Lyman 45 Die Trashed?

[Dieter]

So I bought a Lyman 45 off eBay. It arrived yesterday. Its in pretty good condition, with the exception of the glue like super-moly and it had a boolit stuck in the .308 die?! See pic below.


Most of the metal parts have been soaking in mineral spirits overnight. I cleaned out the lube holes on dies before popping them in. This morning I took a soft face mallet and tapped the back of the die and this gem launched out onto the floor.


I popped die back into mineral spirits to soak some more. I’m new at this and my spidey senses are telling me the die metal is obviously harder than the lead it sizes. However, there are old gall marks on boolit. I can’t help but to wonder if the inside of the die is scratched up. Continue cleaning it up? Chuck it and buy a new one?

It wasn’t hard to pop it out with mallet once some of the lube was cleaned out. I did need to tap the internal die rod back to seated position. I would assume it’s gummed up with old moly lube and minor surface corrosion.

[EDG]

All you need to do is remove the ejector punch from the die, clean it out and hold it up to a good light.
Most of the time a hair dryer or heat gun is all you need to get old lube out of your lube sizers.
If the die is scared up inside you will easily be able to see it. Even if scared up you may be able to polish it with 320 to 400 grit silicon carbide paper used wet with a light oil. You might have to polish it over size but oversize might be just what you need for some barrels.

No matter what do not throw the old die away. If you are a green horn you may not know how to polish and repair it today but a year or 2 from now you will know all about it. They can always be polished or honed larger. The ejector punch can always be replaced by a gage pin.

[Dieter]

Thanks for the info!!

[country gent]

The gauld marks may be being caused by small burrs on the lube holes also. Or lead deposits in the die. Clean it up god and look in it with a good light source. Its not a big job to correct these issues. Here a q-tip is your friend. once cleaned and dried rub a q-tip over the lube holes inside the die and look for pulled fibers if there are you have some burrs there.

To lightly polish the die and remove burrs a dowel rod just under the die size about 4-5" long with one end split with a hacksaw down 2" from end. A piece of fine sand paper 400-600 grit wrapped around the dowel to a snug fit and make a few passes thru the die rotating and sliding it up and down

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Those look like plier marks.
is there similar marks on the other side of the boolit ?

While I don't leave a boolit in a Lyman Die, I do leave a boolit in a Star Die for storage. Many times I reuse that boolit many times for storage purposes in the Star Die, and if I had grabbed that boolit with a Plier and left gouges in it, I still may reuse it for storage. I mention this, as maybe the previous owner/user of that press did the same.

Anyway, Inspect the Die after you get it cleaned, and if it looks good to the naked eye, you could try pushing a soft lead boolit through, to see how it sizes...be sure to lube the die before you do.

[Mitch]

another tip when you try the die after cleaning it up lube it a bit with bullet lube or maybe LPS break free.Make sure it is a good lube for lead.or it will stick it you leave it dry.

[Ozark mike]

If need be use a split dowel and 2000 grt sand paper. All bets are off when you buy used over the internet. Clean it good with a solvent and look at the bore you will see scuff marks if there present

[Dieter]

I didn’t have much time to dedicate to this tonight, pretty busy. I did removed the ejector rod and held it up to the light, looks like minor junk in there—mostly old lube, it’s everywhere. I’m going to continue soaking till tomorrow am when I can really give it a good eyeball. I’ll post pics as well. Thanks for all the input!

I only saw the deep scores on that one side. However, it’s galled all the way around near the lube grooves. So why store a boolit in a die? Protect the internals of the die from inadvertently getting damaged?

[Bazoo]

There is no reason to store a bullet in the die. But who knows what has been going on with the sizer and die. One of the things you should look for is to see if any of the holes on the die have been plugged with a set screw or a piece of lead shot. Sometimes folks do that to keep the upper lube grooves clean if seating outside the case. If it has been plugged and that plug worked it's way out it could make a mark on the bullet before it was pushed out of the die.

I boil dies to get them clean, the sizer too for that matter. Course I disassemble the sizer as much as possible if boiling.

Howdy from Kentucky and welcome to the forum.

[Dieter]

There is no reason to store a bullet in the die. But who knows what has been going on with the sizer and die. One of the things you should look for is to see if any of the holes on the die have been plugged with a set screw or a piece of lead shot. Sometimes folks do that to keep the upper lube grooves clean if seating outside the case. If it has been plugged and that plug worked it's way out it could make a mark on the bullet before it was pushed out of the die.

I boil dies to get them clean, the sizer too for that matter. Course I disassemble the sizer as much as possible if boiling.

