Bullets stuck in a 450

[damifinowfish]

Bullets stuck in a Lyman 450 what am I doing wrong?

I have an old Lyman 450 Luber-Sizer. It came with a ton of H&I Dies. All the dies have been cleaned and polished. The 450 has had all the old lube melted out of it. All the O rings have been replaced and Lithi-Bee lube mixed at 50/50 ratio is being used. 500 bullets have been lubed after everything has been done so far.

Problem: Some of the dies will allow the bullet to go in but will not allow it to come out with out the force of a hammer.

Bullets are cast from wheel weights and are running between 21 - 26 hardness using the Lee hardness tester. The molds are dropping the bullets .005 over. I can take bullets of the same size from the same batch of lead that will not easily come out of a .358 die and run them in a .357 die with no problem.

Are my dies shot? Am I doing something wrong? What can I have my Machinist do to fix this issue?

Thanks
Damifinow Fish

[Yodogsandman]

Have you ruled out the linkage binding? Has it been lubricated or is it missing any washers or other parts?

Those boolits are very hard for just COWW.

[fryboy]

ummm ....wow "Bullets are cast from wheel weights and are running between 21 - 26 hardness using the Lee hardness tester."

what kind of ww's are you getting linotype ????
are you quenching them ?? if so are you quenching asap or waiting ? if the latter do it asap !
.005 over seems a wee large but doable , mostly we size down .001-.003-ish
i have one casting that every once in awhile it sounds much like you describe , i size these first in a lee push thru and then just use the lyman to lube , doesnt happen when i do it this way

[Elkins45]

If you are pushing a bare bullet through a freshly cleaned die this is to be expected. Bare lead on bare steel will friction lock. Lyman even warns about this and tells you to always hand smear some lube on the first bullet you force into a clean die. Is it always the first one that is sticking?

[damifinowfish]

Yes the die was lubed before using. 50 pounds of lead was given to me and was said to be from wheel weights. It was clean and in ingot form. I have been casting bullets for years and have had good results with lead hardness in the low 20's and Alox for lube.

Thanks for the replies.

[runfiverun]

if those ww's are old, like 50-60's old, they will have about 7% antimony in them.

I would check the linkage on the press.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Bullets stuck in a Lyman 450 what am I doing wrong?

I have an old Lyman 450 Luber-Sizer. It came with a ton of H&I Dies. All the dies have been cleaned and polished. The 450 has had all the old lube melted out of it. All the O rings have been replaced and Lithi-Bee lube mixed at 50/50 ratio is being used. 500 bullets have been lubed after everything has been done so far.

Problem: Some of the dies will allow the bullet to go in but will not allow it to come out with out the force of a hammer.

Bullets are cast from wheel weights and are running between 21 - 26 hardness using the Lee hardness tester. The molds are dropping the bullets .005 over. I can take bullets of the same size from the same batch of lead that will not easily come out of a .358 die and run them in a .357 die with no problem.

Are my dies shot? Am I doing something wrong? What can I have my Machinist do to fix this issue?

Thanks
Damifinow Fish


Yes the die was lubed before using. 50 pounds of lead was given to me and was said to be from wheel weights. It was clean and in ingot form. I have been casting bullets for years and have had good results with lead hardness in the low 20's and Alox for lube.

Thanks for the replies.
I guess I can only offer advice, which you already know (highlighted in your quote), as the only times that I have "stuck" boolits in a lubesizer die, was in a super clean die and a unlubed boolit ...cycling a pre-lubed boolit, to lube the die cures that problem.
BUT, I also had one issue with one "Brand New" die from Lyman, it wasn't polished, you could see horizontal machining lines in it, I removed the machining lines with 600 grit sandpaper, then polished it with Flitz. I went easy with the sandpaper, as I didn't want to enlarge the die.
Good Luck.

[Stoats]

If the link is binding, you can put something between the bit that pushes the ejection pin and the ejection pin.

[kungfustyle]

Try sizing in smaller steps. .002 at a time. Or get a lee sizer run em through it and then lube them

[MT Chambers]

BHN 26 + .005" oversize + unlubed die=stuck bullet...........a softer bullet would prolly go through and come out but would displace too much metal anyways.

[azrednek]

I've done it twice while I was a beginner and had to beat it out with a plastic hammer. My problem was from getting the lube way to hot and it not providing any lubrication. I was casting from straight 1970's big rig wheel weights.

[williamwaco]

Add 3 pounds pure to one pound of your 26BNH alloy.

[Duckiller]

Your 0.358 di may be miss marked and undersized. Hangs up in o.358 but goes through a 0.357 di with no problem. I would check the inside dimensions of your dies. If you have a machinist friend use and inside mic not callipers.