Frozen press

[Burnt Fingers]

I've got a Lyman six hole turret press that I bought. It's frozen up. I've been using PB Blaster on the ram, top and bottom twice a day for almost a week and it's still frozen solid.

Advice?

[joe leadslinger]

Boat anchor?:kidding: might try warm trans oil.

[flyingmonkey35]

give it to me.


I'lll refurb it.

[emoji1787]

do you have access to a ultrasonic cleaner?

if so use simple green.

15 minutes in the ultrasonic. followed buy a very hot wash off. wiggle and repeat.

I have gotten loose two seazed shotguns that way.

if you don't

Kroll oil. and a hammer. lots of light tapping.



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[Pressman]

Pull the turret off, it needs to come off anyway. Pull the pivot pin for the handle and let it hang free. Try to twist the ram using the handle. Don't over do it and bend the link. Tap the top of the ram with an oak block and a big hammer, again don't get too violent. Tap and twist till it comes loose. Then drive it out of the frame.
I believe you will find very little serious pitting so a polishing the ram and inside the frame is all that is necessary to restore function.

[stubshaft]

Kroil and a little heat.

[Dieselhorses]

^^^^What he said^^^^

[XDROB]

I used Kroil and a little time over night to free up three older presses that a friend gave me. They had been stored in a leaky shed for years. After using many things to free them up. The Kroil did it over night.

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[country gent]

Soak all the joints with Kroil oil for a few days ram links pivots. Along with bolts and screws. Give it some time to work then work slowly and carefully disassembling it. As to clean up a 3-m scratch pad lightly rubbed with light oil will remove most of what build ups rust is there and not remove any or little metal. Clean all the parts wipe clean with soft cloths and check fits. When reassembling a light coat of grease on ram and pivots as assembled. I have seen several of the newer presses with zerks on the rams you might consider one here while its apart.

[mdi]

If you don't have any Kroil (I didn't hear about it until I started visiting reloading forums), ATF thinned with acetone works. If you choose to use a hammer, try a soft faced dead blow hammer, with caution. I would remove any nuts, bolts, pins, etc. and disassemble as much as possible before applying any force. Afterwards I would use fine emery cloth or crocus cloth and light oil to polish the parts...

[Shawlerbrook]

Great advice above. If you can soak it might help. Patience!

[Conditor22]

I'd remove everything that I could

50% ATF / 50% Acetone -- better and cheaper than Kroil -- soak it

I'd use a bar clamp and some wood spacers (around the ram on one side) to break the ram loose. Keep everything straight/in line. I'd alternate directions and go slow.

[redhawk0]

As tollerances are VERY tight on a ram....use either Kroil or the 50/50 mentioned...and a little touch of heat if you like.

I'd be VERY careful about what you use to polish the ram once you get it apart. I vote for just a little oil (straight ATF or ATF/Keroscene mix) and just work it cleaning often. Removing any metal might damage the "precision" of the ram.

redhawk

[onelight]

Yo might also try hitting with a rubber mallet while spraying with PB or kroil tap the ram and frame from as many directions as you can to help break it free to let the oil penetrate.
PB tends to dry fairly quick so may may not be best for overnight soak.
Good luck .

[Iowa Fox]

You won't beat kroil for soaking something like this, I've tried them all and have been using kroil for almost 40 years. After you get it apart a very fine wire buffing wheel 8" in diameter is your best bet cleaning the ram. Any of the grit papers will damage the ram. Patience and careful thought are the key here.

[GregLaROCHE]

That’s a great press. With penetrating oils you just have to wait. Nobody wants to. Me included. However, before going to more drastic measures, give the penetrating oil a change to do it’s thing.

I’ve been seeing a lot about the electrolysis method of removing rust. I haven’t tried it yet, but it seems interesting. Maybe it could work in your case, if the penetrating oils don’t.

[Three44s]

Kriol, kroil and more kroil!

Three44s

[iomskp]

A little heat then oil, a little heat then oil repeat and repeat.

[William Yanda]

Warm the press with a hair dryer and chill the ram with ice. Make physics work for you.

