Lyman.....frustrating!

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Well, I sent a brand new Lyman 4 cav 358429 back to Lyman on 9/30/09. It was dropping boolits around .355"-.356". About a week after I shipped it, I got a phone call from a man at Lyman who was extremely nice and told me that he was going to cut me brand new blocks. Cool. I thanked him and he told me it would be a couple weeks. A couple weeks (3 weeks to be exact) go by and still no mold so I decide to give Lyman a call. I spoke with Nancy, and she had to put me on hold to find out what was going on with it. She was extremely polite and told me it would still be another couple weeks. I was kind of disappointed. It didn't look like I was going to be shooting any deer this year with a 358429. All well, life does go on. So, on Tuesday of this week, I still had no mold, so I decided to call Lyman again. I told the lady my story and all she could do was sigh and say, "Oh my gosh" when I told her it had been over 2 months since I shipped the mold. She was extremely nice to me and put me on hold to find out what the status of the mold was. After about 2 minutes on hold, she came back to tell me that it would be shipped out first thing Wednesday morning. She thanked me for my patience and I thanked her.

Well, the mold showed up today. Since I had only worked a half day at work today, I figured I'd go ahead and scrub it down and cast some boolits with it. It took about 50 or 60 boolits before I started getting good ones, but once I started getting keepers, they were dropping from the mold beautifully. Perfect fillout, and they dropped from the mold like rain....rarely needing a gentle rap of the wooden mallet. After casting 200 or so and letting them cool, I got the micrometer out to check them. Sure enough, .355"-.357". I was really disappointed. As for the mold, the date on the mold is 11/09, so I know it was not my other mold repackaged and shipped back to me.

As for Lyman, they have awesome people working in customer service. They were nothing but helpful and very nice to me. As for quality control....well.....is there any? I wonder if they will give me my money back on the mold? Sorry about the rant, but I needed to vent! [smilie=b:

[RogerWatsonfromIdaho]

Are you aware of?

Bullet Sizes and Weights-
How to Vary Them

http://www.redding-reloading.com/pages/bulletweights.html

[ovendoctor]

yep LYman is a trip to deal with

have a 311644 190gr bore rider

sent it in and came back worse

never understood how ya can get a mold out of round by .006

had to beagel the mold to get it close then size it round


no joke it would bounce around in a .310 sizer die:groner:

[RobS]

Lyman's specs for their molds come from using Lyman #2 alloy. Casting from straight wheel weights, if you are, the bullets tend to drop a bit smaller as there is not as much antimony/tin in the mix. Although recently Lyman molds in general have been casting undersized lately even with the Lyman #2 alloy. I've had two mold in the last year and they both casted undersized .001 where as a 2000 production mold casted right at spec with WW and would be plus .001 or so with Lyman #2.

Quality control...................that is a very good question and my answer is it is not what it should be. It would seem to me that it is time for them to change their cherries instead of resharpening them and trying to squeezing out more production rates. I too would rather have a bullet cast out a bit oversized as it can always be sized down.

The other route, as mentioned, is to work your alloy so there is more antimony and tin in the mix as this will help increase the bullet diameter, but this will also increase the bullet hardness which may or may not be an issue for you.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Yes, I am aware of how the alloy can affect both size and weight. It will not affect the size by .003" and will not make round boolits drop from an out-of-round mold.. LOL ! I really think that for the price it should be right...without tinkering.

For the heck of it I tried sizing some of these in my Star with a .358 sizer die. They literally fell thru and lube seeped around the drive band and a little made it into the crimp groove. The only part of the bolit that is getting sized is the part line becasue the mold block are not lining up right. Undersized and out-of round....what more could a guy ask for... LOL!

[longbow]

If you like the mould and want to keep it, you can do a little lapping and wind up with round boolits of the right size.

I agree that you shouldn't have to but unless you have a better option that may be your best solution.

Longbow

[StarMetal]

Doesn't matter what alloy Lyman specs their molds for because they are all more the less undersized. I recently bought a 266469. It cast drastically undersized with 50/50 alloy which is pure lead and ww's. Now get this, it was still undersized with pure lino type. I sent it back. Got another mold back and it's still undersized, but a hair fatter then the previous one. At that point I gave up. I just recently bought a mould of the same bullet from BaBore and it's beautiful and cast them exactly where I want them.

Joe

[jameslovesjammie]

I bought one of their .40 cal pistol moulds. It's supposed to drop .401 diameter, but dropped .403x.406. My star sized them down, so it really isn't an issue to me, but for someone trying to use "as cast" they may have a huge issue.

