Lube mess Lyman Lubricator sizer

[iggy809]

Lub [ Javelina ]and sizing Lee #358-120-tc hard cast homemade bullets. I cannot get the sizing plunger depth adjusted so the lub only goes into the lub groove. The lub collects under the sized bullet so the plunger has to be cleaned out after every third bullet. Is it the short bullet, too much lub pressure, or soft lub? Different plunger adjustments don't seem to make any difference. Suggestion Please

[Beagle333]

Too much pressure. Back off on the pressure. Size the boolit and add a little pressure if there is still airspace in the grooves. Resize it aqain and add a little pressure if there's still air in the groove. Keep at it until you discover how much pressure you need to get the grooves filled, but not enough pressure to push the boolit up off the stem and fill the space beneath it. I turn my pressure wrench just a little bit with every other boolit. You will find a method that works for you, but first lower the pressure and work back up.

It looks like that is not a bevel base boolit. If it were, you'd have to learn the trick with the egg cartons and Styrofoam to seal under the boolit.

Good luck!

[waco]

I agree with Beagle. I seem to find the softer the lube the worse the problem.....

[Scharfschuetze]

Is the sizing die making full contact with the driving bands of the boolit? In other words, is the bullet being sized too small or actually being sized by the die. It the bands are not in full contact with the sides of the die, lube can infiltrate and leak past the driving bands in the manner that you are experiencing.

[iggy809]

The die is making full contact, the bands are shinny. how should the depth of Boolit in the lubricator be determined? This Boolit has one lube band so I think it should go into the size die so the lube holes in the die are in alignment with the first hole in the sizer? I tried many different sizing depths with the same results. I cannot believe the lube can can lift up the boolit when it is under the pressure from the ram.I think I will have to work on the amount of pressure I apply to the lube. ????

[tomme boy]

Is the plunger up side down? It should be a little concave on the face or dished. That is supposed to be facing up.

[Beagle333]

Here's how I determine depth of boolit. I put a boolit in there and run the stop all the way up. Then I push the boolit down in the die and if it doesn't come back up with any lube on the groove, I lower the stop a turn or two and plunge the boolit back down again. When it comes up with lube in the groove, I give it one more turn lower and call it good. Lube away!

[fred2892]

Yes^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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[Wayne Smith]

One other thing, if you are putting pressure on the lube make sure you have pressure on the boolit in the sizer. If you don't this allows lube to enter under the boolit if the base is near another set of lube holes.

[Mike W1]

Here's how I determine depth of boolit. I put a boolit in there and run the stop all the way up. Then I push the boolit down in the die and if it doesn't come back up with any lube on the groove, I lower the stop a turn or two and plunge the boolit back down again. When it comes up with lube in the groove, I give it one more turn lower and call it good. Lube away!

Sometimes as little as 1/8 turn makes quite a difference. A note below taken from here that I found useful too. Since had a longer piece made but this idea worked fine for me.

Lyman 45 and short bullet quick fix.
If you've ever tried to lube a short bullet (H&G 68, BD45, 358345,
etc) in a lyman 45 you know you run out of adjustment well short of
the depth needed.
People have advised plugging all but the top hole in the H&I die
with lead shot and I've had varying degrees of success with that,
but still wanted a way to get the machine to insert the bullet to
the same depth every time.

I was wandering through Lowes looking for some screws for another
project when I saw a drawer in the hardware cabinet labeled Steel
spacers and there it was, a 1/4 x 3/8 x 3/4 steel tube for $1.15.

I bought one - went home removed the H&I Die, pulled the stem out
the hole where the die had been, put the sleeve around the stem and
reinserted it, then reinserted the H&I die and viola!!! Now I can
adjust the sizer until it only allows 1mm travel for gas check
seating or any depth greater than that for bullet sizing without
having to plug the holes. If I need the extra depth, it takes about
30 seconds to remove the sleeve and I'm back in business.

[gwpercle]

Iggy ,
I have that boolit and a Lyman 450 with soft lube.
The trick is to get the top hole lined up with the lube groove and to use the least amount of pressure . Adjust the stop like beagle333 outlined, start with it all the way up , adjust down 1/8 turn untill the groove starts getting lube. Fine tune it up and down untill you find the sweet spot. That's where the hole is in line with lube groove. keep it away from base.

Lube pressure , 1/16 th turn on handle should give you enough pressure to lube 2 or 3 boollits, too much pressure and it goes to the base. There's a fine , fine line between just enough and too much pressure , practice enough and you will get the hang of just right.

Even though that boolit appears to have a slight bevel base I don't find it any more of a problem to lube size than flat based designs . I size them .357 and find it one of the easier boolits to do .

Gary

[Mk42gunner]

I use an RCBS Lubamatic filled with FWFL the most, but I have had the same problems. Nothing like having to clean a pencil eraser size chunk of lube out every few boolits.

Two things helped me: 1. Adjusting the depth so the base of the boolit is not lined up with a hole in the lube die. and 2. backing off the pressure on the piston. I now use a ¼" bit screwdriver instead of the ratchet wrench to apply pressure. It takes a pretty good twist to get lube flowing the first few boolits, but after that it isn't too bad, and I can go two or three boolits per twist depending on how much lube is needed of course.

Good luck, they can be PITA to get adjusted.

Robert

[Mitch]

Iggy I to had the same peoblem when I first got my lyman 450.all good ideas are posted above.I use white lable carnuba red for lube with a heater.The only time I have problems now is when I get the temp to hot and make the lune to soft.or I get heavy handed on the lube pressure.I set mine by staring to shallow and keep adjusting deeper till I get what I need.If you are running out of ajust ment the lock nut can be put on the top of the rfame to gain back the adjustment.What I ended up doing is set down when I had the time and played with it till I learned how it worked.One thing I was not doing was holding down on the handel when I put the pressure to it.you can tell if you are using to much pressure by running several more boolits with out moveing the pressure screw.i found that I got 3 boolits lubed befor I I had to move the pressure screw.It is juts a leaning curve thing I am very sure you will get it figured out.One other thing is if you get hared lube an need heater.the front of the press where the sizing die is only need to be warm to the touch and mean just warm enough to notice.I agree they can Be PITA to ajust.just take your time and you will be up and running soon

[iggy809]

Thanks for all the help and great ideas. Looks like a learning curve. I will figure it out. Appreciate all the help. John

[FrontSite]

Thanks for all the help and great ideas. Looks like a learning curve. I will figure it out. Appreciate all the help. John

What I found, was the nose punch was ever so slightly bigger than the size die and STOPPED when it hit the top edge of the size body. Which turned out to be just short of the lube band on the bullet. Thus allowed the lube to pressurize and seep under the bullet base. Yes a mess!

[Mitch]

FrontStie now there is one that I have not done yet.Now John has almost every thing that can go wrong lol.Please report back how you are doing John.