Old Press

[44magLeo]

I have been eyeballing an old press at a pawn shop. With this Money from the government I decided I might as well buy it.
It's a Herters Models Super 234 6 hole turret press. Of the six holes two are 7/8 by 14 for standard dies. THe other four are 1 1/4 by 18 thread. I'm assuming these large holes are for larger die sets for the big fat cartridges.
It came with a box of other stuff. In the box was 5 adapters that thread in the large holes. 4 were for 7/8 x 14 dies, 1 was for Lyman 310/ Tru Line JR dies.
In one plastic bags of parts are primer arms. 5 of them. 4 look the same , 2 with a large and small cupped seaters, 2 with large and small flat seaters. One of the arms looks to have the seater broke off. There are extra seaters. One has two pin holes, I assume this works on other Herters Presses as well as this one.
One bag was shell holders, 13 all together. They are sizes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 18, 21, 24. There are some that have been moddified. two are duplicates, a 1 and 5 by grinding the top at an angle. A 2 that was groung on the bottom, looks to provide clearance for seating primers.
In the box was a Herters marked die body. It has a threaded tube in it that has a smaller section of thread at the bottom. There is a threaded rod inside the tube, it has the bottom threaded on the inside.
In another bag was a bunch of goodies that go with this die. There is a long tube marked 30-06. I think this is a body die that screws up onto the tube of the die body, I think this is used to size the body of the die and bump the shoulder back.
There are two shorter pieces that thread on the tube. One is marked 30A and has a hole of .325, another is marked 30CR, it's hole is .333. I think these are for neck sizing. There is a decapping rod and two expander buttons. One button is .3065, the other .308. Perhaps these two sizes of parts is so you can load jacketed and cast bullets.
Also in the bag were some other parts. One looks a lot like lyman's shell sizer. No markings. Looking inside I don't think it's a sizeing die, no smooth taper. From the end with a large hole of .588 it goes pretty much straight to a very abrupt shoulder, like 90* over to what looks more like a shoulder should look like then has a hole of .272.
There are two short pieces like the 30 cal parts, one is marked 6A with a 265 hole. This I think is for neck sizing 243. The other has a taper from about .25 down to .158, No guess on this one.
There is a decpping rod that has two expander buttons, one is .242 the other .255. One for the 243, the other for a 25 cal?? This rod threads up into the rod in the die. The 30 cal expander won't. Perhaps the 30 cal expander needs a different size rod for the die???
Another bag had what looks like a 12 ga shotgun priming tool. There were some parts that seem to go with it for priming metalic cases. 4 horse shoe shaped parts that could be used with rimless cases and two for rimmed cases. One of the rimless parts fits a .473 size case. One of the rimmed cases fits 38S/357M I haven't checked the others yets.
There were some other stuff in that bag. There were 3 thin washers with 6 holes in them, possibly shims of some sort.
There was what looks like a nozzle for a blow gun, the kind on your air compressers blowgun.
There is one thing with one end threaded the other a has a raised round portion with a .25 inch hole. Possibly part of a decapping tool.
A square key and a thing that kinda looks like a trim ring you put around a pipe that comes out of the wall to cover the hole, but it's not for that, it's not pretty enough.
There is a Herters case deburring tool, a plastic powder funnel, A Redding beam scale, no damping. Free swinging But it reads at zero when leveled, so I think it will work fine.
Also a Lyman 55 powder measre, It needs a bit of TLC, It turns a bit rough and the screws for adjustng the slides are froze up. A tear down, clean, polish and should be as good as new.
I got all this for $240.
I'll post up some pics to show you what I got and maybe tell me for sure what some of the extras are.
Pics will start with the press and i'll try to get them top match what i've talked about.
Thanks for enduring such a long post.
Leo

[Pressman]

What you have is a really great bargain today. Press with all the die inserts is great. Nice Redding scale, these are the gold standard scale design since 1950. A shotgun shell recapper and the other pieces are inserts for a "Guns" brand bullet puller.

Then there is the Herter's universal neck sizing die in 30 caliber. The various bushings allow use with Hornet to 22-250. The link is to a PDF of the instructions and the catalog page that explains how it works.

Herter's Univ Die INst.pdf

[ascast]

hey neighbor got snow ? LOL You got the adapters which is nice, there are usually long gone. The Herters stuff is pretty much as you called it, a die body with lots of inserts for different calibers. Same with the neck sizing dies. A clever idea. I think it was to save money. I have a bunch of them. Kind of a pain the screw all that in and out to change calibers. Nice snag.