I heehawed back and forth about sending it back, but as long as I could size them it didn't seem to be that big of an issue. Now if they would have been too small like yours, I would be pissed.

[S.B.]

You didn't saY but, did you shoot any of the bullet from this mold before sending it bacck? I've own Lyman molds for most of my pistols for years without any problems.
Steve

[Alzado]

I had the same thing happen to me just recently. Ordered a Lyman 40 cal. mold that was supposed to drop them @ .401. Casted up a bunch with Lyman #2 and measured them. .396-.400 and out of round by .006"!!! NOT HAPPY! Ordered a custom mold from Tom at Accurate Molds. Should have done that to begin with. Now very happy! I know where I will start next time.

[Larry Gibson]

I had the same thing happen to me just recently. Ordered a Lyman 40 cal. mold that was supposed to drop them @ .401. Casted up a bunch with Lyman #2 and measured them. .396-.400 and out of round by .006"!!! NOT HAPPY! Ordered a custom mold from Tom at Accurate Molds. Should have done that to begin with. Now very happy! I know where I will start next time.

Do you still have that mould? I would be interested in buying it if you do?

Larry Gibson

[knifemaker]

Their quality control is lacking in more then just their molds. I recently ordered, 3 months ago, one of their .410 sizing dies for my new .41 mag. After casting several hundred I sized several, without lube to run a check on the dia. The die was out of round by 3 thousands. .410 on the small side and .413 on the larger side.
I did not even bother to send it back, I found a older Lyman .410 die in my box of dies, forgot I had it from 10 years ago. and it sized .411, but was not out of round and I use it for my .41 mag boolits.
I will not be ordering anymore Lyman dies until they get their quality control back up to snuff. It will be RCBS or custom from now on.

[Alzado]

Do you still have that mould? I would be interested in buying it if you do?

Larry Gibson

Traded it to a local gunsmith for a 45 cal. mold.

[x101airborne]

I am sorry to hear about your misfortune.
That is why I am near strictly going with custom molds. Accurate, NOE, or MP. I am not paying for off the shelf, out of spec, sloppy crud.

[casterofboolits]

I have over 100 Lyman four cavity moulds and have only one that I consider bad. That bad one is a 452374 45-225-RN. I have a four cavity 452374 that drops perfect at 225 grains and sizes 1/8" above the grease groove and is probably close to 50 years old.

I had a casting business for 23 years and like to cast with at least two moulds for the same boolit, so I bought a second four cavity 452374. Bad move! The seond mould barely sizes the band below the grease groove and weight is about 218 grains with the same alloy at the same time! Basicly useless for my needs at the time. I couldn't sell boolits that far off.

My last Lyman purchases wer two each of four cavity 401638 40-175-TCBB and 452664 45C-250-FPBB. Both sets of moulds vary no more than one grain from mould to mould and are large enough to size 401 and 452 perfectly.

The main problem I have encountered with Lyman moulds is how deep the cherry is set when cutting the cavities, as much as 1/16"! A little time on the surface grinder or mill cured the problem. I have sold several million boolits cast from various Lyman moulds.

I haven't bought any Lyman moulds in over five years and am quite happy with the ones I have.

Magma and Saeco can produce identical moulds time after time. I don't understand why Lyman can't.

[Ben]

Magma and Saeco can produce identical moulds time after time. I don't understand why Lyman can't.

That is a REAL GOOD question ! !

[longbow]

I have some old Lyman moulds I really like but when I got my .303's I borrowed a Lyman 314299 that cast 0.311"/0.312" so considerably undersize for my 0.314" groove diameter (the mould does say "314").

Since at the time nothing else was available (from mainstream commercial mould makers anyway) I bought a brand new Lyman 314299 that casts at 0.312"/0.313"! Still undersize.

I also have a Lyman 429421 that casts exactly 0.429" so I guess right on designation but too small for about any .44 mag.

Contrary to that, I have a Lyman 31141 that casts 0.310"/0.311" which is perfect at a couple thou over groove diameter for standard .30 cal. at 0.308".

It seems to be common knowledge that cast boolits should be at least 0.001" over groove diameter for the intended caliber (after sizing and lubing) but Lyman seems to have forgotten that.

Oh well.

I am glad we have choices now in mould makers like Mihec, NOE and Accurate. I have moulds from all three and they cast right on spec. and they make moulds in diameters of your choice.

Longbow