Made me a lubsizer heater !!

[Patrick L]

I made a cheap heater for my old Ideal 45 and the newer RCBS sizer. Went to the scrap dealer and found a beautiful piece of 1/4 " aluminum, 12 inches X 12 inches. Cost : $4

Hacksawed a 4 inch strip, then cut a 4 inch square off of that. Drilled, countersunk and tapped for three 8/32 screws ( about a dime each,)and ended up with an 8 inch X 4 inch rectangle, half of which is double thickness (1/2 ".) Trued up all of the edges and rounded the corners on the beltsander so that everything looked good.

I drilled mounting holes for both sizers through the 1/2 inch end, which line up with the holes already in my bench. The 4 X 4 piece goes down on the bench, and the long end sticks straight back, with a 1/4" space between it and the bench. I put an old travel iron (free from my older sister) on its lowest setting on the back plate, and since the plate doesn't rest on the bench, the heat moves straight to the sizer. After about 10 - 15 minutes I take the iron off, and only put it back sporadically depending on how long I size. Even though I don't use a really hard lube, a little bit of heat makes even the soft ones flow like butter.

Total cost, about $4.50. Good deal.

[hpdrifter]

kewl!!!

[9.3X62AL]

Pretty slick, sir!

Since I live in an environment filled with blow-dryers that fall from favor with regularity (wife, and 4 of 6 daughters in home most of the time), I use the played-out appliances until they totally crap out, then grab another from the Amazon Horde. I call it a stop-gap measure until the girls all move out, then I'll have to get serious about lube heating like you did. You're correct--Javelina does flow better when warmed up a bit, esp. in colder weather.

[Bret4207]

I'm with Al- "old" blow dryers abound in my household. Clean the hair out of the inlet holes and they work fine, plus they warm my mitts in my attic loading room which is none to warm.

[Patrick L]

Doesn't the noise drive you nuts, though ? (I mean from the hairdryers, that is.)

I like to have some music or the radio on when I work in the armory.

[slughammer]

Just the other day my wife asked where the clothes iron is?

(I took it about 6 months ago).

[mag_01]

I use a degaussing coil from a TV set wrapped around the lubersizer and control its on time with a togle switch have a small pannel light that tells me its on-----If u try this be carfull tape coil to prevent electrical shock---115 volts---coil will open up if left on---say like 5 to 10 sec. intervals will be fine---dont expose urself to the 115 volts------Mag_01

[boogerred]

i found two 6"x6"x3/8" aluminum plates and a $5 blowdryer i think i can convert into a lube heater without too much trouble.i know i can have a cavity milled into the plates to fit the heating elements but i need to take apart the dryer to study the electrical end of it.

[pdgraham]

I feel like such an unhandy klutz for buying a real Lyman heater...

[boogerred]

well PD-utilization and adaptability.in other words- poor boys got poor ways. ive saved the damnedest junk and utilized and adapted it in ways the original mfg never dreamed of.the greatest benefit of living life on a low budget is it keeps you thinking.

[Uncle Grinch]

All this talk about lube heaters and all the ingenuis ways everyone comes up with got me to thinking... (dangerous sometimes)

I'm sure some of you have seen those little coffee cup warmer plates that people (your boss or his secretary??) keep on their desk. Well what if you took the heating unit out and sandwiched it between two pieces of aluminum. Kinda like a heater sandwich. Do you think that would work? I'm pretty sure they don't get real hot like an iron or some of the other units do. They might even have a thermistor made into them to regulate the temp.

Anyhow.. like the guy I used to work with said when ever I mentioned that "I was thinking...." THERE YOU GO AGAIN, WORKING WITHOUT YOUR TOOLS!

[Dale53]

I don't know if the coffee warmer will work as a lube heater, but I have used one for some time to keep lube melted without overheating when I am running my Star or RCBS lubers. When I am finished sizing bullets, I use the melted lube (from an old stainless cup sitting on the coffee warmer) to top up my sizer. Then, the next time I start, I am ready to go. This especially works well with my Emmert's home mix lube (for BPCR and Schuetzen bullets) and NRA Alox mix (for everything else).

As good as it is, I cannot take credit for this idea as it came from Spence Wolf's book on the 1873 Springfield.

FWIW
Dale53