[44magLeo]

Pressman, Thanks for the link. I thought it was a good price, On Ebay just the press goes for $500 and up.
I saw some with 6 hole turrets and some with 12 hole turrets. Very few had any extras.
ascast, Yes It started snowwing as I was taking these pics, thus the water droplets all over.
I tried just setting the press on the ege of the table, it wanted to tip the table over. It's just a cheap fold up platic table. So I threw together some scrap lumber to bolt the press on so it would not tip things over. It a heavy brute. I might weigh it to see.
I think it a nice addition to my minor collertion. I have two Tru-Line Jr presses One first gen, one second gen. An alloy CH C press.
Not a bad start for an old fart like me.
I just recalled something else, there is a Herters branded max case length gauge in the deal too.
Leo

[44magLeo]

After reading through those instructions i know more about how that die works. There are two sizes of the rod. one for up to 264 diameter and one for 270 up. The decapping rod for the 30-06 set is missing. The rod I had is for the smaller cases.
I think the piece that threads on the tube with the tapered hole is a bullet seating plug. Being marked 6 mm it is for the 243.
I might try sizing some 30-06 cases both full and neck size. I don't have a 30-06, so I won't acually load them, just try it.
Being a simple leverage syustem it win't have the same mechanical advantage as a compound linkage press but that's ok. Won't need it a lot of my loading.
Leo

[Three44s]

Nice find and at a price that’s agreeable, which is currently rare!

Three44s

[Burnt Fingers]

I have been eyeballing an old press at a pawn shop. With this Money from the government I decided I might as well buy it.
It's a Herters Models Super 234 6 hole turret press. Of the six holes two are 7/8 by 14 for standard dies. THe other four are 1 1/4 by 18 thread. I'm assuming these large holes are for larger die sets for the big fat cartridges.
It came with a box of other stuff. In the box was 5 adapters that thread in the large holes. 4 were for 7/8 x 14 dies, 1 was for Lyman 310/ Tru Line JR dies.
In one plastic bags of parts are primer arms. 5 of them. 4 look the same , 2 with a large and small cupped seaters, 2 with large and small flat seaters. One of the arms looks to have the seater broke off. There are extra seaters. One has two pin holes, I assume this works on other Herters Presses as well as this one.
One bag was shell holders, 13 all together. They are sizes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 18, 21, 24. There are some that have been moddified. two are duplicates, a 1 and 5 by grinding the top at an angle. A 2 that was groung on the bottom, looks to provide clearance for seating primers.
In the box was a Herters marked die body. It has a threaded tube in it that has a smaller section of thread at the bottom. There is a threaded rod inside the tube, it has the bottom threaded on the inside.
In another bag was a bunch of goodies that go with this die. There is a long tube marked 30-06. I think this is a body die that screws up onto the tube of the die body, I think this is used to size the body of the die and bump the shoulder back.
There are two shorter pieces that thread on the tube. One is marked 30A and has a hole of .325, another is marked 30CR, it's hole is .333. I think these are for neck sizing. There is a decapping rod and two expander buttons. One button is .3065, the other .308. Perhaps these two sizes of parts is so you can load jacketed and cast bullets.
Also in the bag were some other parts. One looks a lot like lyman's shell sizer. No markings. Looking inside I don't think it's a sizeing die, no smooth taper. From the end with a large hole of .588 it goes pretty much straight to a very abrupt shoulder, like 90* over to what looks more like a shoulder should look like then has a hole of .272.
There are two short pieces like the 30 cal parts, one is marked 6A with a 265 hole. This I think is for neck sizing 243. The other has a taper from about .25 down to .158, No guess on this one.
There is a decpping rod that has two expander buttons, one is .242 the other .255. One for the 243, the other for a 25 cal?? This rod threads up into the rod in the die. The 30 cal expander won't. Perhaps the 30 cal expander needs a different size rod for the die???
Another bag had what looks like a 12 ga shotgun priming tool. There were some parts that seem to go with it for priming metalic cases. 4 horse shoe shaped parts that could be used with rimless cases and two for rimmed cases. One of the rimless parts fits a .473 size case. One of the rimmed cases fits 38S/357M I haven't checked the others yets.
There were some other stuff in that bag. There were 3 thin washers with 6 holes in them, possibly shims of some sort.
There was what looks like a nozzle for a blow gun, the kind on your air compressers blowgun.
There is one thing with one end threaded the other a has a raised round portion with a .25 inch hole. Possibly part of a decapping tool.
A square key and a thing that kinda looks like a trim ring you put around a pipe that comes out of the wall to cover the hole, but it's not for that, it's not pretty enough.
There is a Herters case deburring tool, a plastic powder funnel, A Redding beam scale, no damping. Free swinging But it reads at zero when leveled, so I think it will work fine.
Also a Lyman 55 powder measre, It needs a bit of TLC, It turns a bit rough and the screws for adjustng the slides are froze up. A tear down, clean, polish and should be as good as new.
I got all this for $240.
I'll post up some pics to show you what I got and maybe tell me for sure what some of the extras are.
Pics will start with the press and i'll try to get them top match what i've talked about.
Thanks for enduring such a long post.
Leo

Paragraphs are free. Please use as many as you want. Old eyes have a very hard time with large blocks of text like your post.

To enter a paragraph break just hit the Enter/Return key twice.

Thanks.

[Shawlerbrook]

Congratulations Leo ! Sounds like you found a honey hole out there in Rensselaer County.

