Cleaning a Lyman 450 Lubrisizer

bluemike807

bluemike807

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Just bought one of these puppies - a Lyman 450 Lubrisizer - third hand. Its covered in grime, doesnt have a follower for the lube tube (if anyone reading this has a spare for sale, PLEASE PM me.) and has a large amount of time-hardened 'lube' - mostly beeswax from what I've told, gunged all through its works. A mess. Some of the sizing dies it came with are likewise plugged, crusted or otherwise pooched with all this crap. Its still soft enough to bend off, but its in alot of hard to reach places.

What can I do to clean it off quickly and easily?
 
Canadian tire "Brake cleaner" spray seems to work good on lube both old and new, the dies aren't a problem if cleaned with the cleaner either. Once you start using your luber you will develop your own lube mess through trial and error, but it will be your mess not someone else's.
 
I went through this recently, I was given a very old lubrisizer and the die was sealed in there with time/age hardened lube!
Boiling water got it moving, and now after much cleaning it works like a champ.
 
Yup, Brake cleaner works good as does a heat gun. Just put the lubber at an incline in a vise with a bucket on the floor and heat up the body with a heat gun. It won't take long to get the wax out and you can finish it up with Brake Cleaner.
 
Mine when they need it get the handles taken off emursed in a 5 gal bucket bring to a rolling boil 5 minutes take out and hang up in half an hour she cooled off dry and ready to go back to work.
Throw the hot water out right away or you will have a nasty scum on the inside of your bucket if it cools.

Ken.
 
boiling water worked for me.

I set up a large stockpot on the coleman stove, put the whole unit it covered with water. boiled for awhile.

took it apart bit by bit and let it boil more...

after about 1 hour it was pretty much loob free.
 
+1 for hot water. I used liberal amounts of Dawn dish soap as well and it lifted the lube really well.

Call Lyman direct for the spare parts as they are really cheap. I usually order double the number of spares just to make it worth the shipping.
 
You could also put it in the oven on a cookie sheet
you do not need a lot of heat only 200-or so just high enough to melt the wax
---- And a pair of work gloves
you can scrape the old wax off the cookie sheet with a old credit card
and if you only have a bit of wax a paper towel when warm, will clean it up
 
Try contacting Lyman they may replace the parts you need for free. I know RCBS often will. I go through the rubber ring gaskets and can't buy them locally. RCBS is sending me a dozen of them up at no charge.

Take Care

Bob
 
Lyman will be able to get you all the parts you need.

For small parts like the dies I put them on a paper towl under a good old incandesent lightbulb. If you want to heat the whole thing the cookie sheet in an oven on low is going to work well. Keep it low or the smoke and smell will get you kicked out of the kitchen in a big hurry.
 
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