So early morning question both the bullet casters and Machinists out there. So recently picked up a lil used Lyman 450 lube sizer from a nice gentleman. All the older guys in the bullet cast forums keep talking about how they see no need to power coat when " I've always just used my lubrasizer !" So when this deal popped up I figured what the heck might as well see what the fuss is about. So gonna clean her up repaint and make some cast bullets " the right way".


Any how I was looking at all the individual size dies I'd have to buy and noticed new ,they ain't cheap


Not to mention you don't have a ton of options as far as sizes.
Well what I'm trying to figure out is why no one has tried making a multi cal option for a lube sizer die. Now I'm no expert on this so I'm just brainstorming here but why not ? See NOE makes a multi cal push though bullet sizer that work off of bushings.

The main kit that lest you do from .17 cal all the way up to .458 something, I think, costs like $45 and from there all you do is buy a push rod for you general caliber (.22,30cal 40cal ect) and then the bushing you want to size you bullet to. And their pretty cheap.



And all you gotta do is loosen an Allen key pop out your day .224 pop in a .227 retighten and go. Now why couldn't this concept be put into a lube sizer die ? I mean I do think it would be 100% the same . Maybe one for .30 cals with bushings from .305-.320 mabye ? And so on . Could it work ? I feel a Machinist might be able to pop something like this out mabye

Out of the six different molds I own, only one casts bullets that need sized. And I pretty much never use it, probably haven't cast a bullet with that mold in ten years. I use Lee aluminum molds and have been very happy with them, they heat up fast and it doesn't take long to be casting good shooter bullets, and they cast true to size listed. Now granted if you have several guns in one caliber that have slightly different diameters you probably don't want to buy several molds of the same bullet that are just thousandths different. But how many of us actually have this problem? I also use the Lee lube; fast, easy, and not messy. Just cast the bullets, when you are ready to lube them put them in a buttercup, squeeze some lube on them, shake them around until they are well coated, then dump them out on a sheet of butcher paper and let dry for a bit and you are ready to load. Gives a really nice coating on the whole bullet, not just in the lube grooves (you can wipe off the lube on the exposed part of the bullet after loading, if you prefer) and I've never had a bit of problem with leading, using the Lee lube.

The thing about cast bullets is heat. They cant take much. Limits the velocity you push them too. A lube sizer wont change that. A gas check helps increase the velocity and still be accurate. To get hi power rifle velocities you need jacketed bullets.

another rabbit hole.....

http://www.corbins.com/kits.htm

You're talking about Lee liquid Alox lube, right? I thought that was only for use on "tumble lube" style bullets, not bullets with full lube grooves? I'm still a newbie, so I could be well off base here - just trying to clarify.

what bullets do you plan to lube and size?

you can tumble lube(Alox) with any style of bullet the coating is the same , the tumble lube designs just are adapted to not needing big lube groves , big groves = less bearing surface = easier to strip

the way I see it lube sizers were really well suited to high volume of a few bullets many times guys would even leave them set up just for one bullet and have a few lube sizers.

doing lots of different rounds in smaller quantity for a bunch of guns is where the lee push though dies make more sense.

if you say were to join a bullseye league and be shooting a hundred or so 45 every week or more for practice and then matches a lube sizer set up for your bullseye gun would be the way to go , or used to be. the alox really does work and you could drop 6 bullets at a time from a Lea aluminum mold Alox a bucket at a time spreading them out on wax paper , then use a lee APP press to rip through push sizing hundreds at a sitting and spend more time at the range burning powder and components

That's a Lyman 450 in the picture. Don't know how long it's been sitting, but if the lube in it has dried out you can take the handle off and throw the whole thing in a bucket of gas or diesel for a few days and that will soften the old lube up.
Has anyone told you that Lyman and RCBS dies will interchange? Either will work in that 450.
Check out E-Bay for used bullet sizing dies and top punches. Sometimes a good deal can be found. Those dies are almost impossible to wear out; they run in grease all the time with no abrasion so used is not a problem.
Yes, I considered making new or altering the diameter of my existing Saeco sizing dies which would be similar to your approach of having a universal die............BUT, you'd have to buy a precision reamer for each caliber. I bought a .223 dia. reamer a few years ago and it was around 30 bux. So, not cost efficient, for me anyway. Just as soon buy the new cal. die.