Lyman 45 Sizer lube problem

[TIMETRIPPER]

All of the used dies I've bought work fine, and like Ivan, have never found one with blocked holes. Missing O rings are another thing but they are easily replaced. It's all a matter of adjustment and technique and once you get them down pat you will be cranking out thousands of perfectly usable bullets for a fraction of the price of store bought. I haven't bought any commercial bullets for my handguns, lead or jacketed, in years.
Next you will need to find a cheap source of lead!

John

 

[AlHunt]

All of the used dies I've bought work fine, and like Ivan, have never found one with blocked holes. Missing O rings are another thing but they are easily replaced. It's all a matter of adjustment and technique and once you get them down pat you will be cranking out thousands of perfectly usable bullets for a fraction of the price of store bought. I haven't bought any commercial bullets for my handguns, lead or jacketed, in years.
Next you will need to find a cheap source of lead!

John

Indeed. Lead is the bear. I have a few hundred pounds of old wheel weights and assorted lead to work through. If a person has to buy from any of the online sources I've found, the cost is pretty close to just buying cast bullets.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I have acquired good lead from several sources. The hardest for me to find was Pure Lead. I ended up with about 80 pounds of old drain lines, they were full of lime scale and stuff, but when I refined it is very pure. Wheel Weights, and Printing Type are also pretty consistent. Then there is range lead, you just never know what it is. So I "refine" my alloys into 1 pound ingots and stamp each with a word to tell me the alloy "Lead" is junk, "Pure", "WW", and "TYPE". I also stamp specific alloys with 40:1 (Lear : Tin) and other ratios.

This avoids all confusion.

Ivan

 

[gwpercle]

To stretch your supply of clip on wheel weights mix it 50-50 with soft lead or range scrap . This is an excellent alloy for cast bullets .
Search out local scrap yards , buying from them saves shipping cost .
Lead was used in construction , shower pans , X-Ray shielding , roof flashing and caps, this all goes to the scrap yards when houses are torn down or remodeled .
Visit the scrap yard enough and they get to know you and will save stuff for you .
Gary

 

[TIMETRIPPER]

Some sort of hardness tester and a good melt thermometer are a must. I've been using range lead and wheel weights for my cartridge bullets. Using a Lee hardness tester, I'm finding that range lead works out to 11-13 Brinell and that is good enough for most handgun applications. WWs will go much harder and, surprisingly, varies between 14 to over 20! When melting a batch of WWs I take care to not to get any zinc weights mixed in by carefully monitoring the temp. Keep it under well under 800 degrees F and the zinc will not melt but float.
I save any pure lead I find for my muzzle loaders.
The Cast Boolit website is a great resource for information on all aspects of casting yer own.

John

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Hey Timetripper, thanks for the 800 degree tip for zinc Wheel Weights!

Ivan

 

[TIMETRIPPER]

Even lower is better Ivan. TBH I thought zinc melted way above 900 F but I just did a wiki search which shows a melt point at around 787F.
When smelting your lead scrap into ingots it is a mistake to simply melt down every thing in a pot with uncontrolled heat. Keeping the temp controlled at 700-750 F will keep any zinc contaminates from melting with the lead and turning your batch into an unusable oatmeal like slush. While some zinc WWs are marked "Zn" others are not. Learned this from Cast Boolits.
John

 

[gwpercle]

Zinc will melt under 800 degrees , Timetripper has it right ...more like 780 . I prefer to test each weight with side cutters .
If you get distracted and don't get the zinc floaters out the pot fast enough ...you have a messed up pot .
Side cutters don't lie !
No way to tell 100% by looking at them....I know this for a fact.
Gary