Wanted to use it today? No place to buy mould handles in 100 miles? (very common out here in the west!) Pre-internet or telephone everywhere days that meant mail-order and three weeks for delivery. Poor ol' Bubba, always getting beaten.
to get a set of lyman handles I'd have to order them.
I might maybe could find a set of rcbs handles over in Pocatello 70 miles away.
pre-internet day's [wow] I'd have to mail off a check and wait at least 2 weeks hoping I ordered the right thing based off the description in the catalogue [if I had one]
back in the day.
I'd have done that in a heartbeat, but probably used a set of vise grips so they were adjustable.
I'd say "Bubba" finds himself in good company. I didn't have internet before 2008, and sometimes needed handles right away for a new mould, or couldn't afford handles. This is my first set of commercial Lee handles, made from a couple pieces of truck leaf spring and a trashed 2C mould. The Chinese pliers were re-ground to fit my first Lyman single-cavity and drilled/reamed for a correct hinge bolt. I'm very glad to have the internet and a few extra dollars these days so I can buy "proper" equipment, but in a pinch, I still do what I have to.
I wear welding gloves while casting but, I use genuine mold handles on the molds.
The gloves make it nice to bump the mold bottom when closing them. Helps alignment especially, on lee blocks.
C'mon, if he was a real man he'd use a metal straw to suck the lead out of the pot, swish it around like mouthwash to get rid of bubbles, then use the straw to blow it back into the mold.
-Kevin (who cringes at the idea of a mould without handles)