Help Needed W/SAECO Sizer

[alamogunr]

I have been trying to size and lube some Lee .358-125 RF boolits. I'm using NRA 50-50 lube. It took me awhile to get everything adjusted but then I ran into trouble getting lube into the groove. It would work fine for a dozen or so boolits and then fail to get lube all the way around the groove. It would look like it needed more pressure. I would try a quarter turn, wouldn't work. Then a half turn, wouldn't work. A little more and when I brought the handle up to eject the boolit, lube would squirt out under the boolit.

This has happened 3-4 times and for the life of me, I cannot figure out what is happening. I hope I'm not overlooking something obvious. Any ideas?

[bhn22]

Does it happen shortly after changing dies? It kind of sounds like air in the sizer. Are you running heat with it? 50/50 shouldn't need heat of course, but it's worth asking.

[theperfessor]

Are you absolutely positive that the bullet is getting pushed down far enough for the lube groove to be directly in line with a lube hole in the die? If that hole is partially blocked then the lube will have to go under the bullet base, and the more lube under the base the higher the bullet will sit in the die and not get any lube. Maybe check the depth adjustment mechanism.

[bhn22]

I should have thought of that Keith. The travel depth of the SAECO is adjustable, It would be worth playing with the depth a bit. If you cycle this style of sizer too fast, you'll only get partial groove fill.

I've been working with Stars way too long I guess...

[alamogunr]

I thought about air in the sizer column but didn't know how to eliminate it. The trapped air under the plunger makes it difficult to push the mechanism in far enough to screw the retaining cap on. I made sure that I didn't have trapped air in the lube.

I did put some heat(a 40 watt light bulb) on the sizer but only on the backside of the bottom of the lube column. Since my OP, I have decided that, until the heat flows around to the front of the sizer, the holes on the front are not letting lube flow. When starting out, I had to make 2 strokes and turn the boolit 90+ degrees to fill in the rest of the groove. That is why I came to the above conclusion. Does this make sense?

I had to play around with the depth adjustment. I started out by measuring how far I needed to push the boolit into the die. Since the SAECO dies only have one circle of holes, it is critical. My measurement was somewhat off so I had to play around with the depth adjustment. I think I have that adjusted correctly.

The thing that puzzled me was that it would work fine for awhile and suddenly on the upstroke, a column of lube would push the boolit out of the die. So much lube that it surrounded the boolit when it reached the top punch. The lube that came out was warm and very pliable(?).

Also, I sized and lubed about 100 .45 boolits with a much bigger lube groove before starting on these .358's. No problems.

I think I will size the rest of the boolits and tumble lube. The load is a light load of Red Dot.

[Iron Mike Golf]

I have one of these and using them is something of an art. What works for me is enough heat for the lube to flow easily (about like creamy peanut butter) and a light pressure on the reservoir plunger. I normally use Carnauba Red in mine. Remember, this machine was designed back when boolit lube was basically grease. It's made for stuff that flows easy.

For setting seating depth, I put 2 boolits stacked atop one another next to a die with the lube groove line up with the holes. Note where the top boolit is with respect to the top of the die and use it as a depth gauge.

If you have too much pressure on the reservoir, on the down stroke, lube infiltrates under the boolit base. Then it's all over when you bring her up. Also, lube will get past the plunger seal in the reservoir. Makes a nice mess when you pull the plunger.

Next time you have it apart, really make sure you have all the lube out from the front side of the casting, the part that surrounds the die. Check for debris in there (bits of rubber seals and such) if this is a used unit and you haven't cleaned it down to bare metal.

Depending on the size of the lube groove, you can do all this and still have some difficulty filling in the front. You will also have that when you are near the bottom of the reservoir. In these cases, I do 2 strokes, with a quarter or half turn of the boolit in between.

Be gentle pulling the plunger out of the reservoir and be sure it's good and warmed up. Even so, you are eventually gonna tear the seal, unless you have one of the old leather ones. The neoprene ones are not durable. I use neoprene fender washers now from the hardware store.