Lubrasizer q's

[soldierbilly1]

First: How do we clean this guy up? How do we remove most, if not all, of the remaining lube? Use a hair dryer and turn it upside down?

Second: Must I buy a heater for a harder lube? can I use a hair dryer to get the harder lubes moving through the unit?

thanks for the help. This board is very helpful to say the least!

Billy Boy

[44man]

First: How do we clean this guy up? How do we remove most, if not all, of the remaining lube? Use a hair dryer and turn it upside down?

Second: Must I buy a heater for a harder lube? can I use a hair dryer to get the harder lubes moving through the unit?

thanks for the help. This board is very helpful to say the least!

Billy Boy
Yes, you can melt it out. But go to a hobby shop and buy a heat gun that is used to cover model airplanes. They get to about 400*. Hair dryers are too cold.
Since I shoot revolvers I do not want a lube that needs heat anyway. Too hard is not good for me.

[LeeRoy]

This is from a kind of newbee, I just cleaned a Lyman 450 that had not been used in a number of years.

I cleaned the lube from the chamber with a wooden dowel. Then sprayed with some WD-40 and let set over nite. I then wiped it off with shop towels. Be sure to remove the sizer die and remove the lube from the lube rails around the die. I then used a heat gun to warm every thing up ( do not get it hot, just warm enough to loosen things up). Keep using shop towels to keep everything clean.

It use something that was suggested here.

LeeRoy

[tackstrp]

all the good advice has been covered. I am getting ready to sell my Lyman 450, waiting on new top seal or what ever it is called. the one on top of the lube . Will used all of the above . and wd 40 for the final clean up.


Myself i cant believe i waited all these years to buy the lyman heater, comes in handy for hard lubes,and cold days. granted a heat gun will do.

[1Shirt]

If you really want to get one clean, strip it down and put it in boiling water. All the lube and gunk will come to the surface. You can just skim it off, or wait until the water is cold and pick its off. As the lubes are lighter than water, the luber sizer will be almost factory clean. Then wipe with a lite WD-40 rag, and put it back together. Not a bad idea periodicaly to also do your sizing dies also, as they come out looking factory new.
1Shirt!:coffeecom

[D Crockett]

what 1shirt said is the best way I have a star and I use 3 kinds of lubes when I need to change lubes I just boil it out and use what I boil out as lead flux when I put put it in the lead I let it melt and the steem rise before I stir it into the lead so the tensel fairy does not come and visit D Crockett

[45-70 Chevroner]

The boiling water idea sounds like the best way to go just be sure that you don't put the wood handle in the boiling water. I'm sure I did'nt need to say that, about the wood handle. I've got two lubersizer's a #45 and a#450. The only time I have ever cleaned them is when I've had to replace internal parts ie. rebuild kits. If you are going to use a hard lube it is advisable to use a heater. Here in the high country of Arizona it gets pretty cold and yes we get snow, our lowest temp. this year was -10, and even with my medium soft lube (home made) I have to heat up my reloading room for about an hour before I can start lubing and sizing.

[MT Gianni]

I use a medium lube and just hang a trouble light with a 75 watt bulb next to the sizer if it is a touch cold.

[Will]

I use a spotlight to heat the #45 and keep it warm. You may have to adjust the distance from light to sizer to keep it at proper temp. It also provides good lighting for the sizing function.

[Dframe]

+1 to the cleaning options offered. I use only soft lube in mine and since it sometimes gets cold in my garage I use the lightbulb or hair dryer to warm thing up a bit if it's real cold. In warm summertime I've never needed heat.

[Iron Mike Golf]

When I received my used SAECO lubrisizer, it had 1/4 if the resevoir filled with ancient, unknown lube. Since I was not saving the lube, I set it on top of a 2 gal bucket to catch the melted lube and set it a few feet from a torpedo heater for 5 minutes. Followed that up with citrus Goof Off. Finished like new.

[prickett]

I placed my sizer between 2 100 watt lightbulbs and left. I cam back about 1/2 hour later and all lube had melted out.

No fuss, no muss

[JIMinPHX]

I've used a propane torch to heat up a sizer to get the goo out of it, but I don't think that is the best way to do it. A heat gun is probably a lot better way to go. Removing the plastic parts (handle knob) & rubber parts (o-rings), then putting it in a pan in an oven set at 200 would probably work well too.

I've tried just switching to a different lube without cleaning before. That gave me inconsistent mixed lube on boolits for a long time. I don't recommend that.

For using hard lube, you can buy the official heater gizmo. You can warm it up with a heat gun. You can mount it on a steel plate & then put an iron on the back of the plate. Lots of things work. You can also get fancy & rig up a temperature control gizmo with a thermocouple sensor & a PID box. I just use a propane torch, but again, that's probably not the best method. If you get ham handed with the torch, you can cause some damage.

[Bret4207]

I use an ancient blow drier my wife tossed because it didn't get hot enough for her (it was full of hair, go figure) when it's cold. I cast and size and load down into the sub zero temps in a basically unheated room. The blow drier warms my sizers and my finger. Works for me. I don't use hard . crayon type lubes though.