maybe a stupid sizer question?

[shooter93]

I was wondering what the best way is to change lubes either in a Star or lyman/RCBS type sizers. I know if you want to experiment with different lubes you can pan lube....just curious how you'd switch lubes in one of the sizers. Thanks.

[RayinNH]

shooter, let's deal with the Lyman/RCBS as I've never used a Star. You need heat. I take out the sizer die and also remove the disk that applies pressure to the lube, the one that goes up and down on the threaded rod. I tilt the lube sizer forward and use a heat gun to apply heat to the casting. The lube will run out the bottom. Others on here have mentioned stripping the sizer down to the body casting and boiling it to get the lube out. In ither case it's messy. If your just trying lubes it's better to pan lube to see if you like the stuff. If you use a couple different lubes, one for black powder and one for smokeless, you would be better off picking up another sizer, one for each lube...Ray

[monadnock#5]

I have no experience with Star or Rcbs, Lyman is the only make I can address. If you must change lubes before your reservoir is empty, you would have to dig what's in the reservoir out with a screwdriver or some other tool. And even then it would take time to clear the channel from the reservoir to the sizer, which could only be done by lubing boolits until you stopped getting a mixture of old and new lube. For quick experiments with various lubes, I think sizing in the Lyman, and then lubing in a pan would be the way to go.

[Dale53]

The heat gun (I use a woman's hair dryer) will shortly melt out all of the lube from an RCBS, Lyman, or Star lube/sizer with little fanfare, as RayinNH states. You do need to take out the piston and also the die. All of the lube will clear the luber when you get it up to heat. You need a container to catch the lube (you can even use a cardboard box if you don't want to save the old lube).

Not a big deal at all. Easy...

Dale53

[UweJ]

The heatgun is the way to go as formerly mentioned .Quick and effective.
Uwe

[Shepherd2]

Heat is the only way to get it all out. If you try to dig it out the will be some in areas you can't get to and it will mix with the new lube. I've read where some people will boil their lubrisizer to be the old lube out. I use a heatgun and it gets all the old lube out in a hurry. A hair dryer will work but will take a bit longer.

[wiljen]

a cheap torch works great too - one of the hand held propane jobs you can find at any hardware store. Makes very short work of getting lube melted and has several other handy uses (annealing cases etc).

[arkypete]

Shooter
I use a Lyman and a Star.
The Lyman is used for rifle bullets and it's had LBT Blue in it, for ever since LBT came out with their lube. The Star is used for pistol bullets and has had LBT Blue, Rooster HVR, and Micro lube over the years. LBT Blue is the standard, like the Lyman, but I've used the mixture of Rooster and Blue for 'Jim's Purple', Rooster and Micro for 'Jim's Orange, and Blue and Micro for 'Jim's Baby Puke Green'.
At least with my handguns if the bullet fits the cyclinder mouth and the barrel is lapped, the the lube is less important for accuracy.
Jim

[Swamprat1052]

I cleaned out what was in the Star I bought yesterday, what a chore. The lube in must have been real hard and real old. Dont know when it was used last. When I took the lube tube (for lack of a better word) apart I saw right off that there was no seal on the bottom of the plunger (the thing with a spring), I knew that woulnt fly. So I got on Magmas site and found a parts diagram and the hycar washer and bolt were missing. Couldnt see them inside the sizer so I ordered them from Magma. (Ok stupid move) I started trying to clean that old lube out and was having no luck. Borrowed my wifes hair dryer but it was slow, but as it melted I saw a projection in the lube in the bottom of the sizer. Dug around with a screw driver and lo and behold, its a bolt. Kept heating and digging cause I couldnt get the plunger and pump to work yet, till I got enough lube out from around the bolt to screw the pressure spring (ok I looked up the name for it) back onto the bolt. Then turned the whole rig upside down and pulled it out with the pressure nut. There was my hycar washer, washer and bolt. Cleaned all that up with Hoppes #9 and elbow grease and put it back together and put some Felix lube back in and finally with heat got all the old black gunk out. Now it works fine.

Thats how I cleaned my Star.

Swamprat:-D

[454PB]

I got my Star used, and it had some very dried out black lube in the reservoir. I removed the drain plug on the lower left side of the reservoir, heated it with a blow dryer, and screwed down the pressure stem until it was empty.

[BigSlick]

I just drained and changed lube in my LAM II.

Not nearly as big a job as I feared. I pulled all the pressure feed screw, washer (?) and o-ring etc, then hit it with a heat gun for a couple of minutes, waited a couple, then hit it with the heat gun again.

I did this with the size die removed with the reservoir hanging upside down on a makeshift coat hanger bracket.

It was slow going at first, them the temp came up to the point where the lube started to flow. A few minutes of on/off again with the heat gun and every bit of the lube in it dripped out into a catch pan.

Looks like the first time it has been rendered out, several colors of lube particles were mixed in the slurry of lube.

While I was doing the on/off again thing, I took the opportunity to scrub clean the other parts and replace the o-ring with a new one.

I put a stick of Lar's Red carnauba in and heated it up just enough to get it flowing and lubed about 100 bullets.

It is amazing what a thorough cleaning will do in terms of the 'feel' of the whole process.

Smooth as silk now.

I'm gonna use the leftover lube for flux or ??

The whole episode from needing a good cleaning until ready to go with the Lar's, about 25 minutes at a very leisurely pace on my part.

Much easier than removing a ton of cosmoline from a barrel, which is about what I was expecting.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have been dreading doing this for a couple of weeks.
________
Chilean Cooking (http://www.cooking-chef.com/chilean/)

[Sundogg1911]

I recently changed lubes mid stream in a Lyman 450. I took the sizing die out, removed the top punch, took the reservoir covor off, removed the pressure ring (with the o rings) and then dug as much out of the reservoir as I could with a long screwdriver. once I had as much out as I could I put the entire sizer in a big cake pan and set in on top of my wood burning stove (Which was fired up) for about 5 minutes. after that I lifted it out (with heavy gloves) and wiped the now liquid lube off with a rag. Next time I think I'll ask my wife for a cake pan that she doesnt still use [smilie=1: i also do the same with the sizer dies. I stand them up in a mason jar lid (O ring side up) and set the jar lid on the woodburner for about 2 minutes. Everything wipes right off after that (And I typically use a hard lube like Rooster red zambini)