A dedicated press for sizing Boolits.....Yes, a Lyman 450 lube/sizer...that's what is built to do .
A dedicated press for sizing Boolits.....Yes, a Lyman 450 lube/sizer...that's what is built to do .
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I first started with the Lee C frame press and the Lee push thru sizers. I got tired of the messy alox and switched to the Lyman 450. I recently acquired a Mark VI and can't wait to try it out.
I made a frame to flip that cheap lee single stage press upside down. It was a pain in the arm when the powder coating was a bit thick on the boolits.
The other night, it took me about 10 minutes to lube and size 20-30 pounds of 45 200 swc boolits. It was slow because I had to feed them in the tube by hand (don't have a plate to feed 45 cal). My arm got a tad sore from holding a handful of boolits at a time next to the tube while I dropped them nose down with the other hand. Hornady one shot case lube works great, especially when I used the lee press. It is required to keep the operation smooth with this press as well. It was well worth the time to build this press. While it could run 3,000 bullets per hour, it is now slowed down to where it is faster than I can hand feed, but a tad more reliable. Sometimes a boolit will hang up in the shuttle and not fall all the way into the die. The machine pauses on it's own and I just quickly press the button on the shuttle valve and it moves all the way forward again and the bullet falls in. 9mm and 40 cal just get thrown in the boolit feeder and spit out the bottom.
https://youtu.be/1k9M_oyKS8Q
Sorry, I missed that, for sizing BOOLITS I use a STAR unless I don't have the right size die, then I use an RCBS or LYman ( I have more of those dies) . I have 3 STARS, 2 RCBS and 2 LYMAN, but always use the STAR when possible.
Was asked not to say. Only a few were made and the maker said no mas. I will check back with Lee and see where they are at.
signing on to see if the mystery of the 'Hulk' sizer (it's green after all) is answered or what Lee has on the horizon
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I can see some enterprising fella with a 3-D printer designing a feed tray with feed tube attached for high speed sizing...maybe that's over the horizon.
Lee will have a lean green sizing machine.
a m e r i c a n p r a v d a
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That green machine wouldn't be hard to to build between my cnc plasma and my brother's cnc milling machine. It is a great idea. I'm not sure what the selling price would end up being or what the market would bear.
Thanks!
It isn't perfect.
Last night I worked on getting it setup to run 9mm 125 tc.
I just got around to trying that mold from NOE, in my automated boolit casting machine (it is on my youtube channel as well). Sizing the hard way, after letting a machine do the hard part of casting, just doesn't make sense.
I had to make another adapter plate to drop and flip 9mm bullets in the mr. bulletfeeder. The shuttle wants to hang up because the 9mm boolits don't always drop straight into the sizing die. There are a few changes I could make for 9mm, as this is setup to run 45 and 40 cal with these parts. I was hoping to run 9mm without making dedicated parts.
This mold also drops pretty fat and even the size stamped on it is larger than needed for 9mm, but it will be good to use these for my S&W M&P 340 357 airweight as well, since it works best with light boolits. I might size in stages, unless something larger than 0.356" will work in my 9mm AR.
Apparently I work on a smaller scale than most. I have been using my original Lee Breech Lock Challenger press and it works just fine for me. Then I started learning how to reform brass and decided to get a Lee Classic Cast press for that. So now I'm going to use the Classic Cast to size boolits and see which I like better in that arena. I thought about the Lee C press but it wouldn't handle the heavy lifting.
RCBS A-2 for significant resizing. Most everything is done on a Dillon volume wise. Couple thousand BPCR done on assorted tools.
What I can’t figure out is why you would go to the effort to build as sophisticated and elegant a machine as that zombie slayer and not have it lube the bullet as well. I’m with those who suggest that if you really want a dedicated press for sizing it should also apply lube as well. This is the messiest and most time consuming part of the process. Or am I missing something?
If I plan to radically resize (read “swage”) my bullets, I’ll pan lube them to prevent collapse of the grease rings then use the biggest, baddest press available, but for normal sizing duties, if I’m using a dedicated press anyway, it makes sense to use a lubricant-sizer combo of some type. Why go to extra effort to be less efficient?
Froggie
"It aint easy being green!"
If you are talking about my machine, they are shot without lube.
Powder coated boolits work like copper plated. No messy lube to smoke or melt out and all of the lead is sealed so under normal use there shouldn't be any leading in the barrel. I do use hornady one shot case lube to make them go through the machine more smoothly.
Wax lubed boolits don't feed worth a darn in the Mr. Bulletfeeder (seen on top of the sizing machine). The bulletfeeder sits on top of the Dillon 1050 and feeds my 9mm and 40 cal boolits. Bear creek moly coated bullets and copper or jacketed work fine in the bulletfeeder, but stick lube does not. Setting bullets on cases is a pain in the fingers and by only pumping the handle on the press, I can load 100 rounds in 3-5 minutes.
If I want wax lube, then the machine isn't much good, unless a boolit needs sized in multiple steps. For now, my 30 cal rifle boolits still get run through an rcbs lubrisizer.
Thanks for the explanation, CGT80. I guess I was locked into the old school mode of using a grease or waxy lube. Do you size before or after the powder coat process? Do you find this process works best with fairly large batches of bullets, or is it still efficient to do small lots of say 100 or less? I guess I’m going to get dragged kicking and screaming into using some modern technology here!
Froggie
"It aint easy being green!"
I've been playing with the same idea, Charlie. But to do so I not only have to buy an oven but, more importantly, find a place to put it!
Wayne the Shrink
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