Questions about a Lyman 450.

[Ky-Dave]

I’ve got an old Lyman 450 . It came with 3 sticks of LBT lube and I think that’s what’s in it now. I recently cast my first bullets and am sizing them to .358 . I used a heat gun to warm the body of the press and out front around the die area. I can get the lube around the bullet but it may take a few strokes through the die. If I give some pressure to the lube and keep it warm it will lube one bullet perfectly, but the next will need pressure again, or it will leave a lubeless void or two. Is this normal? Is the lube too hard? These are the older dies with four holes down the side.
Thanks for any advice.
David

[GBertolet]

I think that's normal. Frequent use of the heat gun is necessiary, with all but the softest lubes. Don't put too much pressure on the crank. It's better to put just a little at a time, even if you have to do it for every bullet. Running the bullet up and down multiple times, is not unusual. On a real stuborn bullet, sometimes you may have to turn it between strokes, to get all the grooves fully filled. I have been there and have done all of that. You are experiencing the learning curve, just like the rest of us have, when we started this hobby.

[Rainier]

Hello Dave and welcome to the madness!

I’ve been powder coating for sometime and fought using the traditional lube(s)... until very recently. In the past more than one person has tried to give me a lube/sizer. WELL… a 450 recently arrived at my door from an old friend so I decided to embrace the thing and see what the fuss is all about.

I probably don’t know as much about them as you do but what I did discover sizing and lubing some 35 cal boolits is that the “pressure” wrench (whatever its called) needed a slight tweak with each boolit to fill out the lube groove. When I played around with some 225’s it seemed that about every 3 boolits needed a slight tweak.

I guess that’s the long away around to say yes, I think for larger caliber boolits you need to adjust the pressure a bit with each boolit.

[243winxb]

The lube needs more heat. I can do 2, some times 3 bullets . Depends on how many lube grooves.

Dont crank the handle to hard. They break, comes loose at tbe bottom. No problems with my Lyman 450 & 50/50 lube. But i have to heat it for an hour with an old heating pad when 70 degrees or cooler.

Pad makes it 120 degrees F. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...r-heating-base

[MUSTANG]

You might try a lube base heater. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1064182761

[Gunslinger1911]

Yep, depending on the lube, a heat base may be needed.
Just enough heat, and depending on the size of the bullet, a tweak of the wrench is needed for each bullet.
For me, 22's is a couple degree turn of the wrench every 3 bullets, 9mm every 2; bigger - each bullet.
This is running the heat base so the 450 is just warm - Carnuba Red lube.
Not sure where your LBT lube sits on the heat scale; but sounds like you need heat.
I can lube a .500 bullet in one stroke when everything is happy.
Good luck, ask more questions !!!

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

David,
welcome to the forum.

Another little secret is to pre-heat the boolits. Traditional Lube (like LBT) will adhere better to warm boolits.
shhhhh, don't tell anyone I told you.

[Agarbers]

I am having the same issues as you. My Lyman has the hole for the 20-watt heater, which I have in place. The lube flows better when I power up the heater for an hour before starting. I am still not happy with my results but softer lubes work better. The issues I am having are one reason why I am trying poly coating and sizing them afterward with the Lee push-through die as shown by FortuneCookie45LC.
My Lyman was used when I got it and it was filled with something that looks like used toilet wax rings and was hard to see in the poor garage lighting. I wanted something that I could see better so I went with Thompson's Red Angel. Since I am new, I didn't think about it being 150-degree lube. It doesn't flow well for me so I switched to Thompson's Blue Angel which flows at a lower temperature but still higher than others. It still isn't what I'm looking for. I have a stick of Lyman's Orange lube but I am really thinking of trying the toilet wax (new) that Fortunecookie45LC has been trying. It's not fun flushing the lube out of the sizer. I pull the die out, get the sizer hot, and then start screwing the follower down.

[1hole]

It's not necessary for every lube groove to be fully filled, about 80% full is usually fine. Look at your muzzle after a shootin' session and see if you have a greasy lube "star" that can be wiped off with your fingers; if you have it, you're using more bullet lube than is needed.

