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Can anyone help me find out about my new GO-WAD lubricator-sizer?It is cast iron and bossed on the base castingGO-WAD, Mill Valley Calif, Pat Pending.I suspect that it dates from just after WWII. The setscrew retaining the sizing die is a socket screw, which was not common on pre-war tools.The tool, like the Star and Meepos, does not push the bullet back up and out, buton throughand out.The sizing bushing (.452")is tapered, a little steeper than a #2 Morse, but I do not know the taper.Emails to the Mill Valley Historical Society and Library are deleted unread or unanswered.Cheers from Darkest California,Ross

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Ross,  My only suggestion would be to try old city directories, which are often available at local libraries.  My past dealings with libraries has been more productive face-to-face than over the telephone or Email.  I see you are within 150 mi. of Mill Valley, it might be worth the trip.  If possible avoid mentioning the exact function of a GO-WAD, Mill Valley is the heart of Barbara Boxer country.  Instead call it a "lubricnat pump."  Good luck,  curmudgeon

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..........Rossg, welcome to the board. Wish I had an answer for you on your new lubricator. Instead I have a couple questions. How does it work, and did you get it from someone who'd actually used it?..........Buckshot

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Buckshot,

Thank you.  The GO-WAD works about like the Star and the first Meepos.  I bought it at the Big Reno Show from a man who had not any idea about it.  It had been there for at least two shows, before I broke down and got it

Floodgate,

Thank you,

I've been reluctant to post there because of the age of the tool, but I did stowaway on another thread on ARTCA, with no reply.  I need to learn how to post images.

Curmudgeon,

You're sure right about the political climate there.  We visit relatives in Santa Rosa from time to time, but it always seems to be on holidays, so have not been able to walk into the library.  I'll remember to disguise myself as a(n) historian or industrial archaeologist.  Actually, I was hoping floodgate had spies in the area.

Best regards from Darkest California,

Ross

Floodgate,

You do have spies everywhere!  Mr Aydt came up with several references, including pictures in old 1957-1964 Gun Digests.  I was being stymied with the GO-WAD name, and should have looked for L. E. Wadman.  He wasn't hiding at all.  It sold originally for $35.00 then went to $45.00 when the Star was $38.00, and you could buy a Lyman #45 with pot, dipper and mould for $31.50.

I need to get the GO-WAD and my Meepos sizers cleaned up and disassembled for a digital session.

And by the way, is there a name associated with the old Ideal and subsequent pour-spout dippers?  I seem to remember seeing somewhere a reference to an inventor.

Regards from Darkest California,

Ross 

By the way, the 1958 (12th) Gun Digest has an article on making your own bullet sizer by E. J.  Krava, p 300.

Ross:

Yeah, Bill is real good on this stuff!  WRT the Ideal dipper, by one of those amazing coincidences I've come to expect as my due in this bunch, another of my "spies" - Tom Quigley (Secretary of the ARTCA, and co-author with Dick Chamberlain of the 3rd Edition of "Cartridge Reloading Tools of the Past") - just sent me a list of Ideal patents, including No. 431,315, July 1, 1890, to John H. Barlow (founder of the Ideal Manufacturing Co.), showing the familiar little 3/4-egg-shaped dipper, but with a funny handle.  Go to the Patent Office website www.uspto.gov and fumble around (it takes me through a different route each time I open it!) until you find a "search patents by number" box and call it up; the illustrations of the ladle and its use in casting are beeyootiful and worth the effort.  (Unfortunately, unless you pay the horrendous fee [for patent attorneys to pass through to their clients], you can't download and print the screens; I cheat by photographing them off the screen with my digitable camera; but I think your local public library can pull them for you a lot cheaper, and they'll come out a lot cleaner.)

floodgate1

floodgate 1

You can download a viewer that is set up for the patent files at http://www.alternatiff.com/

The only requirement is that you register the installation and there is no fee for that.

After the document has loaded into the viewer, the top menu bar has a button on the far right that will process an excellent print of only the document that is being displayed.

Hope this helps

Tom Myers

Tom:

Thanks for the tip, but note the warning on the Alternatiff Installation page:

"Note: If you are using IE version 5.00 or 5.01, ActiveX controls such as AlternaTIFF may not work at the US Patent Office web site, apparently due to a bug in Internet Explorer. (This does not apply to most other web sites.)"

I'll give it a try anyway, as my IE is version 6.0 - I think.

floodgate1 

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When you get the picture you want on the patent office website, if you will press the Print Scrn button on your keyboard, then open a wordprocessing document and either left click your mouse or use the edit menu on the toolbar and click on copy, it will copy the entire computer screen onto the word processing document. I just tried it and it worked, though I thought this 16MB RAM computer was gonna throw a rod before it got done.

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I  finally came up with the Wadman patent: number 2,533,616. 

The patent was filed Feb 10, 1947 and granted Dec 26, 1950, so mine, with its PAT. PENDING might be early, but I don't suppose castings would be disposed of the day the patent was granted.

 I still have had no joy printing the page, but have taken digital pix to get them into My Pictures file.  I can view them there, but have not yet learned to print more than the greatly enlarged upper left hand corner.

The gang over on British Militaria got me back on the Patent Office site again.  It is more addictive than drugs.

Thanks again to Floodgate and Bill Aydt for the leads.

And now on to Meepos.

Kind regards from Darkest California,

Ross

rossg:

...and thank YOU for the reference to the British Militaria website, where I hope to be able to get help finding a shooting replica of the Baker flintlock rifle used by the 95th "Green Jackets" against Napoleon's forces in Portugal, Spain and France.  (See Mark Urban's recent book, "Wellington's Rifles - a great read).

Yes, patent chasing IS addictive.  I had the same trouble as you trying to copy pages from the USPTO site, and had to use my digitable camera too; until I followed the links and downloaded the free "InterneTIFF" program (free for up to 15 pages per patent, a mind-numbing amount of "patentese"!).  This is a very clean program, with all kinds of helpful tools, and gives excellent prints.  The only problem is the s - l - o - w download time from the Patent Office site itself.

floodgate1