Grigsby press

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

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...eloading-press

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

It's neat that's for sure.

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

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

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

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 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.

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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.

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.

Additional information as I figure it out.

Attachment 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.

Attachment 278846

Very nice!!

Very interesting press

Interesting indeed.

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

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

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pressman

Additional information as I figure it out.

Attachment 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.

Attachment 278846

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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.)

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

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

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

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/...hp?item_id=326

From the cover of the catalog:

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

Tim