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Hip's Ax
04-23-2006, 08:17 AM
Greetings, I am shopping for a lubrisizer and have read the many posts here on the subject. Being a total newbe I have a couple of questions that I haven't seen covered. Why are some lubrisizers offered with a heater while others (especially the better ones i.e. Magma and Saeco) are not offered with a heater? Another special question is, I plan on experimenting with different home brew and factory lubes, how hard is it to clean out the lube that is in the lubrisizer so it can be replaced with another? Is one brand better than another in this respect? Right now since I have no idea how much cast loading I am going to be doing and I have only one rifle I plan on feeding cast I am leaning heavily toward the Lyman 4500 instead of the Magma (Star) or the Saeco, is this a good move? One more thing, I have been shopping around on the net for the Lyman and Natchez has the best price so far. I do have more work to do as I also need gas checks and a top punch and many dies and of course shipping has to be thrown into the mix, I usually whip up a spreadsheet to get total cost of a large purchase like this. Is there one place that the board members frequent more than another for some reason? Is there a board member who is a dealer perhaps? I really appreciate your help folks, and your indulgence with my incessant questioning.

Bret4207
04-23-2006, 08:42 AM
I'll give you a couple of thoughts-

1. Don't forget to consider the Lee Sizer system. It's cheap and simple and works very well. Tumble lubing is just a good as "regular" lubing IF the gun and cartidge combo will work with it.

2. Consider a used Lyman or RCBS lubrisizer. They use the same dies, work about as well as you'll get and parts are readily available. I like the RCBS, but the Lyman I have works as well as the RCBS.

3. You can warm the resivoir up with a hair dryer to drain the old lube out. Takes a little time, but it works.

4. Heaters- the heater is an after thought accesory and a Star or Magma or whatever will work with the heater plates sold. A cheaper way is to use an old blow dryer and worm the resevoir that way. IMHO don't use a heater unless you HAVE to becasue of hard lube or cold sizing area. They tend to make the lube messy and runny.

5. Don't lock yourself into the "Star/Magma, Saeco" mindset. They're real nice, but dies and nose punches are much more expensive and not so availble as the Lyman/RCBS type.

454PB
04-23-2006, 11:46 AM
I agree with Tpr. Bret. The Star and Saeco are excellent machines, but probably more money than the average beginner needs. The Lee system works very well for sizing, and you can either use their liquid alox, or pan lube. The Lyman and RCBS sizers use the same dies, and those dies are considerably cheaper than Star or Saeco.

My advise to beginners is to stay conservative with the bucks until you are sure this is your hobby. I started out with nothing but a mould, no sizer, and lubed the boolits with my fingers. If you can do that for a 1000 boolits or so, you obviously are "hooked". I now own three lubrisizers and 25 boolit moulds.

If you did spend $120 or so on a Lyman or RCBS lubrisizer and then decided it wasn't your calling, you can easily recover most of that money by reselling. The lube heaters can be retrofitted, or even jury rigged using a hair dryer or clothes iron.

Hip's Ax
04-23-2006, 08:17 PM
Thanks for the help folks, I just ordered the Lyman. :-D

Bucks Owin
04-24-2006, 02:16 AM
Thanks for the help folks, I just ordered the Lyman. :-D


I'm real happy with my 450. Like 454PB says, it's a treat to have a machine after "cake cutters" and "finger smearing" (I used moly chassis grease. Works good but stinks!) and "tumble lubing". That stuff works but it takes dedication....

Not to mention "sizing with the trigger"

Dennis

(And pushing boolits through the throats....)

Springfield
04-24-2006, 05:29 PM
I love my Stars, but then I size a thousands of bullets a month. They are much faster and my time is worth quite a bit to me. If I was retired and just needed a hobby to keep me out of trouble then maybe I woud use a single stage press and a slow sizer. But I have 2 young kids and like to shoot more than reload so I go for the faster approach, assuming the quality is the same. 100 bucks for a Lyman, 200 for the Star. Not that big a difference in the long run, considering the time saved and the ease of use of the Star.