Lyman 450/4500 differences

[kendwell]

Picked up a used Lyman 450, missing lube top cap, stuck hard with hard lube, picked up set of spares for 4500, including new ram and handle assembly.

It seemed LOOSE: Brown & Sharp 0-1 mike says new ram is .006 smaller than the old ram, and slops badly enough to switch back to the original. Good no slop fit now. measurements were .805/.811

Just a warning. Lyman needs a quality control review: WHY CHANGE DIMENSIONS ON A PRODUCT PART?

[theperfessor]

I don't think Lyman machines the OD of their rams - they just use 13/16" (nominal 0.812") cold drawn steel round stock of some grade. Don't know what their incoming QC requirements are, +0.000/-0.006 seems a little too broad a tolerance range to me for CDS. Don't think they changed dimensions of the part, maybe they just got a run of bad stock from their vendor.

[kendwell]

Or bought sub-standard stock cheaper: or didn't check the dimension. Poor quality control, at least. Or deliberate planned obsolescence?