Lyman 450 heater Electrical Question

[milprileb]

I bought a router speed control with a 15 amp rating to use with heater plate Lyman sells. This will help regulate heater output.

I called Lyman and asked what was Amp rating, they said 20 Watt which is 3 Amp.

Does that math sound right and if so, is my 15 amp rated speed control gizmo going to work right ?

I will suffer the abuse of ignorance of electricity if you will include an answer on on this .

Thanks.:popcorn:

[midnight]

I'm electricly challenged too but I just bought a sliding dimmer switch and it works fine with my Lyman heater and a heater I made myself with an aluminum plate and a 25watt cartridge heater. I believe the Lyman uses a 20 or 25 watt heater. Your router speed control should work too.

Bob

[Mal Paso]

20W is 0.16 Amps @ 120 Volts

[hunter64]

20W is 0.16 Amps @ 120 Volts

This is correct.
P=VI or Power = Voltage x Current
or
I=P/V I = 20 Watts Divided by 120 volts

I= 0.16 Amps. Should work ok.

[JIMinPHX]

Those calculations are correct for a fixed resistive load. A cartridge heater is an incandescent load. The resistance of that type of load is very low when the cartridge is cold. Once it reaches final temperature, then the resistance stabilizes at a higher value & the wattage becomes 20w. Before that, the wattage is much higher.

It is standard industry practice to size control components for incandescent loads at ten times their stabilized values, to allow for the initial inrush current.

[milprileb]

Its a Lyman 450 lubrisizer, am I good to go with this 15 amp rheostat and the 20 watt
Lyman heater ?

I thought it all looked like it was Okay but JiminPHX just confused the heck out of me.


Jim... can you say that in Infantry English for me ... YES or NO about heater and rheostat

[Mal Paso]

I just measured my Lyman 20 Watt heater Cold with 2 meters and came up 601 and 602 Ohms. That means it draws 24 Watts when you first plug it in. Sorry, No Big Inrush.

A 15 Amp control is More than enough but depending on the type of " rheostat " it might not have a good range with that Small of a load. 0.2 Amps or 1/75 the capacity of your rheostat. Try it and see.

[milprileb]

Mal Paso

Thanks, for the info.

Sounds like I won't have anything catching fire or melting so
I am good to go.

[JIMinPHX]

Jim... can you say that in Infantry English for me ... YES or NO about heater and rheostat

20 watt heater on 15 amp 120v rheostat - Yes, with plenty of extra capacity.

[milprileb]

Thanks Jim, thats a great confirmation for safey and I appreciate it.

[MikeS]

I bought a router speed control with a 15 amp rating to use with heater plate Lyman sells. This will help regulate heater output. ...


Did you get the router speed control from Harbor Freight? If so, do you know what their stock number is for it? I need to get one, and I know HF sells one, but don't know if they sell only one, or more than one, and I want to make sure I get the right one. I'm going to be using Lyman's cartridge heater (the one for the 4500, not the base plate one), and putting the heater into aluminum blocks that a forum member was nice enough to cut out for me. I have 2 of these plates, one for my Star sizer, the other for my Lyman 45 sizer, and don't know if I should buy 2 heaters so I can leave them inserted into their respective bases, or if I should just use only one heater, and move it from sizer to sizer?

Can anyone here tell me what holds the cartridge heater into the Lyman 4500, and it's physical size as well? (the diameter, and length of the actual metal heating element). Thanks in advance!

[alfloyd]

Here is the link to it:
http://www.harborfreight.com/router-speed-control-43060.html

Stock number is:
Item # 43060

I use the same one on my lube heater and like it very much.

Lafaun

[milprileb]

Mike S, yes the stock item number is 43060 and the link shows the
unit clearly. Its on sale as shown. There is always some coupon or sale
going on a dizzy speed with HF so maybe they will sell it cheaper this
holiday season. The two flyers I saw for next week and after Xmas did not
include this item. I just bought the unit and was glad to get it 2 bucks
cheaper and be on my way. I test fired it with Lyman heater and all is in
order.