[Greg S]

As previously stated, kroil with light tapping from both sides. Might wnt to cut the kroil with a solvent to make it thinner allowing it better wetting/creep.

[RED BEAR]

Kroil and a little heat.

+1 for this.

[RED BEAR]

As previously stated, kroil with light tapping from both sides. Might wnt to cut the kroil with a solvent to make it thinner allowing it better wetting/creep.

Not sure solvent will help kroil is supposed to creep into spaces less than one millionth of inch. At least thats what they used to claim.

[Three44s]

For parts that I am not concerned about the finnish or paint I get out appropriate amounts of heat. However in the case of a stuck load press that is not advisable.

Kroil likes heat though so the thought occurred to me that before one applies any chemicals I would resort to a large pan and place the press in an oven at a temperature suitable to what the press was constructed of but also below a point where the finnish could be affected.

Perhaps 200 F ? A little less or a bit more?

Unless the oven was a junker otherwise you would only get “one bite” at it because next you would want to apply the penetrant.

The other thing that helps of course is force and vibration. Again due to the nature of the part you are trying to restore, it takes a bit of finesse. With parts that do not require much finesse I like to hammer around the circumference with the opposite side “backed” by an anvil or an even larger hammer if necessary. But yet again a reloading press does not qualify very well for such robust treatment.

The only thing that could qualify would be non-marring instruments. The thickness of a press body surrounding the ram area likely is not going to be affected by such tools. I think that making adapters that fit the bottom of the ram and perhaps the top could be useful and then some degree of percussion applied to those fittings? You would be attempting to drive the ram alternatingly up and down.

Three44s

[Burnt Fingers]

Great ideas. I do have some Kroil. I'll get that a shot.

[XDROB]

As I said before I'm a Kroil fan. I had been given three older presses which where frozen solid. No movement at all. After trying every type of rust penetrate. I was told about Kroil. Drove 50 Mike's to the only store that had it in my area (a small almost tiny gun shop). Wiped all the other stuff off and applied the Kroll. Next day two out of the three started to move. The third one took an extra day. After working on them fir a few days they were working like new. Sold all three to a guy who never once said after that he had a problem.

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[country gent]

Kroil is very good we had it in the shop in 55 gallon drum. used to lubricate and clean ball bushings in dies, clean and lube tooling and as a rust preserver. Most of the production maintenance areas came up and got a gallon or 2 of it from our drum also. It was very good.

Kroil and vibration or a hanging weight will usually do it. Clamp press to a solid bench disassembled soak with kroil oil and hand a 5 gallon bucket from part add lead ingots to bucket let sit and the oil weight will do the work.

[flyingmonkey35]

I did forget how far are you going to refurb it.

the last one I did I completely dissembled sand blasted. and powdercoated Lyman orange.

replace the turret with a modern milled aluminum one.

polished the ram with Emery cloth oiled and greased everything.

sold it to a guy and my range. and he Loves it.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190630/dbeaae799ce665d5455fcd4aed7e71cb.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190630/bb04954ef5203a0d3f5e076c90760178.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190630/f1d7aa994d7e890dcb8563805a4635b9.jpg

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[onelight]

Nice job on that press !

[flyingmonkey35]

Nice job on that press !thank you

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[wonderwolf]

Ok

Here is a proven way to get your ram free

Air riveter (air hammer) and a bronze bushing to fit over the head so its a soft face that contacts the ram, The pressure and vibration do wonders for stuck cylinders.....also great to use with a wrench in a tight spot where you can't get an extension on it using the air hammer to supply lateral force to the wrench (got the idea from a Youtube channel called AVE) :) don't go crazy with the air pressure off the bat let the press sit out in the sun for a bit maybe and remove all the linkage to get to the bottom of the ram if you can or make an extension to get to the top of it.

Works like a charm. I recently did this on a Herters double ram press that was so rusted up there was zero hope of using other methods. I would have cracked something if I had used a cheater bar. its freed up now and is on my bench.

[loveruger]

free all