Sizing cast bullets on loading press?

[Naphtali]

I found a 2007 Lee catalog, now in my TRASH pile. At that time Lee had a lube and sizer kit (perhaps sizer die as standalone also) that appears to be a single die for a standard reloading press, plus a quantity of Lee's liquid lubricant. Since I pan lube, I am trying to avoid the expense of a lube-sizer including the top punches.

1. If such a device is currently available and disregarding the lubricant, does it function correctly? If it does, . . .

2. How does it compare with RCBS' Lubamatic II and/or Saeco's lube-sizer - only in terms of sizing functionality?

3. Since we have several skilled metal workers on the Forum, does any manufacture a sizing die that is more precise than Lee's? How flexible - how "custom" - are these dies?

[Outpost75]

I pan lube or flow coat the majority of my cast bullets and use the Lee push-through sizers with the majority of my bullets and they work well. The Lee dies run fairly true to size, but occasionally I'll have a smaller die honed larger to get an odd size that I want and there are a couple fellows on this forum who do this reasonably.

[jcren]

I powder coat and use Lee dies. You get the die, pusher, catch can and bottle of lube. Dies run very true for the 3 sizes I have. I did lap out one to a slightly larger size and have polished the inlet of the dies to prevent catching on pc if started crooked.

[.22-10-45]

I pan lube for some calibers & the Lee sizers work well. I have Corbin bullet reducing dies to fit std. 7/8 X 14 reloading press for most of my rifle cast bullets.

[shoot-n-lead]

I powder coat and use the Lee sizer dies...works very well.

[WebMonkey]

most of my lee push through sizers came spot on.
1 I 'cleaned up' a bit but happy with all of them.

I tumble lube, size + gas check through the sizer, tumble lube again.

'monkey

[robg]

Ditto webmonkey

[gwpercle]

NOE , a vendor , makes a neat press mounted push through sizer , it utilizes a die with replaceable bushings of any diameter you could want. Pushes from the base so no nose punch required . Check their site out.

[reddog81]

The LEE dies work. They do typically come with a bottle of Lee Liquid Alox that I don't use.

i think it would be easy to fabricate a properly sized bolt into something that would work. All you would have to do is find something that screws into where the dies go and hollow out the inside to the correct size.

You of course will need something to push the bullets through the die and something to catch the bullets.

[bangerjim]

I have MANY (!) sizes of the LEE sizing dies. What better way to do it???????

They work great and do not cost much so you can get lots of sizes. I throw the ALOX away, as I PC everything. The boolits slide thru the dies like butter with PC!

Why waste money on a lubramatic? Use PC.

And what have you been doing since Oct 2007 for sizing cast boolits????????

Why do you doubt success????? I have a full machine shop (and the skills) but why would I waste my time making something I can buy for a few bucks????? If one ever wears out (doubtful), I will just buy another one of that size.

banger

[Naphtali]

Many thanks for your replies. Next step is to identify what happened to prices in the intervening nine years, then order.
***
bangerjim: My lube-sizer, used less as I black powder and muzzle load more, is now a revenue source.
***
OBIII: A nine-year-old catalog went in the trash pile. Perhaps you read too quickly or parse too slowly?
Since you put the Lee catalog in your TRASH pile why bother? I use Recluses lube formula, and have had excellent success with both rifle and pistol boolits. They also come in handy for PC boolits.
OB

[GhostHawk]

I have not used any of the other sizing solutions.

Lee system is simple, I have a dedicated press mounted upside down for crimping gas checks. I have a ice cream pail hanging below it, so it gets all my sizing work. As for lube I use BLL which is the alox in the size kit @ 60% and 40% Johnson's liquid one step floor wax.

Tumble lube, 2 or 3 light coats, dead simple, low mess, easy to make, inexpensive and a little goes a long way.

So I normally do a light coat of Bens Liquid Lube before sizing if the are getting sized. Gas check if needed, sized, then another coat or 2 of BLL then sit for an hour to dry in the lid of a bankers box in front of a fan. Then loaded up or stored away for later use.


Most of the Lee sizers are pretty good, I did have one .311 die that was throwing .310 so I polished it out to .312 and my SKS loves it now. For the Mosin's I have a .314 that throws between .3135 and .314 depending on alloy.

