Need help with RCBS Lubeamatic

So I haven’t been able to do much casting in the last year or so, I had two sets of twins back to back within 17 months... well my wife did anyway. That makes 6 kids 6years old and younger for me. 4 in dippers and cribs. 5 boys 1 girl, lots of shooting buddies, I am very blessed yet very busy.

So to my actual question. I have a RCBS lubamatic for sizing and lubing my boolits. I started out trying to lube some 45ACP round nose boolits but it won’t fill in the lube groove. When I give it one more crank or half crank and try again the lube shoots up under the boolit and makes a mess while still not getting the groove done fully. I tried adjusting things but could not find a way to make it better. The thing that kills me is that last year I did not have this problem and nothing has changed.

So I casted some 38 special boolits to try them. When I started everything worked great for about 30 boolits then back to the same cr@p shoot again with the boolit being pushed out of the die by a column of lube.

Any suggestions on what the heck is going on. I like to tinker but these days I don’t have time to tinker and get a task done, I just want this thing to work like it did before. Please help

Sounds like you are not pushing the boolits deep enough into the sizing die.... especially when you say lube is not filling the lube grove. Are you keeping downward pressure on the boolit while putting pressure on the lube? What lube are you using.

Yup, mine will do the same if the boolit isn't going deep enough and you have to much pressure on the lube res. It's pushing the lube under the boolit. Turn the very bottom bolt under the die out a little and that should help. Also, is the lube soft enough to work without excessive pressure? If no, heat it up ( the lube sizer res.) a little with a hair dryer or something to help the lube flow without so much pressure.

One thing that will make adjusting the depth a less messy occurance is to back all the pressure off the reservoir beforehand. I never like digging the boolit diameter string of lube out of the top of the H die.

Check how far down the lube holes are in your lube die, then adjust the boolit so the lube groove goes that deep.

Silly question time, is the top punch the same as the one last year?

Robert

I have always turned the pressure handle to build pressure then pulled down on the handle to size and lube the boolit. Do I need to size the boolit first then leave it in the sizing die while I crank on the pressure wrench to fill the grooves?

I don't know how much deeper I can go Ihad to take it back up a bit as it was filling the crimp grove on my 38 RN

If I don't have the right top punch will it mess it up? I know the 45ACP was defiantly the right punch but the 38 may have not been. I just looked through my punches till I found one that looked right

Last edited by lts70; Today at 02:45 PM.

If you are getting lube in the crimp grove you can raise the stop on your sizer a little. May I recommend that you push the boolit all the way to the stop (adjust as required) in your sizer then holding pressure on the boolit crank some pressure o the lube. I use a Lyman sizer and find that if I have good lube pressure I can size 3 or 4 boolits without having to add more pressure to the lube.

I always hold the handle down and then apply just enough pressure that I can feel it. You get sort of a feel for what is right after a few tries. Doesn't take too much pressure to do the job if you've got the depth adjustment right.

Mike

Patron Member NRA
Life Member Iowa Firearms Coalition
US Army Vet

I have always turned the pressure handle to build pressure then pulled down on the handle to size and lube the boolit. Do I need to size the boolit first then leave it in the sizing die while I crank on the pressure wrench to fill the grooves?

I have lubed thousands of boolits on my LAM by sizing first, then adding a bit of pressure for each boolit.

I don't know how much deeper I can go Ihad to take it back up a bit as it was filling the crimp grove on my 38 RN

The manual for the LAM and LAM II are available as .pdf files on RCBS's website for download, sometimes the will answer the question. For me it took a while, many boolits and re reading of the manual before I came to a happy medium on the depth of insertion. Now I don't change it and all of my boolits get lubed as needed.

If I don't have the right top punch will it mess it up? I know the 45ACP was defiantly the right punch but the 38 may have not been. I just looked through my punches till I found one that looked right

As long as the top punch isn't distorting the boolit, it doesn't really matter what you use. I have successfully used a homemade flat tipped punch (cutoff ?" bolt) for RN rifle boolits.

If you go too deep, you get lube all over the nose of the boolit.

Since you did all right with this sizer last year; it may be that you just need to get used to using it again.

Good Luck and take care of those little ones,

Robert

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Abbreviations used in Reloading
Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt"

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