Help with my Lyman 45

[Angus]

My bullets are sticking in my 45. Sometimes they are bottomed out, sometimes they don't even make it that far. It usually ends with me pulling my size die and pounding the boolit out with a mallet. It happens every boolit, not just intermittently. The boolits are Lee 195 SWCs, 41 caliber trying to push through a 410 die. The lube is a soft, black lube. I've tried adding a little heat with an incandescent bulb, no luck. SOMEONE HELP!!! Please?

[SierraWhiskeyMC]

Lee Mold 410-195-SWC, right?

What alloy are you using?

I'm going to guess that you're water-dropping boolits from a pretty hard alloy, and the boolits may be coming out of the mold a bit larger than you think they are. If you want to make sizing go a bit easier, try air-cooling the boolits, sizing them right away, then harden them in your oven @ 450°F for a few hours. Lube after the oven hardening. Yes, more steps, but it makes things easier.

The Lyman lube is black as tar, and can be pretty stiff when it's cold. Makes it a bit harder to get it into the lube grooves with the crank handle when cold, but shouldn't make the boolit harder to come out of the sizing die.

Did you lubricate the outside of the lube reservoir/cylinder, the lever pivot points and the lower slides?

[Angus]

Everything is nice and greasy everywhere, it seems to be specific to the boolit since everything else moves just fine. I'll pop this last batch in the oven to soften them up and see how it works then.

[SierraWhiskeyMC]

Ahhh, putting them in the oven will make them harder, not softer. If you've been water-dropping them, or they've been sitting around for several weeks, try melting them down and re-casting them.

Basically, these three things are most likely to cause the trouble you're experiencing:
Boolits too large (limit sizing to .002" less than cast diameter).
Boolits too hard (use softer alloy, oven harden after sizing, before lubing).
Oversize gas checks.

[Angus]

The boolits run through a Lee sizer effortlessly, then proceed to stick in the Lyman, although to a much lesser degree than before. I have been water-dropping straight wheel weights.

[Angus]

I somehow, apparently by complete accident, fixed my problem. I ran some boolits TLed in JPW through the sizer, and they ran through effortlessly. I tried a half dozen naked ones and they too ran through perfectly. The lube in the press was what I originally thought was Lyman Moly, but later found out was the ancient Ideal graphite lube. I squeezed it out and boiled it clean then stuffed it with the LBT Blue I got with the sizer. It's still running smooth as butter and I really don;t know what happened...

[hiram]

Crazy idea-----Slug the lube die and see if the die is undersized.