hunter64
12-24-2007, 09:35 PM
I have wanted a 45/450/4500 sizer for the longest time but I figured someday I will get one. I have been using the Lee Liquid Alox for there tumble lube bullet designs for a couple of years and I was tired of pan lubing for the non-tumble lube bullets. Chargar graciously sent me his old Lyman 45 and said it just needs a screw and a good cleaning. Well I cleaned it out and replaced the bad screw and figured today was the day to try it out for the first time. I have been pan lubing with Lar45 red and I figured I would melt it and put it in the Lyman luber and give it a go. Now I have never seen one work so I read the instructions a couple of times and figured out the depth of the sizer die and how to adjust it and just put the top punch up inside with some lube to hold it there as was recommended on this site. When I went to put the pressure nut thing on the screw the instructions said to just put it on the screw until the threads just touched the screw. Well right off I could see that there is no way it could work like that, the nut would have to be at least 1/2 way into the cylinder and touching the sides to grab so that when you turned the screw back wards it would proceed down into the cylinder. I lubed up my first bullet as instructed and put it in the sizer and held it down and gave the wrench a 1/4 turn. I had never run one before and I had no idea how much pressure was needed. I brought up the bullet and no lube, so I pushed it back in and tried a full turn and still nothing. So I played with it until I started to see lube in the grove and after about 10 bullets I got into a rhythm of how much pressure is needed for this lube to work correctly. I was really happy with my first attempt at the lube sizer and sure beats the heck out of pan lubbing. I was in the garage and had the heat on so it was at normal room temperature and I had a heat lamp shinning on the Lyman 45 to help with the lube being softer. I can definitely see me hooking up a PID and rigging up a small soldiering iron or a plate with a clothes iron on to heat up the lube and keep it at a constant temperature.