Who makes a good swager/luber?

[sig2009]

I just bought a used Lyman 450 and all I can say is this thing is a piece of ****! I am using White Lube BAC swaging 200gn swc from Lyman mold 452460.

I have adjusted the sizer every which way from the highest to to lowest setting for lubing the grooves and I still get a ring of lube around the bullet around the base of the nose. Any suggestions how to get rid of this problem? If not it will be going on ebay.

[BT Sniper]

I would bet the guys in the "cast boolit" forums would have a bit of info for you there. Might try posting there as well.

BT

[williamwaco]

I have adjusted the sizer every which way from the highest to to lowest setting for lubing the grooves and I still get a ring of lube around the bullet around the base of the nose.




Yes.

Experiment with the settings. You have not yet reached the "highest" ( least deep ) setting. If you had, the nose would not even be entering the die, let alone reaching the lube injectors.

[sig2009]

Yes.

Experiment with the settings. You have not yet reached the "highest" ( least deep ) setting. If you had, the nose would not even be entering the die, let alone reaching the lube injectors.

I have been experimenting for 5 hours. Nothing works.

[ReloaderFred]

Are you sizing the bullets nose first or base first. They need to be sized base down.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[GRUMPA]

Are you sizing the bullets nose first or base first. They need to be sized base down.

Hope this helps.

Fred

DANG!!!!! that's a good one Fred, why didn't I think of it.:drinks:

[sig2009]

They are sized base down. I think I may have forund out the problem. I was just talking to a friend of mine and he seems to think that the BAC Lube is too hard requiring more pressure to make it flow. It looks like the Lyman 450 with BAC Lube needs a heater to make it flow properly or I need to use a softer lube than BAC.

[GRUMPA]

Sig, before I had a heater for my RCBS luber just for grins I took a propane torch to it just to warm it up. Didn't hurt the luber at all and temp was kinda hard to regulate but I got it to work till my heater came in.
NOTE: heated just enough for lube flow then remove the heat, when it cools down I applied the torch to it. Took all of maybe 4-5 minutes at first then after that maybe a minute or so afterwards.

[Dframe]

Not going near the lube heater discussion.
Regarding the lube die itself, some old timers would plug the top row of holes in the die with pieces of shot, allowing the lube to only go through the lower part of the die. Might be worth a try.

[sig2009]

Sig, before I had a heater for my RCBS luber just for grins I took a propane torch to it just to warm it up. Didn't hurt the luber at all and temp was kinda hard to regulate but I got it to work till my heater came in.
NOTE: heated just enough for lube flow then remove the heat, when it cools down I applied the torch to it. Took all of maybe 4-5 minutes at first then after that maybe a minute or so afterwards.

Tried that. Lube flowed better but instead of a harder lube on top of the bullet it was more like Vaseline.

[GRUMPA]

It took practice on my part at first. You don't think I got it right the first time do you. If the lube is where you want it just let it cool down and it will harden up. If the lube isn't where you want it there are other issues going on. Are you sizing and lubing at the same time with the luber? In thoery if you have an over sized bullet it should seal thus preventing lube from traveling to far up. And if the lube is traveling to far up you'll actually have to plug up the top holes in the sizer with something to prevent the lube from coming out of them. Which will allow only the bottom holes in the lube/sizer die to allow lube to pass. Hope this helps

[sig2009]

Well after a good nights sleep I finally figured it out. The adjustment screw that controls the depth of the bullet sizing was broken in half but you couldn't see it until you took it all the way out. That is the reason I could not adjust the depth. I took the longer part of the screw and screwed it into the sizer and then just dropped the smaller part through the rod and let it float on top. Success and I can now adjust the depth. Ordered a new screw from Lyman.[smilie=w:
Thanks for all the help!

[DukeInFlorida]

Ring around the base of the nose?

1) The bullets go into the 450 bullet base down on the sizing ring (nose up).
2) The top punch pushes the bullets DOWN through the sizing ring.
3) The adjustment screw down below, should start off adjusted so that the bullet stops TOO SOON. That is, so that you don't fill the top lube groove.
4) When you get that adjustment, then start adjusting the knurled screw until the top lube groove JUST barely gets filled, and no more.

Sounds to me like you are trying to go all the way down, and that's NOT how it works.

Follow the steps above, and see if you can't get the top groove to just barely get filled. Starting by having it set too high will help you understand how to "walk it down" to the right level.

For some short bullets, I found that by turning the adjusting screw 180 degrees, I was able to get better control on how low the bullet went.

Should have read the whole thread before I responded. Glad you figured it out. Maybe my suggestion will help with oddball boolits.

If your lube is very hard, be sure to warm up the lubricizer. If you over torque the wrench, you WILL snap off the screw that makes the piston go down.


I just bought a used Lyman 450 and all I can say is this thing is a piece of ****! I am using White Lube BAC swaging 200gn swc from Lyman mold 452460.

I have adjusted the sizer every which way from the highest to to lowest setting for lubing the grooves and I still get a ring of lube around the bullet around the base of the nose. Any suggestions how to get rid of this problem? If not it will be going on ebay.