I tend to not size most pistol loads except I do tend to size my 9mm.

[Traffer]

This may be a very stupid question from a noob. Do you need a press to use a sizer die? If so what is the absolute cheapest way to go. I am way poor and have been making all of my own tools. It is just too time consuming since I am using a cheap Harbor Freight drill press and Dremel style grinders to make stuff.

[jcren]

Can't beat Lee for the price. Cheapest aluminum c-press (around $40 new) will work for average sizing.
By the way, Titan Reloading is a vendor here with a link banner at the top of page, and you will search hard on eBay to beat their prices for Lee stuff by more than a dollar or two.

[RustyReel]

I sold my lube-a-matic, dies, top punches and lube and now only use Lee. Currenly use five dies, four of which have been modified. Easy to do, work well with PC. A BUNCH less messy!

[bangerjim]

This may be a very stupid question from a noob. Do you need a press to use a sizer die? If so what is the absolute cheapest way to go. I am way poor and have been making all of my own tools. It is just too time consuming since I am using a cheap Harbor Freight drill press and Dremel style grinders to make stuff.

Well.......you can't do it any other way, except mabe from a Rube Goldberg rig-up!

Buy the cheapest smallest Lee loading press. I think they sell for around $35. Works for everything you will ever do for loading excrept swaging. I have 2 of them dedicated to sizing and other purposes.

How are you sizing and loading now without a press?!?!?!?!?

All dies (loading, sizing, etc) fit in them from all other makers too, so buy once and keep forever.

Don't waste you time trying to make something this inexpensive!!!!!!


banger

[Traffer]

So far I have only been loading 22lr. I recently bought a Lee Precision for 9mm but haven't used it yet. Since there are no dies etc for 22 rimfire, I have had to make my own tools. I use a Channel lock or pump pliers for pressing and a hammer for swaging and crimping with a collet crimper. (actually just barely tapping on the crimper). I have an idea for making a swaging die with a bottle jack and an inverted u shaped piece of heavy steel. If I could get a really strong press for cheap I would forgo the bottle jack build. I plan on also swaging hollow bases into 9mm with what ever I end up with. What would you recommend for a press that could handle swaging for cheap?

[Echo]

There are NO presses suitable for swaging that one could get 'for cheap'. RCBS Rock Chuckers go for $80-$100 including shipping on eBay. Forget swaging - cheaply...

[MT Chambers]

Of course the age old answer is: If you're gonna run those boolits thru a press, you might as well lube them at the same time, there's no extra steps, it's lightning quick on a STAR.

[Bent Ramrod]

Traffer,

Of course you don't need a press to resize boolits. All you need is a polished hole of the correct size, a punch and a mallet. Belding and Mull offered this tool for years. A steel cylinder with a taper to the final diameter hole, and a base with a relief under it, formed the body. If you wanted to drill a hole in your workbench and hang a container under it, you could bolt the base down. The punch was of the proper diameter, with an unturned section for a stop and head. The pan-lubed boolits were dropped, base first, into the hole and pushed or tapped through.

If you've made a rim fire reloader, you ought to be able to make this.

[bangerjim]

Traffer,

Of course you don't need a press to resize boolits. All you need is a polished hole of the correct size, a punch and a mallet. Belding and Mull offered this tool for years. A steel cylinder with a taper to the final diameter hole, and a base with a relief under it, formed the body. If you wanted to drill a hole in your workbench and hang a container under it, you could bolt the base down. The punch was of the proper diameter, with an unturned section for a stop and head. The pan-lubed boolits were dropped, base first, into the hole and pushed or tapped through.

If you've made a rim fire reloader, you ought to be able to make this.

But a simple LEE "C" press and the correct $20 die is sooooooooo fast and sooooooo inexpensive. Why play whack-a-mole with your boolits????????????????????