Howdy from Kentucky and welcome to the forum.

No sir, all the holes are wide open. I saw Jon’s post on using solder to plug the holes on the older dies.

They’ve been soaking for a while now in mineral spirits. I’m going to boil things today as recommended. I’m in the process of cleaning this sizer up. Looked great, but the previous owner must of had a hell of a good time, moly lube all over. Plus it gives me time to learn/learn about the unit. I’m a green horn as stated with casting, been reloading for quite a while. Thanks for the advice.

Good morning from New Mexico, the coffee is strong.

[ascast]

Maybe the got one stuck, and walked away from it. I would caution you, don't overload the sizer. A couple thousands at a time, softer is better. There are a lot of these around with broken handles from expecting too much. ENJOY

[poppy42]

Before I did anything to the die I would thoroughly clean it . And after inspection if you don’t see any obvious marks on the inside of the die I would run a bullet through it and make sure that it was the die causing the marks! For all you know the bullet had marks on it before it even went through the die! Where are you now it could’ve been someway oversize bullet that for whatever reason had call marks on it and Bubba got the bright idea of running through his size in a see if he could squish them off . So before You do anything clean to die off thoroughly, inspect it with a good light, And if you don’t see anything obvious on the inside of the die run a good boolet through it and use your calipers and measure the boolet. After all you said this was a full eBay purchase. It’s not like you purchased it off of some venerable member of the Cast Boolet Forum! For all you know Bubba could I had his hands in the pie! Pretty hard to mess up alarm in 45 and very obvious, at least to me, if it’s been messed with. Dies on the other hand you have no way of knowing if they are correct size or not until they are measured. Easiest way I’ve found to measure is to run a bullet through and measure the diameter of the bullet after it comes out of the die. If the boolet looks good and is the correct diameter then you’ll know there was nothing wrong with the die. I never take anything for granted that is purchased from someone I don’t know personally . And that goes triple for anything I buy off of flea Bay! Hope this helps good luck

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

SNIP...

So why store a boolit in a die?

If you aren't removing the die from the press, a boolit in the die will prevent lube leakage. Obviously I remove the pressure from the lube reservoir during down time, but Heat changes in my casting room will make a press ooze out some lube, when a soft lube like SL68B is used. This happens with my Star and not so much with my Lyman.
ALSO, the Star can be challenging to setup, if there is a boolit left in the die, in it's correct location, it's much easier to set the punch.

Disassembling and cleaning a Lyman 45 is a great way to get familiar with it.

[Dieter]

If you aren't removing the die from the press, a boolit in the die will prevent lube leakage. Obviously I remove the pressure from the lube reservoir during down time, but Heat changes in my casting room will make a press ooze out some lube, when a soft lube like SL68B is used. This happens with my Star and not so much with my Lyman.
ALSO, the Star can be challenging to setup, if there is a boolit left in the die, in it's correct location, it's much easier to set the punch.

Disassembling and cleaning a Lyman 45 is a great way to get familiar with it.

Perfect! Thanks for answering that for me. I have a batch of Ben’s Red that I was going to use, once I get this back together, lube reservoir is giving me a fight. Being patient with it.

[Bazoo]

That's is a good idea Jon, I bet the previous owner left a bullet in it so he could remember how it was setup. I do the same thing with my bullet seating dies. I just put whichever dummy the die is set for in the die when I put it back in the box that way I can remember no matter how long it is between loadings of that caliber. A very handy idea if you are sizing / loading multiple bullets.

[Dieter]

Initial view looks clean, a bit of patina.




Are these good to lube with ballistol? Lightly? I have a soft spot for the stuff.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I use boolit lube. Other lubes may work.

[Bazoo]

I lube them with remoil if they aren't covered in lube. Once the oil of choice dries, it won't affect the die/lube when used next.

By the way, looks like you did a great job of cleaning it up.

[Dieter]

I lube them with remoil if they aren't covered in lube. Once the oil of choice dries, it won't affect the die/lube when used next.

By the way, looks like you did a great job of cleaning it up.

Thanks! I’m a huge fan of ballistol, other than the smell. Once the carrier evaporates, wipe away excess. It imbeds in the metals pores, keeps corrosion out and provides a slick surface. Kinda like a dry film lube. They won’t have boolit lube on them for the time being, still cleaning sizer up.

Thanks for all the inputs! You guys have been great.

[Bazoo]

I never could get past the smell of ballistol, wife didn't care for either.

Glad to see an old sizer being cleaned up and put back into service. Too many folks now days don't want to fool with such, they'd rather just buy a new machine.