I have the Midway heater also. Have it mounted on a aluminum plate with cork underneath the plate. My star luber is screwed to the plate. Works great and it's about 30 years old.
I have the Midway heater also. Have it mounted on a aluminum plate with cork underneath the plate. My star luber is screwed to the plate. Works great and it's about 30 years old.
I got heater for my lube/sizer years ago, if I had to do it again I would just get a heat gun. The heater will keep it warm in a cool basement but the heat gun will get it up to temp alot faster.
We go through life trying to make the best decisions we can based on the best infomation we can find, that turns out to be wrong.
I have basically the same setup: 12" x 6" piece of 1/2" aluminum I had, with a garage sale iron on it. Takes a little practice to get it right but it works well for me. I reconfigure my bench alot and everything is removable to leave a flush top. The Lyman 450 has countersunk holes in it to bolt down to the same tee-nuts that hold my MEC shotgun presses.
I have a heater on my Star sizer but rarely need it. I use nra 50-50 and I play a propane troch on the die body and bottom of the reservoir for about 10 seconds and after that everything moves just fine. Hard lubes like blue are a different story, l have some but never used it.
I have used the above plus one of those coffee cup warmers that you set your coffee cup on. I took it apart and sandwiched the innards between 2 peices of 1/8" aluminum and a spacer cut out of 1/4" aluminum. Works great. Coffee cup warmers can be had at Goodwill for a couple of $'s. It's not pretty but it works.
"Adults are the children and the children are the adults" Jules my wife.
All you need for happiness is a good gun, a good horse, and a good wife. — Daniel Boone
Democracy is defended in 3 stages: Ballot Box, Jury Box, Cartridge Box. — Ambrose Bierce
A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Black Rifles Matter
NRA Life Member, SAF Member, GOA Member, TFA Member
I switched from the Lyman lube heater to the the new RCBS thermostatically controllable heater.
The Lyman worked ok after I fixed a cold soldered joint the factory did on the tiny leads coming out of the cartridge heater.
Always having to turn this heater off on on trying to maintain an even temperature was a pain.
I used it this way for years but when I saw RCBS was coming out with a controllable heater I bought one a soon as they became available.
I think took about 18 months from the time I first saw it in their print catalog.
The temperature control works great. I leave the unit set for the lowest setting while lubing, I can hear the unit clicking turning the power on and off automatically.
I really dislike lubing bullets it’s just a necessary chore but this new heater helps a lot to remove some of the aggravation in bullet sizing and lubing.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |