Lubrisizer mounting ???'s

[BigSlick]

I have two LAM II lubrisizers.

I plan on using one for hard lube, one for soft.

Should I mount these on the bench in the loading room or in the garage on a workbench ? Right now they are mounted on a bench that I'm going to remove from service because it is too small.

I plan on mounting the LAM II for hard lube on an over sized aluminum plate and use an old iron for a heat source.

How thick should the aluminum plate be for proper heat transfer to the lube reservoir ?

I would like to prevent the heat from warping the bench, so should I mount the aluminum plate and LAM II to a 2x12 and bolt it to the bench or ?

Thanks in advance for the feedback ;)

BigSlick
________
Health Shop (http://herbalhealthshop.com)

[Buckshot]

.............The heater I made is 1/2" aluminum. I used a capsule heater for it. I would suggest at least 1/2" so you have the cross sectional area to carry the heat. Too thin and there is no mass for the heat to flow into. I would use a piece of tempered masonite or equivilent just underneath the footprint of the lube-sizer. This way the aluminum where you set your iron won't be in contact with anything, and the majority of the heat will flow through the aluminum and not into warming the bench under it.

...............Buckshot

[dragonrider]

Buckshot
Can you elaborate on "capsule heater" and where to get it?

[grumpy one]

I use a piece of 1/8" steel plate, putting the iron close to the back of it and the lubesizer right at the front. After half an hour I can't feel any temperature difference between the plate close to the iron, and the lubesizer reservoir. Of course the plate has to be insulated from the bench, as Buckshot said.

How much temperature difference you get between where the iron sits, and the lubesizer itself, depends on how much heat has to flow through the metal plate. Because I use 50-50 BW-Alox, I only want a lube temperature of around 80 F, so hardly any heat is flowing through my plate, and the iron's temperature control is set way down near its lowest setting. However if you want to run your lube at say 130 F or more, I doubt the 1/8 steel plate would be the best answer for you - you'd find it a lot easier with a thick sheet of aluminium, because there'd be large heat losses to the atmosphere from the top of your plate, and this would cause large temperature differences between the iron and the lube reservoir unless the plate had very high conductivity.

The reason I use the steel plate is that it is part of a single mounting platform that carries lubesizer, powder measure, and two presses. If you are using a single-purpose lubesizer mounting plate, and don't mind paying for the aluminium, a thick aluminium plate is a more versatile choice, since it is suitable for high melting point lubes as well as soft lubes.