Need base mounting pics of Lube Sizers

[lar45]

Hi all. Could someone take a pic of the base of a Star lube sizer? Also measure the placement and size of mounting holes?
I have a Lyman 450 and RCBS lubers.
Are the other Lyman, 45 and 4500 the same as the 450? For mounting holes.

Thanks
Glenn.

[Tom Myers]

Glenn

I just acquired a Phelps sizer which I believe to be the same as the newer Star sizers

The holes are approx. 0.240" in diameter and the diameter of the top chamfer is approx 0.445"

The center to center placement of the holes is as shown on the image below.

Sorry, I can't help you with the hole patterns of the Lyman sizers as I only have the old style

Hope this helps.

Tom Myers
Precision Ballistics and Records (http://www.tmtpages.com)


http://breeze.linksky48.com/~tommyers/LinkSkyImages/BASE1.gif


http://breeze.linksky48.com/~tommyers/LinkSkyImages/BASE2.gif

[Urny]

My 4500 is the same as both 450's. 45 is very different, using four wood screws to mount to the bench.

[44man]

You are missing out on the greatest way to mount tools. It is the Thompson Tool Mount. One plate on the bench, less then a minute and a new tool change. I put everything on it, much more then I took a picture of. I make my own bases but you can buy single or double bases. A piece of hardwood has to be added to the base for large tools that are too large for the double base. I only have one press mounted permanently because it was already on the bench before I bought the mount.

[44man]

This is the plate with my trimmer attached.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Heck, I invented that years ago, but procrastinated heavily. :-) I was in the cavalry, I should have been in the artillery, I'm always gunna! Mick.

[grumpy one]

That looks a bit awkward unless you have quite a few of the mounting points dotted around your bench, which would get in the way of other work.

FWIW, which is probably nothing, I use my welding bench for all reloading activities, and require that the reloading stuff can be totally removed without leaving any trace or bench modifications, in just a couple of minutes. That involves three separate approaches. I've bolted the Rockchucker to one end of a foot of 4x2 hot-rolled 3/8 steel channel, boxed in by welding an overlapping piece of 1/8 steel plate onto the open side of the channel. I drop the other end of the channel into the 6" toolmaker's vice when I use it, so it rests on the flange created by the overlapping 1/8 plate, and just unclamp it and put it in the cupboard when I'm not using it. Small items like trimmers etc. I've mounted on aluminium sheets with a clamping area on one end. I clamp them to the bench top with a single C-clamp, so I can attach and remove them in a couple of seconds. I have a mounting device about 15" square that takes care of everything else - it has bolts welded to it for the bases of the Partner press, the Simplex press, the Uniflow powder measure, and the Lyman 45 sizer, plus a large blank area where I put the clothes iron to heat up the whole device to soften bullet lube when necessary. The mounting device is a piece of 1/8 plate, with a length of 4x2 channel down two sides to raise it above bench height since I prefer to get close and personal when I'm reloading. I put a piece of half-inch plywood as insulation between the mounting device and the bench when I'm going to heat it up, because my bench is 5/8 steel plate, and I don't want to try to heat the whole bench. The mounting device is held to the bench by two big clamps, so it can be set up or removed in seconds. As it happens I remove all the reloading items from the mounting device when I'm not using it, but that is just for storage convenience - it would make more sense to leave everything installed on it. Of course it only takes a couple of minutes to install or remove the equipment from it anyway, because of the welded-on mounting bolts.

Geoff

[44man]

It just takes one plate and is so easy to change tools that it is no problem at all. I don't have to fool with big plates of steel, boards, vises or clamps. Best darn thing I ever bought.

[grumpy one]

It sounds as if I'm missing something. I find I need to have half a dozen items set up on the bench simultaneously for some operations. For example, I do case prep with the Rockchucker, and I need the lube pad, neck lube kit, cartridge length gauge and case trimmer all set up, because I use all of them to process each case. The only one that doesn't need to be held down to the bench is the lube pad.

If I'm filling cases I need the powder thrower and the seating press, both held down pretty solidly (though not nearly as solidly as the Rockchucker when I'm doing case prep).

If I'm sizing bullets I need the Lyman 45 - which has to be held rigidly - and the clothes iron, and I need them on a common platform that's thermally insulated from the bench.

The way I see it, your cunning device can hold down one item, and I'm very doubtful that the single item can be a press or lubesizer. Doesn't that mean you need a bunch of these cunning devices dotted around your bench, plus separate mountings for the presses etc.?

[44man]

No, because I do only one operation at a time. I size all my brass, then slip off the press, put the trimmer on and trim all of them. I put the powder measure on and fill all of my brass, slip it off and slip the press back on to seat the boolits. I don't have that much room to have a large bench and once used to it, it is great. If I had a large work area and a long bench, I would get or make some more plates or mount some with bolts. They are not in the way and I have to do a lot of other work on my bench so it is great to not have presses and sizers mounted in the way. The best part is that the plates mounted on the tools are not real large and I can store all of them on shelves or in drawers. With a thick wooden bench, the plate could be inlayed flush and there are only 2 holes.
For anyone with limited space, these are great.
I have 2 shotgun presses, 3 reloading presses, but one is bolted on, lub sizer, case trimmer, neck turning set up on another trimmer, powder measure and a vise. There is no way to have more then one at a time ( with the exception of the RCBS press bolted down.) on the bench with the room I have. The plates take all the pressure you can apply to them to the point of pulling over the bench.

[grumpy one]

OK, thanks, that explains it. If you are going to work one operation at a time across all your cases, one mounting point would do the job of course. You and I are both aiming to minimise space consumption, and have chosen different solutions - probably because I like to work one case at a time and you like to work one operation at a time.

Geoff

[44man]

It's the old thing of starting out with a nice big basement and watching it shrink with time. Either I have too much junk or my belly has gotten too big!
I put my Smithy down here, then brought home all kinds of filing cabinets and desks from work when they remodeled. Then all the jigs I made for my table saw are stored down here along with all of my hand tools. Then the gun safe, gunsmith tools, RC airplanes, archery equipment, camping and fishing stuff and of course all my beer making equipment. Need I go on?
Now you know why I love that little plate!

[grumpy one]

I have the same problem. When I retired I converted what had been my workshop, on the ground floor of the house, into an office and had a builder convert half of the two-car garage into a workshop, making it as small as possible to just fit my equipment so as to give my wife plenty of room to unload groceries. However I hadn't bought my milling machine at the time, and left room to just barely fit a Bridgeport. Then, Murphy's Law being what it is, after the workshop was built I found a good deal on a bigger mill, so instead of just sliding in a Bridgeport I had to tear up the workshop layout and start again. After much gnashing of teeth I sacrificed my work-bench and decided to use the welding bench for everything, including reloading. I also had to get the builder back to dig a cellar so I could put in a row of steel cabinets to store everything. There is now room for everything, just barely, but things have to be stored neatly. Not a bad discipline to have, IMO.

Geoff

[44man]

I would never be able to move! Need 2 tractor trailers to even start!

[grumpy one]

My workshop-to-office conversion did involve having a ton or more of treasure trove hauled off as garbage. My brand new, untested portable bench rest - which must have weighed 60 pounds - went, along with most of my electronic development stuff.

As a former Australian prime minister said, "Life wasn't meant to be easy." That statement wasn't much of a hit for him politically, by the way.

Geoff