Heater for lube press?

[Maximumbob54]

How hard of a lube do you use before you should think of adding a heater? Or rather, at what point should you need a heater at all? I am using a Lyman 450 with alox beeswax 50/50 but I also plan on using carnuba red at some point. I'm sure I will need it for the red, but do I still need it at least on a low setting for the 50/50 as well?

[hornady]

I use BAC, which is a little stiffer than 50/50, I do all my lubing in my Basement in PA, In the summer I do not need the heater, in the winter it’s a little cooler down there and I have a restate connected to my heater to control the heat. Your sizer will pretty much tell you if you need heat. Too much heat with the 450 and lube will squirt out around the die, not enough and you risk damage to the lubber.

[a.squibload]

Somebody posted about using a heating element for a soldering iron, sooner or later
I'll search again for that. Maybe mount the element to a plate under the luber.

[Freischütz]

I recently ran out of Gray 24 and switched to Carnauba Red. I found that a 100 watt light bulb, and about twenty minutes of preheating was all that I needed. My casting area's temperature is in the low 60°s.

[Maximumbob54]

Interesting. They make directional heat bulbs for using with pet terrariums. They are used with lighting fixtures that have a ceramic head for not starting fires. The ones I have seen just have a clamp that holds a shelf or something, but a bracket wouldn’t be hard at all to make. You would even be able to move the light fixture a little closer or farther away to adjust the heat. Not an exact science, but it would be pretty cheap and easy to setup. I might give that a try.

[462]

I use a goose-neck, clamp-on lamp and a 100-Watt bulb. Wrap aluminum foil around the lamp head and lubesizer, to decrease the warm-up time.