Lyman 4500 life expectancy

[jethunter]

I bought a new Lyman 4500 3 years ago. I've sized about 175,000 bullets with it. I just replaced the body and the ram because they were getting a bit sloppy with some play between the ram and body. This caused some of the soft bullets to size slightly lopsided but wasn't an issue yet with harder bullets.

Roughly half the bullets sized were soft lead (BHN 8-10) pistol bullets and the other 50% were rifle bullets (BHN 18-20)

I use wheel bearing grease on the ram. Looking back, I wonder if I could have got more life out of this machine if I used a better lubricant. Also, I cast in an unheated building in the winter so I use a hair dryer and a piece of 6" pipe to warm up the lubesizer prior to starting a session. 5 minutes with the hairdryer makes the body of the sizer hot enough that it is uncomfortable to hold your hand on it. Maybe the grease melts and dissipates from applying heat in this way and maybe this contributed to wear.

Looking for recommendations on lubricant, or opinions on the wear. I tend to think that 175,000 bullets might just be as good as can be expected from this equipment. What do you think.

[243winxb]

I run Break Free CLP on my old Lyman 450 and use softer 50/50 lubes.

[runfiverun]

'I think' it takes over 350-f to break down wheel bearing grease.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I bought a new Lyman 4500 3 years ago. I've sized about 175,000 bullets with it. I just replaced the body and the ram because they were getting a bit sloppy with some play between the ram and body. This caused some of the soft bullets to size slightly lopsided but wasn't an issue yet with harder bullets.

Roughly half the bullets sized were soft lead (BHN 8-10) pistol bullets and the other 50% were rifle bullets (BHN 18-20)

I use wheel bearing grease on the ram. Looking back, I wonder if I could have got more life out of this machine if I used a better lubricant. Also, I cast in an unheated building in the winter so I use a hair dryer and a piece of 6" pipe to warm up the lubesizer prior to starting a session. 5 minutes with the hairdryer makes the body of the sizer hot enough that it is uncomfortable to hold your hand on it. Maybe the grease melts and dissipates from applying heat in this way and maybe this contributed to wear.

Looking for recommendations on lubricant, or opinions on the wear. I tend to think that 175,000 bullets might just be as good as can be expected from this equipment. What do you think.
I could never explain the issue of the 450 and 4500 as good as Geargnasher did here, see post #10
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?171726-Off-center-sizing-of-Lyman-4500&p=1922557&viewfull=1#post1922557

[Walter Laich]

I read on this forum someone drilled and tapped 3 equally spaced holes at top and bottom of the hole the ram sits in. Then put a piece of brass in followed by a set screw. He could take out much of the slop and replace worn brass as needed.
just thought if you used a brass set screw it would do the same thing as his two part combination.

[jethunter]

The top punch is centered well in my machine, the problem occurs at the bottom of the stroke when the linkage over-cams and puts vertical force on the ram. Over time the ram and the sizer body have wore and developed slop.

[Mal Paso]

The top punch is centered well in my machine, the problem occurs at the bottom of the stroke when the linkage over-cams and puts vertical force on the ram. Over time the ram and the sizer body have wore and developed slop.

I Really Appreciate your post!!! I was unaware of the problem and will watch for it. I probably have 100,000+ on mine.

Thank You JonB as I missed Gear's take on the 4500. Time to save up for a BC Mk VI.

[dsh1106]

I had the same problem with mine.

I rebuilt mine.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?302119-Old-Grey-Lyman-450-Sizer-70-s-vintage

Post #11

[EDG]

I have 2 4500s that came from the factory sloppy so their life was essentially ZER0.
I have 2 greys 450s that still work great but they came from the factory with a good fit.