Lyman 4500 and short bullets

[Ranch Dog]

I'm unable to lube bullets with short OAL lengths. The "Adjusting Screw" (10) runs out of adjustment and the "Bullet Lockout Link" (23) cannot make contact with the Adjusting Screw to push the bullet up and out of the H&I die. Any fixes?

[Wayne Smith]

Michael, please define "short". I think my shortest is my 9mm Mak and I have no trouble with it on my 450. I have made some nose punches that reach down into the die, however.

[C.F.Plinker]

Is the lock nut (11) for the adjusting screw above or below the threaded part of the body casting. If it is above you can extend the adjusting screw higher so that the boolit doesn't go as far into the die.

Does the flat part of the push out rod (12) go up far enough to hit the bottom of the die? If it hits the bottom of the die but the I die doesnt go up far enough you could JB weld a nut or short piece of dowel onto the bottom of the I die so it would be pushed up further.

[Ranch Dog]

Michael, please define "short". I think my shortest is my 9mm Mak and I have no trouble with it on my 450. I have made some nose punches that reach down into the die, however.

http://www.ranchdogoutdoors.com/images/TLC22550RF.jpg

My little bullets for the 25 ACP, 32 ACP, 380 Auto, 218 Bee, 25-20 Win, and 32-20 Win.

I'm not sure how you would be able to get them down into the die deep enough to pickup the lube and then push them back out.

[Ranch Dog]

Is the lock nut (11) for the adjusting screw above or below the threaded part of the body casting. If it is above you can extend the adjusting screw higher so that the boolit doesn't go as far into the die.

Does the flat part of the push out rod (12) go up far enough to hit the bottom of the die? If it hits the bottom of the die but the I die doesnt go up far enough you could JB weld a nut or short piece of dowel onto the bottom of the I die so it would be pushed up further.

I have the lock nut below the body casting but will move it above to see what happens.

[462]

I removed the lock nut.

[Ranch Dog]

I removed the lock nut.

That make sense in well.

[fryboy]

if that fails then a longer top punch is about required

[theperfessor]

I can help you if you need longer top punches. If you're interested pm me, maybe we can work out a trade.

[Wayne Smith]

Remove the loc nut, and, if using an RCBS die, switch to a Lyman or drill more holes in the RCBS.

[C.F.Plinker]

If the push rod goes all the way up to the bottom of the die and the boolit still won't go up far enough to eject you will need a longer I die (bottom punch). You might think about talking to the Perfessor about one that is long enough and maybe even drilled through in addition to a longer top punch.

[Ranch Dog]

I can help you if you need longer top punches. If you're interested pm me, maybe we can work out a trade.

I'm going to be tied up for about a week on some personal business, then I will give you a shout. Thanks!

[Bradley]

I'm unable to lube bullets with short OAL lengths. The "Adjusting Screw" (10) runs out of adjustment and the "Bullet Lockout Link" (23) cannot make contact with the Adjusting Screw to push the bullet up and out of the H&I die. Any fixes?

Lyman makes a special little part that will fix this. Don't know what they call it but... I would suggest calling them and asking for help.

Or you can just but a small piece of lead on the bullet lockout link. That works too.

[lmcollins]

Somewhere along the line I screwed up one of my "I" push rods. My fix was to solider an 8x32 hex nut on the bottom of the "I" push rod. If you need more than one nut try stacking one on top of the other and see if it gives you enough added length. Try three even.

Find out what works, and glue them together. Take your pusher out, clean it up good, and then just use some 5 minute epoxie.

A quick and easy fix. The best part about useing the nuts is they are already center drilled to bleed off your excess lube. (I through center drill all of my "I" pushers, and relieve their centers.)

[lmcollins]

Michael: Sorry I only addressed half of the problem.

If you cannot get your boolit deep enough into the die to pick up lube, try and space the nose puch down into the die further by spacing the nose punch down from the bottom of the ram by putting a couple of washers or small nuts on the stem of the punch before you stick it into the ram.

Take a die and hold a bullet against it. Measure how far you need to go into the die. Tell us how much extension you need. For small boolits, and minimal sizing I wouldn't doubt that you spacer neeed not be made out of metal.

[C.F.Plinker]

Some of your boolits appear to be flat noses. You could try making flat nose punches out of 9/32 rod. Measure how long it needs to be to bottom out in the ram and add whatever is needed to get the boolit far enough into the die to size correctly. You could even make it adjustable buy cutting the head off a 1/4 inch bolt with a nut to act as the shoulder on the regular top punch.

[Ranch Dog]

Sorry guys that I am just getting back to this and thank you for the ideas above. Spring time on the Ranch leaves me needing more hours in the day!

I'm going to go back through all the information above. I'm also going to talk with Lyman today as I have a brand new power case trimmer that is overheating and seizing within minutes of turning it on. I will see what they have, as mentioned above, and then start figuring out what I need from there.

[engineer401]

Unfortunately I had the same problem with my 4500. Nothing lined up properly. the lock nut didn't screw down very far. I was able to get it to extrude the bullets enough by wrapping a piece of brass tubing around the push out link. RCBS dies didn't fit in it as advertised. It does work now. I just got tired of the aggravation. I bought a Magma/Star. I'm not looking back.