Grigsby press

[abunaitoo]

Saw this on evilbay.
Never seen one before.
Anyone know the history of it????
277941

[Scrounge]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?419349-Gringby-Reloading-press

Like the looks of it, need a O type press, but bucks are a little scarce around here right now.

[Bazoo]

It's neat that's for sure.

[Pressman]

WEll, it's over and not as traumatic as I expected.

[darrondb]

Yeah, I tried but was just a bit rich for me

[dsh1106]

Yes Sir, more than I was willing to pay , but I could say that for just about anything related to reloading these days!!!

[Pressman]

Scott, that press was the bargain of the month, considering how rare it is and what most anything reloading related has been selling for. This the second one I have seen for sale in the last 15 years.

[dsh1106]

Scott, that press was the bargain of the month, considering how rare it is and what most anything reloading related has been selling for. This the second one I have seen for sale in the last 15 years.

Understood, and agree that that press is unique.
My comment was more in reference to everything else being sold at astronomically insane prices right now.

[Pressman]

Agreed, in that context it is even more of a hot deal.
It is possible that the Grigsby is so rare that few people knew that it exists. Thus the lower selling price.

[Pressman]

Additional information as I figure it out.

278736

On the bench and ready to work. It has a 30-06 case head shellholder that is unique to this press. So far I have used it for case mouth expanding to seat cast boolits. It woks well and "feels" great. However, I would not want to take on heavy re-sizing with it.

278846

[darrondb]

Very nice!!

[OBXPilgrim]

Very interesting press

[rboeser]

Interesting indeed.

[quasi]

That is a real find and a thing of beauty to me. Could it’s form be described as “Art Deco”?

[abunaitoo]

That is a cute looking press.
It is very Art Deco.

[Green Frog]

Additional information as I figure it out.

278736

On the bench and ready to work. It has a 30-06 case head shellholder that is unique to this press. So far I have used it for case mouth expanding to seat cast boolits. It woks well and "feels" great. However, I would not want to take on heavy re-sizing with it.

278846

I'm a little confused. Is the press not as strong as it looks, or does it lack the leverage I thought it had? I would have expected it to be beefy enough to do some serious case resizing, or even case forming. I guess it just looks stronger in the pictures (to me at least.)

[Pressman]

Mr Frog Person Sir:

The design is not what it looks like. It is not an RCBS style swing link, but an adaption of the typical Pacific design that eliminates the pivot block. Notice that the handle attaches to the bottom of the ram, there is no extra link and the "links" mostly provide support to the handle, they move very little as the handle is raised and lowered. Actual leverage is still 4 to 1. If there is a weakness in the design, it is the end of the handle where it attaches to the ram. It is curved and narrows to 5/15" in diameter. There seems to be little stress applied through the ram travel that could damage it, but I am not going to try my luck either.

The system provides a nice feel, I used it to seat bullets and neck size 308 cases, and it performed very well, I enjoyed using it.

Since I only have a single shell holder, and nothing else is close to usable, I am limited to 45acp/30-06 case heads.

Another interesting feature that will drive the perfect ram alignment folks batty is the floating shell holder and floating die. Applied together they allow the case and die to seek their own alignment.

Ken

[Green Frog]

Thanks for the additional explanation, Ken. As you stated previously, this press is very rare, therefore it’s not a surprise that its unusual features are just not familiar to folks on my (rather low) tier of the collecting hierarchy. This forum is providing an ongoing education for me.

I guess if it were mine, I’d probably use it for 308s or 45s like you are doing, and mostly show it off and gloat that I had a press most mortals have never even heard of. :mrgreen: Congratulations, my friend. :drinks:

Regards,
Froggie

[Pressman]

Thanks Mr Froggie, you now, one of these days when you ae setting around wondering what to do how about jumping in the car and stopping over for coffee and a basement tour. There are a lot of presses and other tools mere mortals have never heard of.

Ken

[TimD]

What a beautiful old press.

I found a reference to a 1955 Grigsby Engineering Reloading Catalog, for sale of course.

http://www.cornellpubs.com/old-guns/item_desc.php?item_id=326

From the cover of the catalog:

Grigsby Engineering Manufacturing Company
125 West Avenue 29
Los Angeles 31, California

Tim

[Green Frog]

Thanks Mr Froggie, you now, one of these days when you ae setting around wondering what to do how about jumping in the car and stopping over for coffee and a basement tour. There are a lot of presses and other tools mere mortals have never heard of.

Ken

Thanks for the invite. I’d have to jump in and out of the car several time for gas and rest stops to get from my pond in VA to your basement in MN. Of course I’d probably have to deal with passports and visas as well. :bigsmyl2:

Have you ever considered doing one of those “Virtual Tour” videos? I bet you could “blow up” Facebook with that one! I guess for now I’ll have to experience your collection a few bytes at a time and just dream of visiting the Sanctum Sanctorum of Reloading.

Regards,
Froggie

[Pressman]

I have never considered a video, but you have me thinking. I have the software and camera, just no experience. Hmm?

[1hole]

Another interesting feature that will drive the perfect ram alignment folks batty is the floating shell holder and floating die. Applied together they allow the case and die to seek their own alignment.
Ken

Man, ain't that the truth! There's no way - or need - to force perfect alignment of tapered round objects being pushed into perfectly round holes, they will do that themselves, but we sure can screw things up with tightly fitted but imperfect alignments.

We have a few gurus here who gasp and hyperventilate when anyone suggests reloaders should allow loosely held parts (cases and dies in a press with some degree of ram slack) to float together into a perfectly centered fit!