User Name  Password
Photobucket YES, Castboolits.gunloads is currently down,,we are working on it http://chat.parachat.com/chat/code.php if you want to BS and share the trials and tribulations.
Make a donation click here. Your support will help us remove ads and upload local images, etc.
Title: Gas checks are a PITA
Hop to: 
Views:52     
<<Previous ThreadNext Thread>>
Page 1 / 1    
AuthorComment
imashooter2
 Author    



Rank:none
Score: 37
Posts: 37
Registered: 04/16/2004
Time spent: 0 hours

(Date Posted:02/20/2005 01:38:18)

...on a Lyman 45 lubrisizer. I started my casting career using a Lee push through for .30 caliber rifle bullets. Fast and easy, but the liquid alox always leaves the nose of the bullets sticky. Recently I branched into pistol bullets and I inherited Dad's old Lyman. I just cast up a fresh batch of C309-150F's and since I had the tool I thought I would try the Ballisticast hard lube I've been using with plain base pistol bullets. I figured if accuracy didn't fall off, the bullets would handle better and I'd stick with it. Seating checks square and tight on the old Lyman is a chore. In the end I was handling each bullet twice. First to seat the check by placing a piece of paint stirrer stick over the die and then to size it. Man, accuracy better go way up with the Ballisticast or it's back to liquid alox for me.

Buckshot2
1# 



Rank:none
Score:2726
Posts:2726
Registered:08/31/2003
Time spent: 0 hours


(Date Posted:02/20/2005 09:01:35)

".................Seating checks square and tight on the old Lyman is a chore. In the end I was handling each bullet twice. First to seat the check by placing a piece of paint stirrer stick over the die and then to size it. Man, accuracy better go way up with the Ballisticast or it's back to liquid alox for me."

You can make a GC seater real easy for your Lube-Sizer. Lyman sells one also. To make one go to the hardware store and buy a 3/8-16 connector nut. Look like a real long, ah.........nut. Take a boolit with a new GC and set it in the die. Slowly lower the handle until you feel the initial pressure of crimping on the GC slacken a tad. Now, measure the distance between the ledge the die ejector pin rod goes through, and the bottom of the ejector pin itself.  

Cut the connector nut to this length. Now place the nut between the visejaws perpendicular to them. Make 2 hacksaw cuts through, lengthwise. Essencially remove about 1/3rd. Clean it up so it looks nice.

Now with the lube-sizer press handle up, ready to recieve a new slug, slip the nut around the ejector rod. When you place a slug and GC in place and lower the handle it will only go so far as the ejector pin bumps against the nut. This seats the slug flat into the GC. Remove the nut and go ahead on with running the slug in. Repeat for the next one.

It takes a bit, but you can get to adept to placing and removing the GC seater that it really doesn't add anymore time to the process at all. That is unless you drop it and it rolls under the reloading bench. You're on your own there.

...............Buckshot 

--------------------------------------------------------------
Father Grand Caster watches over you my brother. Go now and pour yourself a hot one. May the Sacred Silver Stream be with you always

Proud former Shooters.Com Cast Bullet alumnus and plank owner

Finn45
2# 



Rank:none
Score:178
Posts:178
Registered:12/08/2003
Time spent: 0 hours


(Date Posted:02/20/2005 09:29:54)

About that Lyman made check seater; I don't know how it should be, but I have one old #45 (thanks buddy, it's working fine) and Lyman made check seater won't fit in. Screw diameter in depth adjustment is too big. That same Lyman seater fits perfectly to RCBS Lube-Matic so I believe it's correctly dimensioned. Maybe there's two seater types? DIY version should be no problem anyway, just make lower end nicely curved so that it's easy to slip in and out.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Isot kuulat pärjää ilman vaippaa.

imashooter2
3# 



Rank:none
Score:37
Posts:37
Registered:04/16/2004
Time spent: 0 hours


(Date Posted:02/20/2005 21:42:56)

That seater sounds easy enough to make and not too annoying to use. I've got some ammo loaded up with both lubes for some side by side testing. If the Ballisticast shows any promise, I'll fab one. Thanks for the advice.
slughammer
4# 



Rank:none
Score:69
Posts:69
Registered:07/22/2004
Time spent: 0 hours


(Date Posted:02/20/2005 23:59:58)

Your press is too clean.

fficeffice" / onload='javascript:showImageWidth(this,600,600)' class='AutoImageWidthTopic' style='cursor:poionter'> 

Most presses have the press mounted ejector pin gummed up with old lube and the pin does not move freely.  The force required to move the press mounted ejector pin down will aid in the ability to seat the check.  Try adding some lube and driveway gravel or play sand to the moving parts.

 

Since you are running a hard lube, the viscosity goes down when the temp of your press goes up.  The viscosity is what helps to hold the ejector pin in the die while the check seats.  Move your heat source farther or turn it down.

imashooter2
5# 



Rank:none
Score:37
Posts:37
Registered:04/16/2004
Time spent: 0 hours


(Date Posted:02/21/2005 03:52:24)

Well, I found a piece of steel bushing in the scrap bin and made a gas check seater as described above. I'll give it a try and if it works out I'll braze on a little handle.

imashooter2
6# 



Rank:none
Score:37
Posts:37
Registered:04/16/2004
Time spent: 0 hours


(Date Posted:02/28/2005 23:48:49)

So... After long conversation with the slughammer we are using the same bullet, the same checks and the same sizer die (he borrowed my Lee C309-150F and some checks to get his feet wet in .30). Yet he was having no problems seating checks without the any additional tooling. To eliminate the last variable, I borrowed his 450. Dismal failure. Same result as my 45. Heck, he even gave me some of his bullets to try in case the alloy could be the issue. No difference. I began to think it was differing expectations of what "flat and square" looks like.

More discussion. Seems that he doesn't use a heater on this press and lube combination. Huh! Back home and try it with no heat... Success! The resistance of the stiffer lube holds the ejector rod enough to seat the checks before it moves. Further experiments are called for using my 45 and the Ballisticast lube, but it looks like lower heat and more pressure may be just the ticket.

In other news, the homemade seater tool worked perfectly with the heated lube in both presses.
<<Previous ThreadNext Thread>>
Page 1 / 1    


Copyright © 2000-2009 Aimoo Free Forum All rights reserved.