In my quest for boolit equipment, my dad gave me, among other things, the Lyman 45 lube/sizer he's been using steadily for some 50 years or so. He's 80, so it coulda been longer... only reason he parted with it is he said he has a few of them... Hoarder. After receiving it, I just did a little initial clean up on it, and then started digging around this site for information on it. Found the Lyman 45 thread, read the first post, walked into the reloading room and checked it for play. Evidently, all those years of use didn't come without a price. There is play in it when tested as described in the first post in that thread. I would describe it using the highly technical term "Wibbly, Wobbly" I'm not really sure I even want to use it for pistol boolits? I didn't measure it with a dial indicator, but there looks to be somewhere around .010" or more with the top piece all the way down or close to it. The handle pivot point seems to also have some wear. I do believe the technical term for that is "Flopadilly". I think ill relegate this one to parts and try to find another. I don't plan on telling Dad, because he'll probably ask for it back...
Of course, the next one will cost me money, so I'm gonna have to get off my wallet. This may take some time, because I like sitting on my wallet...it has a tendency to save me money, although it does have the negative effect of slowing down progress... and I really just wanna cast sum boolits and choot em. So... if I happen to find the Sizers and top punches I need for it, I may end up trying to make crooked boolits fly straight for a bit. Either that, or if I can get away with it ill choot em as cast...
I Saw some Lyman 45's on ebay, a couple looked to be in good shape, the rest looked worse than what I got...
and I'm pretty sure that and scrounging around flea markets, yard sales, pawn shops, etc will be my only source, as everyone here loves em so much, they probably won't sell them...
As an aside, this site has way too much info for a new guy to it to sift through. All I been doing since joining is reading, and I'm not actually feeling like I'm making good progress here. This is only my second post, I figured I had to start somewhere, so figgered boolit machinz is what I needs, so I start with the Lyman 45, since I got set back a bit by my gived to me one.
I need a new Lyman 45 and top punches and sizing dies for it for 44 Mag, 45 ACP, and a 30-30. I don't know the numbers yet, but ill search for em and get back to you all...
I also got a Saeco model 24 furnace from Dad. That seems to work... I cleaned it up a bit... Prolly a bit too much, now I'm all proud of it an don't wanna put dirty lead init, so now I'm looking for a Dutch oven to render my lead. I have a nice Dutch oven, but it's for food... ill be back at the same ol places look in for one a those too. Plan on using a turkey deep fryer burner for heat, I got that already, ordered a lyman temp gauge, should be here tomorrow. Need to come up with some handles and boolit molds, I got the Elmer Keith mold for the 44 mag, but need the 45 ACP, and 30-30 mold. Plan on the Lyman 452374 for the 45 ACP, and the Lyman 311291 for the 30-30. I got some of the safety gear, but I think my welding gloves shrank... or my hands gained weight, so ILL grab a pair a those.
So if annybuddyz got this stuff sittin around and wants to help out, I'd be willin to take it off your handz and put em to werkin. If the price is right. Otherwise, by all estimations of time and finances, it might be 2020 before I git to cast sum boolits... and that's a shame.