[bangerjim]

So far I have only been loading 22lr. I recently bought a Lee Precision for 9mm but haven't used it yet. Since there are no dies etc for 22 rimfire, I have had to make my own tools. I use a Channel lock or pump pliers for pressing and a hammer for swaging and crimping with a collet crimper. (actually just barely tapping on the crimper). I have an idea for making a swaging die with a bottle jack and an inverted u shaped piece of heavy steel. If I could get a really strong press for cheap I would forgo the bottle jack build. I plan on also swaging hollow bases into 9mm with what ever I end up with. What would you recommend for a press that could handle swaging for cheap?

For swaging you will need well over a grand....and MORE. The super heavy duty press is very costly and the dies, well, just plan on getting a 2nd on your house. There some good plans on this site to build one. Do a search above to find the thread.

That is why I do NOT or EVER WILL swage boolits. Not needed. And I have the full machine shop to make all that carp. You can buy FMJ's much cheaper - if you absolutely think you MUST have them! I get darned near FMJ performance with PC'd cast lead boolits. Why bother with swaging>>>?

banger

[Traffer]

I already swag the 22 rimfire. Was using a hammer now using a Harbor freight 5" vise. I swag the 22 because they needs hollow base. I was cutting the cup in the base with a drill setup but I went and cut down my mold. Now I don't have enough lead to play with to cut the base. So I must swag the hollow base. I also want to swag a hollow base into 9mm. I went and bought a mold that that is 117 grain round nose. There is not enough bearing surface on these to make reliable loads so ... back to hollow base. If I swag a hollow base into these bullets I think they will be the perfect size etc. So I will use the vise until I build a press. I have an idea to make one out of a bottle jack. I think I can thread the second stage of the jack and cut a hole and tap a type of loop frame from some heavy steel and mount the home made die on the top, jacking the die into it. There are suspension parts in cars that may be something I can use for the "loop frame". But I don't mind even hammering the hollow base in there if I have to.
When you live on a shoe string you gotta think out of the box on occasion.

[Walter Laich]

I have MANY (!) sizes of the LEE sizing dies. What better way to do it???????

They work great and do not cost much so you can get lots of sizes. I throw the ALOX away, as I PC everything. The boolits slide thru the dies like butter with PC!



Why waste money on a lubramatic? Use PC.

And what have you been doing since Oct 2007 for sizing cast boolits????????

Why do you doubt success????? I have a full machine shop (and the skills) but why would I waste my time making something I can buy for a few bucks????? If one ever wears out (doubtful), I will just buy another one of that size.

banger

only thing I do is put a spring around the base pin that extends about 1/4" above it. That way I don't have to take the time to perfectly align the the bullet with the pin.

learned this on here...somewhere

[edwardware]

For the price of the Lee Push-Through sizers, they can't be beat. A little polishing eases things along, but I've only bothered on my 0.452.

[DerekP Houston]

I powder coat and use the Lee sizer dies...works very well.

Same here, though with both PC and Hitek. I assume if I'd caught the bug sooner I would own a lubresizer and would've stuck with that route though.

[Naphtali]

Many thanks to all of you. You solved a problem and - BONUS - created some money for me.

[gwpercle]

Lee will send you a brand new catalog for free, request it from their web site and the mail man will bring it to you...The best part is , there is no charge to you !
You have to get the freebee's before they start charging for them....the price of everything just keeps going up .
There are even a few new products that weren't in there in nine years ago.
Gary

[mdi]

I've been using Lee push through dies since day one (I first had the Lee kit that had a 3" round pan, a chunk of red lube, a punch and a die. The bullets were pan lubed, and pounded through the die, no threads on the die body. Worked great). I now have mebbe 11 Lee push through dies with 4 mounted on a spare turret for my turret press. I have "customized" a few to get a specific diameter and have never had any problems with, good round, consistent diameters. I pan lube, tumble/dip lube and PC and have found no need for a lubersizer (with dies and nose punches for every bullet I cast)...

[robg]

I bought the Lee c press just to size boolits easier ,I now use it for the fcd die after seating on my wamadet press.

[DerekP Houston]

only thing I do is put a spring around the base pin that extends about 1/4" above it. That way I don't have to take the time to perfectly align the the bullet with the pin.

learned this on here...somewhere

I had forgotten about that recommended trick. Thanks for the reminder!

[Freightman]

I use Lee push through I have a c press mounted upside down just drop the boolits in and work the handle. Star is good but expensive for no more than I would use it .