clean a lubesizer: boil vs heat lamp

[Whiterabbit]

Hi guys,

I'm gonna be taking the lube out of my 45 and putting new lube in. old lube is REALLY REALLY soft, new lube is pretty hard.

I put the soft lube in over a "medium" lube and it was a disaster. The new stuff does NOT push all the old stuff out! It'll be worse this time, so a COMPLETE clean is a must. I don't want ANYTHING in there but the new lube when I start.

Do you guys suggest boiling to be sure? Or will enough material drip out under a heatgun or heat lamp.

Thanks!

[JMtoolman]

Both methods work just fine. If you use a boil out, you can salvage the lube. The toolman.

[Whiterabbit]

my soft lube is paraffin and toilet bowl wax, with traces of some other stuff. Works well <1500 fps though leaves antimony wash in the barrel (not uncommon if I read the lube recipe thread correctly, even for pricy lubes). But bottom line, it's not worth saving.

I just want to make sure I have pretty clean metal when I start putting the fancy store bought lube down the pipe.

[Grump]

If it melts like Lyman and RCBS lubes, an ordinary hair dryer will be hot enough at normalish ambient temperatures.

Just did that myself last week. Followed it up with some spraying of carb cleaner and poking a rag into the recesses. That worked just fine last time (getting the last of my Dad's moly CV joint grease/Do-All band saw lube/whatever else he used) lube out. That stuff resisted heat a lot better than the last stuff I cleared out (now that I think of it, it was probably RCBS Rifle Lube) but still melted with the hair dryer.

[Whiterabbit]

Thanks. If there were moly in this one I think I'd have to kill it with fire. I don't like that stuff.

[Del-Ray]

If you have a boiler at work ask the operator to run it under his test port. That is how I clean mine out. 20 seconds and there is nothing left.

[Mk42gunner]

I boiled the last of the SPG out of my RCBS Lubamatic using Dawn dish soap. I was not impressed.

When I bought an old gray Lyman 450 half filled with a hardened black goo, I melted it out with a propane torch. It worked a lot faster than boiling, and I think it did a better job. I think a heat gun or hair dryer would do as well.

Robert

[Iowa Fox]

I'm old enough now that the easy way is always tuff enough. I take the sizing die and the lube compression plunger out. Then using a couple two three pieces of wire I hang them over a plastic 5 gal bucket. The halogen work lights from the shop get really hot fast so I place one of those about 8"over the sizer and walk away. In 45 minutes or so the sizer is dripped clean and a quick wipe with a paper towel and set the sizer aside to cool as that halogen light gets the cast iron pretty hot to the touch. Don't make a lot of work out of cleaning a sizer.

[Whiterabbit]

so if I go the easy route, you think I even need to take the sizer off the bench? I can hit it with a heatgun on a stand easily and walk away, and just pull the plunger, die, and maybe the lower linkage and hang a bucket below it to catch the drippings.

[Dale in Louisiana]

The hot water method worked well for me.

I did a Lyman 45 today. It was filled with an unidentifiable hardened dark brown goop and the sizing die was frozen in place. The pressure screw wouldn't move the pressure piston.

I have a big enamel pot. I added enough water to cover everything with a good inch of depth, put it on the burner of the stove and turned the heat on. When the water boiled, I lowered the heat a bit and let it go for an hour. With the boil still rolling, I retrieved the sizer body with a pair of pliers and dropped it onto a bad of newspaper. The lube in the pressure cylinder was soft enough (and a lot was gone) to allow me to remove the piston and screw. I took those off for further cleaning and returned the body to the boiling water.

After I was satisfied that the majority of the old lube was gone, I turned the heat off. I supported the body inverted with enough of a gap to allow the die to drop yet still supporting the sides of the casting. With the metal too hot to touch and the hardened lube out of the way, few taps with a soft punch and a hammer popped the sizing die loose. While the inside of the body is not pristine, it is certainly free of most of the old lube.

With the pot allowed to cool, the old lube formed a neat solid sheet atop the water. If I was sure of its composition, I might have salvaged it, because it looked like the right thickness to make wax wads, but instead I just skimmed it off and dumped it.

Now all I have to do is reassemble all the parts, load some new lube, install a new die and top punch, fabricate a base that I can easily move on and off my loading bench, and I have a usable sizer. That two: One for .459, one for .314. I have an old Lyman 450 that gets an overhaul for .310, and I'll be in business.

dale in Louisiana

[RKJ]

I don't want to hi-jack this thread but I've done both methods on my 4500 and both seemed to work as well as the other. I have the problem that I can't get the pressure nut and screw out of the body. I've pulled the sizer off the bench and can see the bottom of the rod turning freely inside the body but can not figure out to hold it to remove the screw rod. Any ideas? Thanks all (and again I apologize for hi jacking the thread)

[BoolitSchuuter]

I've used both methods and both will work. Boiling will get it all out of every nook and cranny and leave it factory clean. Heat gun is fast and easy if it is just a lube change and you don't mind an occasional little bit of the previous lube in with the new stuff.

[cajun shooter]

I have used a heat gun that was purchased from Harbour Freight over 5 years ago. I've used it to clean three Stars and I have never had one drop of any lube left in any sizer. If you don't do your work like you care about the outcome then maybe you will have a mess up. I have always had pride in anything I do and have always had great out comes. The heat gun has two heat ranges and I use the high side.
You may save all of the old lube if you wish. Just remove the sizing die and brass plug that is on the left lower side of your Star and let the old lube run out. I heat it both from the bottom and the top of the reservoir. It takes about 10 minutes to have a clean machine from start to finish. Later David

[Horace]

I`m with Iowa Fox on this one!

Horace