An Exercise in Sizing and Lubing

[lightman]

After hunting season was over in January I rewired the circuit behind my work bench so that it would handle 3 casting pots and a hot plate. About once a week a couple of buddies will come over for a casting session. We've been doing this since late winter and I've gone through a milk crate of ingots! Well, today seemed like a good time to start sizing all those bullets. My 40 year old Lyman 450 has been leaking lube out from around the bottom and I wanted to empty it. I had 4 different 45 bullets cast up. Also a bunch of RCBS 38-150 KT's and H&G 503's. I started with the 45's.

1. My old original Lyman 452374, a 4 gang that cast the traditional 225 Round Nose.
2. My RCBS 45-201
3. A new to me H&G 130 4 cavity
4. Another new to me H&G 68BB 4 cavity

Well, they all would lube with the same adjustment except the 68BB. No amount of adjustment would keep lube from getting in the bevel base. I'll preform some accuracy test with this bullet but if its not exceptional, it won't get used very much. The RCBS bullet has always been very accurate and reliable for me. I saved some selected rejects to try. My 2 buddies kept telling me I was too strict with my culls. So we'll see. Now I'm waiting on the 450 to cool off so I can take it apart and see if I have enough stuff to rebuild it with.

[Beagle333]

It is really hard to keep the BB boolits from getting lube around the base in a Lyman sizer unless you use the egg carton foam trick. As the BB passes the lube holes on the down stroke, the sizer doesn't know that gap isn't a lube groove and fills it with grease. The Star doesn't do this, since it doesn't keep constant pressure on the lube, and only applies pressure when the boolits are at the bottom of the stroke and aligned with the holes. The foam from the egg carton trick will let your BB go past the holes in the die when under constant pressure in a Lyman, without filling the grooves. It's a little annoying to do, compare to flat base boolits, but it's better (imho) than wiping off the base of every boolit. Good luck!

[lightman]

Yeah, I've heard about the egg carton trick. I ran out of lube shortly after getting started, as planned, and took the sizer apart. A broken "O" ring in the bottom was the cause of my leak. While out in the shop looking through my assortment for a replacement I wondered if a smaller "O" ring might do what the egg carton does? I did not have the correct size for repairs but next week I plan to get it back together and I will try putting a small "O" ring in the bottom of the die. Who Knows?