Best way to clean a lubrizer

[Curly James]

Okay,

I know I have read on this board in the past methods for cleaning a Lyman lubrisizer and now can't find anything using the search engine. I have had it with the harder lubes and am sticking with a softer mix (anybody know a good one [smilie=1:). I seem to remember something about a pot of boiling water.....anybody got any good ways to get hard lube out of my sizer? Thanks, CJ.

[dragonrider]

I use a hair dryer, works quick and slick.

[KYCaster]

I tried boiling one......what a mess!!! I think a hair drier would be much better.

Jerry

[NVcurmudgeon]

My lazy method of cleaning a lubrisizer is not cleaning it at all. The lube of choice here has been Javelina Alox for decades. I wanted to try Felix's WFL so waited until one of the two Lyman 450s ran dry and simply added the Felix's. For a while the lube was a little mixed, so I used that sizer for pistol only. (Mixed lube will shoot far beyond my poor pistol talents.) Now that sizer is dispensing straight Felix's, and is ready for research to continue. My lubrisizers don't ever look like the ones in the photographs in gun magazines, but are clean enough to get the job done. Also, my 450s never rust! Excess lube leaking out is saved for mould lube, or if I really leaned hard on the pressure screw, it gets put right back where it came from.

[klausg]

My method involved a $0.75 thrift shop roasting pan & the oven, of course I'm single so I can get away with things like that in the kitchen. If that's a no-go, I would definitely go with the hair dryer, or better yet, a heat gun if you have one.

[44man]

A heat gun is best. You can get one of those guns used to put covering on model airplanes at the hobby shop cheap. They only get to 400 degrees or so.

[jonk]

I do not clean mine. It was loaded with (what I swear) was axle grease when I got it, with parafin added. That gooey slop was used on low velocity .38s with no ill effects. Then it got loaded with Rooster Red, which I didn't like. When that was empty, I put a stick of RCBS rifle bullet lube in. When that was empty, Feelix lube, and when I emptied that last, 'the gunk ball' (see my earlier post of "el cheapo meets the gunk ball.") In every case, there has been some mixing for the first few dozen bullets- also as things get cleared out of the sizer die- but for plinking loads, I don't notice any difference.

[Shepherd2]

I've cleaned a couple using a heat gun. The type used to soften paint, etc. Don't hold it too close to the sizer and have a pan or something under it to catch the liquid lube when it pours out. It doesn't take very long.

[UweJ]

I also use a heat gun.Fast and works great.
Good luck
Uwe

[44woody]

the best way I have found is get a pot or a steel bucket that will hold water put the luber in with it open where you put the lube in then fill the bucket with water till it is at least 2 inches over the luber put on the turkey fryer turn up the heat and in no time it will be clean then turn the fire off let the wax on top of the water get hard skim it off take out you clean luber that what I did with my rcbs lam-2 took maby 5 or 10 minutes after the water started to boil :castmine: 44woody

[Kraschenbirn]

+1 for heat gun...quickest and least messy method I've been able to come up with.

Bill

[cuzinbruce]

Hers is another vote for the heat gun. I have one I bought at a house sale for $5 that has been super handy. Just take a cardboard box outside with the sizer and some old newpapers. Once it gets warm, the old lube just runs out. Use the newspaper to sop it up. Works great.

[wmitty]

If you want to save the lube in the sizer. boil it out by submerging in hot water.

If saving the lube isn't an issue, use the heat gun. Either way, use a rust preventative once it's clean.

[mstarling]

I've changed lubes a couple of times. I get all the old lube out that I can with something like a broad screwdriver and then dunk the Lyman 450 into a 5 gallon pail of Varsol that I keep to clean guns and gun parts.

I use a bottle brush to get inside the tube.

Works pretty well. I use the same method to get old cosmoline out of things.

If you're going from a hard lube to a softer one, it may be advantagous to warm the lubrisizer to get the big stuff out.

[pdgraham]

I just plug the heater in and let it drip into a bucket...

Takes a while but it works...

[Lumpie]

I just plug the heater in and let it drip into a bucket...

Takes a while but it works...

I am new on the block-forum, but I have been casting bullets, both rifle and pistol. I first had a meepose sizer, which I sized hundreds of thousands of 45acp bullets, and 38-357s This machine was purchased in 1952. Later when I could afford to buy Hensley and gibbs 681s, and 130bb moulds, I purchased a star with 9 different sizers. One set for 45acp, one set for 38-358, and one set later for 41. These sets are functioning perfect still. I am sixty four years old and one thing that I have learned,:Fire: is that if your sizer is need of cleaning, then you are not doing something cosure. A little lookey here I am making a mess, and correcting as you go will give you more time to enjoy your hobby, and not laboring on something that needs not to accure in the first place. P.S. I got tired of changing dies, so I bought 2 more stars.

[madcaster]

Well said Lumpie,too much distractions in life to worry about a messy lubrisizer!:coffee:

[Denver]

What 44Woody said.

[Springfield]

I put one in the oven (set at 200 ) on some paper towels and all the lube ran out fine. I boiled the next one and all the lube ran out fine. Why waste money on a heat gun? I have enough crap taking up space in my shop already!

[easy ed]

I put mine in a pot of boiling water, let it set for 5 minutes or so. Remove from the water and wipe the lube off with a towel. Then set it on a towel on my bench to dry.

[yodar]

My lazy method of cleaning a lubrisizer is not cleaning it at all. The lube of choice here has been Javelina Alox for decades. I wanted to try Felix's WFL so waited until one of the two Lyman 450s ran dry and simply added the Felix's. For a while the lube was a little mixed, so I used that sizer for pistol only. (Mixed lube will shoot far beyond my poor pistol talents.) Now that sizer is dispensing straight Felix's, and is ready for research to continue. My lubrisizers don't ever look like the ones in the photographs in gun magazines, but are clean enough to get the job done. Also, my 450s never rust! Excess lube leaking out is saved for mould lube, or if I really leaned hard on the pressure screw, it gets put right back where it came from.

I LOOOVE your attitude

KISS!

I do the same thing shifting form Adrian's Goo to Saeco green. No Big Deal!

yodar

[DrJay1st]

I just spent 3 days off and on cleaning a lyman 450. I'm thinking just throw them away!

Jerry

[jschance]

DrJay,

The Approved Lubrisizer disposal site is: JSChance Services, NW Indiana. You can even send it postage collect. Contact owner (JSChance) for further shipping details.:mrgreen::mrgreen:

[mtgrs737]

I'm with Lumpie, and NV. I have two Lyman 450's and two Star's and after cleaning one of my 450's once I no longer clean anything but the outside of them. Life it too short to be doing things you don't like to do.


Mtgrs737 :castmine:

[Omegaman]

I use a small propane torch to gently heat My RCBS lubrisizer. The old stuff runs out and I'm ready to put in the new. It's the same torch I use to heat my BP lube mix and anneal case necks.