Sizing issues

[Michael J. Spangler]

Hi guys.
I'm having an issue with sizing
I've always cast my 45 acp boolits with a 454-200 mold and COWW
I size all my boolits to 453 and lube with carnuba red for use in my 1911 and my 625.

I just got a hold of some pure lead so I've been casting 50/50 pure and COWW

They are a little smaller as cast. .452 to .454 (not perfectly round) when I put them through my sizer they pop out at .452" is this because of less alloy spring back? Or maybe more of them are .452 than I think, with only a few high spots on the parting line?

Since I've been running the new alloy I've had an issue with sizing. Every 4th of 5th boolit is giving me issues. The lube handle firms up a bunch on sizing and when I put the next boolits through the previous one pops out without lube.

I tried messing with pressures and punch depth to remedy this but I keep having the random unlubed boolits.

Could this be an issue of an undersized boolit causing some sort if pressure leak and not letting the lube sizer do its thing? I would think that as long as the boolit has enough friction to hold into the die it would line up with the lube ports and fill the lube groove?

It's really killing me right now. I have very little lube boolits and want to pay catch up but have to keep feeding the boolits back through the die, or pressure is high in order to get a goo fill out and that's resulting in nasty lube drops in the boolit noses. Either way its not very fun for me.

Also I lost the top o ring in my star sizer a long time ago but haven't had much if a issue until now. Now it seems like I'm losing a lot of lube from the little gap between the frame and the dine shoulder. In think this might be a function of the higher pressure I'm using to apply lube and the higher temps of the lube.

Also can having too high of a lube temp cause issues at all?

Let me know what you think please. Thank you in advance guys. Much appreciated.

[Michael J. Spangler]

Bump bump

[Brenden]

I had a similar problem, for me it was all about follow through. I was pulling the handle far enough to get a bullet to drop, but not far enough to operate the lube piston fully. After figuring this out my lube pressure needed to be backed way off, hope this helps.

[cbrick]

It's a lube temp/pressure thing. To answer your question, yes, you can have the lube temp too high. In fact it has a rather low melt temp and you could turn it liquid. The warmer the lube the lower the pressure that's needed, it's kind of a balancing act between the temp & pressure but easy to figure out with a bit of experience. Keep on keeping on and before long you'll be wondering what the problem was.

Rick

[Michael J. Spangler]

I think I had the temp too hot.
I ran it later with some 38s with no issues. I think in too used to hearing it during the winter months and leaving the light bulb on too long. Way too hot.
Lets see how it works this week when I cast some more 45s
I might experiment with running the 45s with 50/50 and some added tin to see if I can get the diameter up to where I need it.

[btroj]

I find that more pressure, less heat is usually a good thing. Turn the lube too a liquid and the mess is something to behold. Trust me.