Poor Quality of New[er] Lyman Ladles

[Maven]

My first Lyman casting ladle lasted at least 15 years, i.e., until the bowl itself fell apart. I've since acquired two new ones, which are now made with the bowl threaded onto the shaft. While this may have seemed to be a good idea at the time, they aren't so wonderful in practice. They pour well enough (in spite of a too fat spout and too short wooden handle), they loosen on the shaft (Ever try to tighten a hot bowl even when wearing welding gloves?) and the threaded portion snaps off in the bowl, rendering it useless. As I mentioned earlier, this happened to two ladles. I wrote to Lyman last night requesting a replacement, but I have to say the quality of their ladles, and perhaps some of their other products as well, has really declined.

[GP100man]

Maven

I put a small nickel tack weld on mine , never looked back !!!

I`m in the process of changing to some steel molds & bought a set of Lyman handles & not a 1,000 boolits later I`ve had to epoxy the nails & brass bands.

If the bowl part is still good just take a 1/4 nut & place over the end & fill it with weld, then screw out the broken threads, this works easier with a wire welder though !!

[Maven]

GP100man, I was thinking along the same line. For times like that, I wish I had a wire feed! Thanks for the tip.

[Maven]

All, I telelphoned Lyman Customer Service the day after my post re the ladle problem and asked whether I could send them a digital photo of the handle and bowl. They agreed. I then thought, why even bother with that when all I needed was a new handle and would they just send me a new handle as a replacement. Not only were they receptive to both proposals, but I received a new ladle, gratis, in today's mail. That's less than 1 week! Lyman's customer service is to be commended for their service. Btw, the new ladles have a second threaded hole + a plug so as to accomodate both left and right handed users.

[stephen perry]

If you are pleased with your new Lyman ladle maybe you should consider changing the title of your Thread it would only be fair to Lyman.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR :brokenima

[Maven]

stephen, I e-mailed Lyman customer service right after I received the new ladle to tell them how pleased I was. On second thought, you're correct about the title of the original post. However, the new ladle may not be any more durable than the other two.

[GP100man]

SP

In all fairness I get satisfaction from Lyman customer service.
But only had to use it a couple of times though.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Not to hijack this thread but I sent a new mold (358429) to Lyman approximately 2 months ago with a note describing the problems (undersized, terribly out of round). Within a week of their reciept of the mold, I received a call from a fellow at Lyman, and he said that the mold had a lot of problems and he was just going to cut me new blocks. I asked him what was wrong with the mold (knowing good and well what was wrong with it), and he stated that there were a lot of bad things going on with this mold. Mind you, this mold is new. I cast maybe 300 bullets with it! Well, I have always heard how slow Lyman is and figured it would take a couple weeks. Well, 7-8 weeks go by so I figured I would give them a call and get an update. The lady that I talked to, Nancy, was extremely nice and wanting to help me out as much as possible. I told her I had sent in mold a couple months ago and she asked for my name and was checking it on the computer. It took her a while to find it and could not give me an answer on where it was. She called me back later to tell me it was gonna be another couple weeks.

[Ben]

Not to hijack this thread but I sent a new mold (358429) to Lyman approximately 2 months ago with a note describing the problems (undersized, terribly out of round). Within a week of their reciept of the mold, I received a call from a fellow at Lyman, and he said that the mold had a lot of problems and he was just going to cut me new blocks. I asked him what was wrong with the mold (knowing good and well what was wrong with it), and he stated that there were a lot of bad things going on with this mold. Mind you, this mold is new. I cast maybe 300 bullets with it! Well, I have always heard how slow Lyman is and figured it would take a couple weeks. Well, 7-8 weeks go by so I figured I would give them a call and get an update. The lady that I talked to, Nancy, was extremely nice and wanting to help me out as much as possible. I told her I had sent in mold a couple months ago and she asked for my name and was checking it on the computer. It took her a while to find it and could not give me an answer on where it was. She called me back later to tell me it was gonna be another couple weeks.

The only thing I read above that is " suitable " is that she seemed nice on the phone.

The long wait and you having to call to find out why you don't have a replacement mold doesn't sound so good.

In 1969, I didn't hesitate to buy Lyman products, I've seen too much( I bought 3 different 311284's and all were undersized ! ! ) and heard too much during the past 10 yrs.to continue doing business with them anymore. There are businesses now ( Like NOE ) that sell molds that are cut to proper specs and you don't have to be subjected to all this.

It is a real shame that it has all come down to this with Lyman....................

Ben