Hi Fellas,
I’ve taken something on that I may regret, but I’ve contacted Lyman Products about resurrecting a product that they discontinued back in the 1960’s when roll crimping fell out of vogue.
At that time, and for many years prior, Lyman produced a little roll crimping head in the various gauges that chucked up in either a hand-held drill or drill press. They even made a large, hand-crank tool designed around these heads called the Lyman Ideal ‘Star’ Roll-Crimper.
Those of you that have had the pleasure of using this small roll-crimping head know that it turned out beautifully tight roll crimps far beyond what today’s reloading supply houses are offering. The key to quality here is likely Lyman’s six small ‘bumps’ (or rollers) within the head that effect such a nice turn-over………whereas modern roll crimpers often have just one, or possibly two such rollers. I’ve used one of Lyman’s 12 ga. crimpers for rolling Federal paper loads (pictured) for the various vintage shoots I attend and have had folks claim they looked better than the vintage crimps from many years ago. A good friend uses one for his plastic Federal 16 ga. loads (also pictured) with much satisfaction…… as they sure look pretty.
So what’s my commission from Lyman, you are asking? Well, none actually, but I do need a quality 16 ga. roll crimper and have gotten Lyman to possibly reconsider once again manufacturing this item …..based on shooter response.
So, I’ve offered to float this information around on a few of the shotgun-related boards to query what interest might be out there for their tool in 16 ga., 10 ga., and possibly 20. I’ll provide Lyman the links to these threads, with their assurance that they will review shooter response and decide whether it merits a limited run.
A very helpful woman in their Product Development Div. even went so far as to rummage around the plant and discovered a dusty box of a dozen 12 ga. roll crimpers from the end of production, which are being made available for $18. ea (less shipping) through their Customer Service Dept. Attn. Nancy, (800) 225-9626. (Consider that most of today’s crappier ones run @ $30. a pop!) Once these dozen Lyman crimpers are gone, they are truly gone, but ordering one would at least give you the opportunity to see for yourselves just how well they do work.
But more importantly, I’m needing to hear if any of you would likely purchase this little tool from Lyman - if remanufactured – as well as positive reports from those of you that have and still use this product. I’d ask that you remember the Lyman folks will be reviewing all of this so please keep it polite, concise, and to the point. Who knows, but with the current resurgence in vintage shooting and loads, we might convince them to make a one-time limited run in 20 up through 10 gauge.
Stranger things have happened, and ‘Thanks’ in advance to all of you who choose to contribute your thoughts.
Rob Harris
Conner, MT
Last edited by Robt. Harris; 06/05/09 11:55 AM.
The purple sixteen with the airborne pigeon was done by a good friend who is much more adept on the computer than I, and in fact, helped me with the design of my over-shot card. You can set these up to get about 150 cards out of one 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of heavy card stock. Then either punch them out or cut them out at your leisure.