Meepos Lube Sizer - pix

[Dutchman]

Greetings booliteers

I picked up this Meepos lube sizer at an estate auction in rural Indiana.
I'd never heard of Meepos but it appeared to be robust and needing
only a cleaning and a wood handle for the ram handle, which is not
attached in this photo. The sizer die in it is a .311" which I took as an
omen that I'd one day resume casting:).

http://images39.fotki.com/v1236/photos/2/28344/1676633/meepos1-vi.jpg

Since I've never used one of these it appears that the bullet falls through
after lubing as there's no return mechanism to bring it back up. I also assume
that the two levers showing, one pressurizes the lube reservoir while the
other appears to be a valve that opens the lube gate, as it were, when the
bullet is inside the die and then the pressure valve is released and no lube
leaks out. Does this sound about right?

Is this lube sizer viable to use? Quirks? For over 20 yrs I used two Lyman 45
lube sizers and came to intensely dislike the eccentric handle dynamics and
the press design itself was antique even when I was using it in the late 60s.

This press has since been disassembled and cleaned.

thanks for any insight.
Dutch

[Bent Ramrod]

Dutchman,

Congratulations on your find! I have a Meepos Speedlube myself and recently added a Meepos reloading press to the collection.

Ken Neeld, over at the Antique Reloading Tools web site is the expert on "modern" (maybe "classic" would be a better term because they sure aren't contemporary any more) reloading equipment. He knows a lot about Meepos tools (has an essay on their history on the "Modern" forum) and may be able to get you a copy of the instructions.

What you do is choose the length of your boolit and place it alongside the die so the grease grooves line up with the holes in the die. Put the punch on top of the bullet and mark where the shank would be at the die surface with the boolit at the proper depth. Replace the die and punch and screw the punch in or out until it goes to the marked depth.

Fill the reservoir tube with lube, put a boolit in the die and press it in with the big lever in front. Raise the boolit lever and screw the lube reservoir lever until the little lever to the right raises up from the pressure. Push this lever down, put another boolit in the die, push the big lever, catch the lubricated boolit going out the bottom, screw the grease reservoir lever until the little lever comes up again and do the sequence over until you run out of boolits. The last one, of course, will stay in the die.

Meepos tools are not at all common. I ran across my Speedlube about 15 years ago and only got the loading press earlier this year. Lucked out and found a set of .45 ACP dies for the press, but the shell holder, and the die on the Speedlube, is for a .38/.357. The search goes on! Good luck with your Speedlube; I haven't tried mine out yet, but only recently got the instructions.

[HeavyMetal]

I mised one on evil bay a few weeks ago it went for a c note. Just wasn't up to spending that kind of money for my curisoty!

My understanding is these also took a one off die only used by Meepos. You might be able to have a few made by site members, such as Buckshot, but you'll need to secure a sample I'll bet!

This is the only other sizer I 've seen that uses the push through system. I've heard anoother company called Phellps was making a reloader and a sizer similar to the Star's but I've never seen one or photo's eithere for that matter.

Congrats on the find! I think a lot of this kind of stuff winds up , sadly, in the scrap bin as no one knows or cares after the original owner if done with them.

[Bent Ramrod]

One of the weird things about Meepos tools is that they're all a little different, at least the ones that have been photographed. The Speedlube in the instruction sheet has curved handles that look like the handle on an Ideal lead ladle. The large handle on my Speedlube is a straight cylinder with narrow grooves turned in them, like the handles on barbecue grill utensils, while the others are curved. The cylindrical handles are fitted to the loading tool, but the number of the grooves vary from one example to the other, even when the same type handles are fitted. Dutchman's example has ball handles, the first of that type to turn up. Meepos loading dies are all slightly different in outside shape and some of the parts of the loading press are as well. Apparently Meepos was one of those improvisational guys who was always trying something different.

There's also a contemporary writeup on the Meepos tools in the third edition of Sharpe's Complete Guide to Handloading.

The boolit sizing dies at this late date would definitely be a custom proposition. However, they were obviously made by somebody on a lathe and a drill press, and should be copyable by anyone with home shop drilling, threading and turning skills. Actually, it looks as if one could find the proper size hex-headed bolt and nut, the threading part could be dispensed with. They're definitely not as sophisticated or finely-crafted as Star or SAECO dies.

[Dutchman]

Thanks for the info on this Meepos lube sizer.

I do have a lathe & mill so fabricating dies is an afternooner. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to integrate this lube sizer into my yet un-started renewed boolit casting pasttime or go with something else.

There *was* a cast boolit in the die when I got it. It was the Lyman Loverin 150 gr (or so). At the time I didn't really stop to think why there was a slug in the sizing die instead of a plug of some kinda as with the Lyman sizing die.

Dutch

[jj850]

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