Lyman 12 ga sabot slug mold.

[nitro-express]

I picked up a slug mold at a gun show. It doesn't have the plug, but it came with handles, and it was pretty cheap.

A call to Lyman confirmed my suspicions, they need the mold sent to them and then they will fit a new plug. Doesn't seem worth it, IMO.



Does anyone have a spare plug kicking about?

[W.R.Buchanan]

Send it back to Lyman.

The slug is worth doing. We all have them.

Randy

[longbow]

Depends what you paid for the mould and what Lyman will charge for a core pin... and shipping costs. I'd make one myself but then I have a lathe.

I am surprised Lyman can't turn a pin to specs and expect it to fit their own mould! Can their tolerances be that random? They should not need the mould to make a pin that fits.

I do like iron moulds. Iron is still my favourite mould material. I guess I am a throwback! Brass is nice but I do like iron.

Are you interested in selling the mould as is?

Longbow

[Petander]

That is one of my favorite moulds. Very easy to use.

I'd get the pin for it one way or another.

[MOA]

Yup, just need one of these.

[jeepvet]

I don't think it is worth sending to Lyman. Just send it to me, I will pay shipping, and I will use it for a paper weight. I have been wanting one of those for years.

[jdfoxinc]

Lyman claims that the plugs are hand fitted to the mold. Box of molds on the right, box of core plugs on the left. Try one then another till get the correct fit.

[longbow]

All that demonstrates is that Lyman has poor tolerances in their manufacture.

Henry Ford introduced assembly line technology with tolerances in manufacture so parts were interchangeable back in the early 1900's. Lyman sabot slug moulds should not require hand fitting of core pins in 2018. For example, I just ordered two core pins for my Lee slug moulds. They cost $1.50 each and both fit perfectly. So Lee is capable of supplying after market parts that fit their moulds that cost a third of what Lyman moulds cost but Lyman cannot do the same!?!

Lyman's claim that core pins have to be hand fitted is probably true but that does not make it anything less than ridiculous.

My opinion anyway. Lyman moulds have been off my list of things to buy for some time now.

Longbow

[W.R.Buchanan]

LB: Believe me, Lee is light years ahead of Lyman on machine work!

Randy

[MOA]

LB: Believe me, Lee is light years ahead of Lyman on machine work!

Randy

And that is sooo sad. Seems most of the firearms, and firearms related businesses in the northeastern and New England area of the country have all gone to you all know where in the last fifty years since becoming PC was the new ruler used to measure and denote your success and acceptance.

[longbow]

It is sad, very sad. I look back at the old Ideal loading manuals and the number of cast boolit styles that were available it never ceases to amaze me that there was that much demand from a relatively small population. There are lots of moulds available all the way from .22 to .50 for cartridge guns, muzzleloader moulds, round ball moulds. Moulds for about every qun and application.

Moulds were relatively expensive yet there must have been a market or Ideal wouldn't have made the moulds. Now just what quality they were I don't know but again, since moulds were a relatively expensive item I'd have to think they gave acceptable hunting accuracy at least.

Now look at the small selection of Lyman moulds in comparison and the fact that with modern tooling they should be more precise, more consistent and more accurate yet they have to hand fit a core pin! Really!?! I see many posts commenting on Lyman moulds casting undersize, mould halves not lining up, etc. and now having to hand fit a core pin. No wonder Mihec, NOE, Accurate and other custom/semi custom mould makers are doing so well. They produce what the customer wants, the moulds are quality products and cast to the size specified.

I think Ideal's John H. Barlow would be sad too.

Longbow

[W.R.Buchanan]

A couple of years ago at SHOT I talked to the Head of Marketing for Lyman. I was trying to talk them/ her into reproducing the most popular Receiver Sights out of steel again. This is really viable since these used or NIB sights on Ebay fetch pretty high prices which are well above what Lyman would have to charge for them.

Right now their Aluminum versions of these sights are between $75 and $90. Making them out of 12L14 ( the original free machining material) They could easily be in the $90-$100 range simply because the two pieces (base and cross slide) that are now made out of aluminum could be made from steel for only a small amount more. And now they could be MIM castings which would even be cheaper.

But instead the woman chose to argue with me telling me that no one wanted Iron Sights any more and that I had no idea what I was talking about, and this went on for 5 minutes before I finally threw up my hands and walked away. Other men working there told me the next day that was what they had to put up with now, and she had a PHD in Marketing, and obviously knew what the public wanted better than I.

And this is the primary problem with all of these companies being bought up buy large conglomerates. They are ran by Bean Counters that have no idea what their product is or who wants or why they want it. All they care about is the bottom line.

Browning recently stopped providing support replacement parts for the A5! Their signature shotgun! Mainly because of their new A500 which by all reports from them that knows, is a ***! Much cheaper to build but not the same gun either. I was told by an A5 guru that it was nothing for an A5 to go 100K + rounds before even needing the springs changed out. But it is old and therefore not relevant any more.

"Change is Inevitable." was something I was taught the first day in Appraisal School. Whether or not that is a good thing is of no consequence. It is fact and we have to learn to live with it, or figure out how to work around it.

Randy