Lube/sizing with Lyman 4500

[Lefty SRH]

How in the world do you keep the lube from getting UNDER the boolit, between the boolit and the push out pin? I am having a really hard time keeping the bottom of th boolits lube free. I have tried turning the lube plunger screw on the bottom stroke and on the top stroke, no difference. I'm concerned the lube will contaminate the powder in the loaded case.

[blaser.306]

Are you sizing bevel base boolits? Do a search on that subject by itself , If you are using a hard lube with heat ( watch the lube doesn't get too runny ) or a soft lube with out heat watch the amount of pressure that you apply to the lube resvoir ( as me how I know ) Only put enough turns on the screw to get full fill out of the groves . this should help.( maybe)

[Lefty SRH]

Flat base .44 Keith boolits (as of right now) and no heat. Also I can only get 2-3 boolits lubed before I have to adjust the lube screw again. Is that normal?

[462]

You don't mention the lube, but sounds like too much pressure on a soft (50/50?) lube.

Usually, when sizing a Lyman 429421 (the original Keith) I have to reapply pressure for each boolit.

[Mal Paso]

1 A little less lube pressure and hold the lever firmly down until you raise it. Don't give lube it time squeeze between the pin and bullet. If it does sometimes you can squeeze it out and quickly raise it.

2 A folded paper towel to wipe the base.

[theperfessor]

+1 to Mal Paso. Keep positive down-pressure on the bullet. When that happens to me I just push the lube back into the luber by backing off the pressure screw and pressing down hard. The lube, like all fluids, will follow the path of least resistance and backflow. Then wipe off the base of the bullet and go on. Usually the next bullet will fill up without any feed pressure.

Once you learn how much pressure to apply for a specific lube, and get used to the varying volume of lube each type of bullet requires, incidents of greasy-base-bullets will decrease.

My 450 applies positive pressure directly from a screw to a piston that is pushing on the lube column. There is no spring or other device to apply continuous pressure over a large enough volume of lube to do more than one or two bullets at a time. Don't think they changed much when they made the 4500.

You just have to adapt to it a little bit.

[Lefty SRH]

The lube is a soft modified home brew of 2 known recipes. It needs a little heat in the winter but I find it doesn't need any heat AT ALL now that it is in the 70's and 80's in my region.

Another question, why and what purpose does the "dish" shape of the push pin serve in the die?

[Mal Paso]

To clear any bumps left by the sprue. I've been thinking about a way to attach a rubber disk to seal the Boolit base.

I've been thinking about this for a while. I size at least 1,000 Keith 44s a month. I don't think a flat pin would be any better. Any irregularity on the Boolit base would create a space for lube. I found if you get the pace right the lube sticks to the pin and not the boolit.

The 4500 works good enough for now. I think I'll save for a Star Sizer before I further modify the Lyman.

[Frozone]

1 A little less lube pressure and hold the lever firmly down until you raise it. Don't give lube it time squeeze between the pin and bullet. If it does sometimes you can squeeze it out and quickly raise it.

2 A folded paper towel to wipe the base.

I try to run a zero pressure system. I only turn the screw to add lube and only enough to fill the grooves, then before lifting the handle, I back the screw off a small amount, I don't try to keep pressure on the lube.

I found one of those fiber scrubber thingies ("scotch pad") to do a great job on any thing left over.

[GP100man]

No one has mentioned it but I find sometimes adjusting the depth helps with the lube under the boolit problem .

The punch is concaved so the outer part of the base will be what`s in contact ,as it needs to be "squared up" for good exit of the muzzle.

[Mal Paso]

I watched myself this morning and I always rock the Boolit back with my thumb before lifting it off the die to break the lube suction and it leaves most of the lube on the pin.

[gwpercle]

It's the pressure you put on the lube. There is a fine line between just enough to fill the lube groove and too much so that some goes under the base. You have to practice and get a feel for how much to pull on the little handle.

Try this, put the bullet in the die and make sure it's sitting flat. with no pressure on the lube press the boolit down into the die. Put just a little pressure on the lube then eject the bullet out and see how much lube has flowed into the groove. You want the groove 95 % filled it doesn't have to be 100% filled.

also you want the depth the boolit goes into the die just deep enough to fill lube groove and not the crimp groove...no deeper. Hold down gently on the handle when you apply the gentle pressure to fill the lube groove, then quickly eject the boolit. Quick ejection and gentle pressure will keep the base clean... gentle pressure being the secret. If the lube doesn't fill the groove, give it a quarter turn in the die and run it back in...usually the rest of the groove will fill by residual pressure or just a very slight amount of pressure.

I just lube/sized 200 yesterday and didn't wipe but one or two bases, I did run many back into the die twice to get full lube but I would rather do that than wipe the base of each and every one.

gary