprue instead of trying to use the ones on the molds.

Many Klatch

 

[Rod Lassey]

We're coming at this from two different directions---for me, half the fun is sitting around the fire, jawing with good friends, and running ball. It's actually the only way I cast roundball any more---my Lee double-cavity hasn't been used in years.

On the other hand, I cast bullets for my BP cartridge rifles in the shop, but use a slightly less sophisticated setup. It consists of a propane 3-burner stovetop, a large old cast iron skillet, and a dipper. Those moulds are, of course, of a more modern design, too.

To each his own, but I find casting ball over a campfire after a day of shooting very relaxing and lots of fun. As I'm more interested in doing things the "old way", this satisfies that urge.

Rod

 

[Rifleman1776]

Those are good for casting if you are primarily interested in bragging you did it the old way.
If you want a large run of balls, a handled mould is the way to go.
As others have said, it will work but heavy (welders) gloves are a necessity.
Those brass moulds look nice on display with your other accutrements. Best use IMHO.

 

[Rod Lassey]

"...if you are primarily interested in bragging you did it the old way."

I don't brag about doing it the "old way", I simply do it the old way---for my own enjoyment and education. It's what I'm interested in----I figure if I need that many balls that fast, I'd better get out a semi-auto and start blasting.

I'll probably get chastised for this, too, but I don't wear welder's gloves, either. I just pay attention to what I'm doing, the leather/rawhide wraps on the mould handles work just fine.

Those moulds are made to be used, and if you want to experience for yourself how our forefathers cast lead, there's no better way.

Rod

 

[M. De Land]

Well that sounds like a neat thing to do while setting around a camp fire in the evening. How good a quality are they from that mold?
I was just talking about when casting up several hundred like I often do in one setting.
Since I started the flint knapping thing I think this is what I will be doing around the camp fire in the evening after supper. Course I'll need a head lamp to see how the edge is developing and where to percuss or flake. Actually I think I would need it for running balls as well in camp. Mike D.

 

[Rod Lassey]

Quality is pretty good---if I had to rate them, my Rapine moulds are best, very closely followed by the Callahan (both iron), with the Dixie brass coming in 3rd. I don't own a Smiling Fox mould, but I've heard there's some quality control issues with them. If you are careful clipping the sprue, they can be snipped off quite closely.

Rod