Wax toilet sealing rings have about the same job requirements as bullet lube so it's no surprise that they work fairly well for us.

[Rainier]

It's not fun flushing the lube out of the sizer. I pull the die out, get the sizer hot, and then start screwing the follower down.

When I received the 450 it too had old lube in it. A bit of research on this site gave several great ideas how to clean one up. I disassembled it, hung it with some wire over an old box and put the heat gun to it. Pretty easy way to get lube out of a 450.

[Bazoo]

It's normal to have to give a crank for each bullet, depending on the lube capacity of that bullet. If you have your stop set so it just barely cuts into the lube holes, it takes more pressure to lube. You might try adjusting the stop down another 1/32"-1/16". A heat lamp on the sizer for a bit does good for easy convenient heat. The wife's hair dryer does good too, if you can figure the distance to set it and let it blow on it's on.

[Mk42gunner]

I have a couple of 450's that I don't think I have ever used after cleaning them up. I do use my RCBS lubamatic fairly often (same basic design). Since all of my lubrisizers came to me without the cool little ratchet, I use a ¼" bit screwdriver handle to apply pressure. Every one to three boolits, a little tweak to the handle, as others have noted.

My suggestion is to loose the hard lube and go with something that doesn't need heating to apply. I use FWFL that I made myself, it has worked for all of my smokeless powder needs and is probably why I haven't had to fill one of the 450's.

Instructions for FWFL can be found in the lube section, the short form works fine for me.

Plus making lube is kind of fun.

Robert

[Larry Gibson]

As mentioned, with the Lyman 450 the the wrench will need to be slightly tweaked for each bullet or for every 2 maybe 3 bullets depending on the size of the lube grooves and the amount of lube it takes to fill them. Don't over pressure the wrench as each bullet is going to be different so the amount of pressure will be slightly different. it's easy enough to get the feel of it to apply just enough pressure with the wrench to fill the grooves.

As to the heater, a base heater is best to use with the harder, stiff lubes such as LBT especially in colder weather if you're doing it in an unheated garage or building. I have a heater which I used when I lived up north and had my loading bench in the garage. In the winter you might try a softer lube such as White Labels NRA 50/50 or 2500+. I used those up north and did not need the heater except when it got down to 40 +/- in the garage.

[AZ Pete]

On my 450 ( and 45 for that matter) I tweak the wrench for every bullet. I could probably get two or three bullets lubed per wrench tweak, but that is the rhythm that suits me. The piston is not spring loaded in its cylinder, so you are pressurizing the lube, which does not store much energy for subsequent bullets.

[Bazoo]

I generally tweak the handle as I'm lowering the bullet in the die. I get the best fillout that way. Too much pressure and you get lube between the base of the bullet and punch. I take a small screwdriver and carefully scrape out the lube when that happens, then use a patch or rag wetted with remoil to clean the punch top. If it's clean, the bullet seals better and prevents seepage.

[1hole]

Rainier, I have great respect for people who are willing to leap out of safely running airplanes but I still have a problem with you guys.

We blue suiters worked hard and long to keep those metallic flying devices safe to ride. You don't show us much trust or respect when you suddenly jump out of our properly functioning machines when you're only half way through the flight plan.

[John Boy]

LBT lube has carnuba wax which melts at 176 degrees. Crank up the heat or get the lube out of the lube/sizer and make up a lube with tallow and bees wax

[joker18]

I have an old but good Lyman 450 sizer, lubricator and I was using a moly lube stick that supposedly required no heater. The lube stick went unused a couple years (because I purchased pre-lubed bullets). Now I'm casting again and the moly lube stick in my 450 got hard. I cleaned it out along with the dies and I have a Lyman universal heater pad on backorder from Midway USA. My question is my loading bench is wood and the heater sits under the 450 which means it will be mounted on my wood bench. Will this be a problem since it only heats to 120 degrees or so?

[AZ Pete]

no it won't be a problem

[joker18]

Thank you AZ Pete. I have a stick of Lyman Alox lube that feels soft however I am going to wait till I get the heater before I use it.