I wish I knew the original member who posted this router speed control idea
and could thank him. I liked this unit a bit better than the superb solution another
member made with parts from Home Depot which would work equally well but might
be a tad bigger. I may make up one of the Home Depot parts models for my dremel
tool and have it as a spare unit if the HF model dies on me. Time will tell on that.

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

I used a 4$$ light dimmer from Lowes on my heater

[milprileb]

Jim, no doubt the solution can be done cheaper than HF unit
and congrats on your success.

What gauge wire did you use ?

[Shiloh]

Mine is a 1/4" aluminum plate under the lubrisizer. A thrift store iron sits on the plate.
Not pretty but it works well.

Shiloh

[fishnbob]

Mine is a 1/4" aluminum plate under the lubrisizer. A thrift store iron sits on the plate.
Not pretty but it works well.

Shiloh

I had the same setup as you Shiloh but it took up too much space on my small reloading bench. I designed the bench, too small as usual. So I bought a light dimmer switch and a 2 gang box and wired it up with a little help from snuffy and put it on the wall to get it off my bench. BTW, I cleaned the counter up and put everything away and now I can't find a d@#$ thing!:cry:

[milprileb]

Shiloh,

Each guys solution is not the next guys so no offense but I sure ain't putting a iron
on my bench and chance it bumping off that plate and a fire hazard. I evaluated what
heaters and risk options were out there and went with spending bucks on a safer
solution (YMMV and opinion differs) which serves my needs and am good with it.

I just did not like the Murphys Law parameters of the plate and iron solution.

No offense, if it works for you and others, its all good.

[Shiloh]

My set up is clumsy for sure, but it works. When using the heater set-up, it's in winter. Larsen's BAC
lube needs help that it doesn't in the warmer months.

That being said, when in use, lubing is the only thing going on. No powder, primers or ammo around. When things are lubed, the iron goes away and the other toys and supplies come back out.

Shiloh

[milprileb]

Shiloh, I sure did not mean to say it was clumsy or wrong.
Just that I am 64 and I know as I go older, I might bump the
iron and a fire issue might occur on my bench. So thats what
was in my mind and yes, younger guys would not be as prone
to making such a mistake.

The same could be said of the HF router speed control unit but I got a timer
on that sucker to make sure I don't leave it on over night or long after I
move away from the bench.

So... I kind of over kill to be on safe side due to age creeping upon me. I do have
a check list posted that I use to end a casting or bullet lube session so I close down
everything.

I use BAC and yes, it needs a little heat in winter but its darn good to work with as you know.
The Carnuba Red in winter needs a kick of heat to be sure

[Shiloh]

No offense taken.
I'm 9 years younger that you and at my age am perfectly capable of fouling things up all by myself. :wink:

My set up is such that would be tough to knock anything off. My 450 is mounted on a board C clamped to the bench. The plate extends out from the board. If my iron gets bumped, it slides onto HardieBoard protecting the table.

When using the set up, I warm things up with a Harbor Freight heat gun for a head start. Then the iron is on low to maintain. If the lube starts getting "Loose" I turn the iron off.

There are no flammables on the bench when lubing. I do a lot of lubing in winter as it is too darn cold to shoot comfortably.

SHiloh

[MikeS]

Thanks for the stock number. I went to the local HF store, and asked a clerk where the router speed control was, and he took me over to a foot switch. When I told him that's not what I was looking for, he said that's the only thing they have. So I wandered around the store a bit, then grabbed a younger clerk, and asked the same question, but also told him the stock number, and that the unit I want has a dial, and is not a foot switch. He said he thought he had seen one, and went over to a section of the isle, and dug around behind other stuff, and pulled out the only one they had. It cost me right around $20.00 so while perhaps I might have been able to make one cheaper, I got a unit that's made exactly as I wanted, it's all together, and I didn't have to do any wiring, so the chances of it actually working are much better.

It's amazing, when I had the unit in hand, and was heading for the checkout register I ran into the original older salesman, and showed it to him, he looked at it, then said "I didn't know that was a router speed control" WOW, it just says that in big letters on the box, but this guy didn't know what it was. And here I figured the older guy would be the 'wiser' guy, when in reality it was the younger guy that knew his stuff, and the older guy didn't.