[Baltimoreed]

Looks kinda like a Hollywood press to me. Nice find, I like the old stuff too. Don’t think there is a dampening system on your old Redding scale as I once had one that didn’t have a dampener and it took forever to settle. It will be a real nightmare to use imo so invest in a newer scale with one but otherwise a very nice haul. I like turrets and use two Lymans. When you set it up make the turret level and mount your pistol powder measure on it. I have Dillon 450 and 550 measures that go on my Lymans. Great measures. Having 6 holes in your turret is very nice.

[44magLeo]

Burnt fingers, I do have paragraphs, Each paragraph deals with each set of items. Maybe I should double space between paragraphs and each word, Would that help? I think my old eyes are no better than yours and the post reads ok.

Shawlerbrook I don't even know where Rensselaer county is so I can't say what's there, I live in Southern Madison county.

I once had an old Redding with oil damping. It was a bit messy using the oil. I got so I used it without oil. The beam doesn't really have to come to a stop. As long as the mark on the beam moves the same up as down then the Redding is fine. Try it and see.

I have a Lyman 1000 scale as well as a Lee safety scale. They both work fine, this old Redding does too.

I took the Lyman 55 apart and polished the parts up with some 4-0 steel wool. It looks like it sat with powder in it for a long time. The parts of the slides and powder chamber that were in contact with the powder are a bit corroded. The worst of it polished off, but there is still a lot of discoloration, Black.

The hopper was very dark. I cleaned it up a lot with Never Dull. This is a metal polish that is cotton wadding with the polish in it. Tear of some an polish. Let dry and buff out. Really makes thing shine. Even the blacken areas. It cleans out a lot of the black from the hopper. It looks very much better but not as good as my other 55's. I may have to replace this hopper.

The bit of rust on the steel part cleaned right off with the steel wool and a small wire brush. The Never Dull made them look good. Of the 4 I have now, this one is the smoothest to operate.

I took the press apart and cleaned out the oil grease and crud on the ram, body and turret. Found no rust in these parts. A bit of the Harbor Freight grease I like and every thing works very well.

At the top of the stoke the ram does have a noticeable side to side play. A bit more front to back. I don't think it's much worse than any press I've used before so It should be just fine. It does take a bit of fussing the get the nut on the turret just right. If you leave it loose enough to be easy to turn you get vertical play on the turret. Tight enough sop there is very little to no play, then it's harder to turn. At this point I'm not to worried. When I get to use it I'll play more with that.

So far everything's is great. There is no damage to the original brown paint, or powder coat. It appears to be a wrinkle finish. A fine wrinkle but wrinkled.

Thanks for all the responses. It just makes me feel better about this purchase.
Leo

[gbrown]

Ya did good, friend, all I can say. I'm not too jealous, LOL.

[Burnt Fingers]

Burnt fingers, I do have paragraphs, Each paragraph deals with each set of items. Maybe I should double space between paragraphs and each word, Would that help? I think my old eyes are no better than yours and the post reads ok.

Shawlerbrook I don't even know where Rensselaer county is so I can't say what's there, I live in Southern Madison county.

I once had an old Redding with oil damping. It was a bit messy using the oil. I got so I used it without oil. The beam doesn't really have to come to a stop. As long as the mark on the beam moves the same up as down then the Redding is fine. Try it and see.

I have a Lyman 1000 scale as well as a Lee safety scale. They both work fine, this old Redding does too.

I took the Lyman 55 apart and polished the parts up with some 4-0 steel wool. It looks like it sat with powder in it for a long time. The parts of the slides and powder chamber that were in contact with the powder are a bit corroded. The worst of it polished off, but there is still a lot of discoloration, Black.

The hopper was very dark. I cleaned it up a lot with Never Dull. This is a metal polish that is cotton wadding with the polish in it. Tear of some an polish. Let dry and buff out. Really makes thing shine. Even the blacken areas. It cleans out a lot of the black from the hopper. It looks very much better but not as good as my other 55's. I may have to replace this hopper.

The bit of rust on the steel part cleaned right off with the steel wool and a small wire brush. The Never Dull made them look good. Of the 4 I have now, this one is the smoothest to operate.

I took the press apart and cleaned out the oil grease and crud on the ram, body and turret. Found no rust in these parts. A bit of the Harbor Freight grease I like and every thing works very well.

At the top of the stoke the ram does have a noticeable side to side play. A bit more front to back. I don't think it's much worse than any press I've used before so It should be just fine. It does take a bit of fussing the get the nut on the turret just right. If you leave it loose enough to be easy to turn you get vertical play on the turret. Tight enough sop there is very little to no play, then it's harder to turn. At this point I'm not to worried. When I get to use it I'll play more with that.

So far everything's is great. There is no damage to the original brown paint, or powder coat. It appears to be a wrinkle finish. A fine wrinkle but wrinkled.

Thanks for all the responses. It just makes me feel better about this purchase.
Leo

I was taught in typing class...almost 45 years ago, that a paragraphs when typing have a blank space between them.