New Press Coming - Going to Try the Lyman Brass Smith

Well, today’s my birthday. So in celebration of making it to Medicare, my darling wife approved my order for an 8 die turret. I hate losing my Lock n Load bushing setup, but then, with 8 positions I shouldn’t need to swap dies in and out. It helps that I just received a $40 Amazon gift certificate, bringing the price to me after taxes of $162. Since I’m also in the beginning planning for turning a now vacant bedroom (recent empty nesters) into my reloading room it may be a while before I can get a new bench up and put it to use. Nonetheless, a new press sitting idle in my home is better than one sitting idle in am Amazon warehouse.

Thoughts from other Lyman users?

The press came in on my birthday. Sadly...it is far too heavy to even think of mounting on my current converted Black & Decker Work Mate...even if I unmounted my Hornady LNL Classic. So now I have a sense of urgency to get my new reloading room project started. I like the looks of it, and am picking up ideas from others that are using this, and other turrets. I generally prime with the Frankford Arsenal Hand Primer, but I also have 2 Lyman Ram Primes, one set for large, one set for small. I don't like handling primers one at a time, so I'm not sure I'll set the Lyman Ram Primes in the turret. I'll be keeping my Hornady press, and just may continue using the Auto Prime feature...which works really well...aside from loading the stupid primer tubes.
Anyway, thanks for the encouragement and the birthday wishes. I'll update this thread as I have news to report.

Olympus said:

Brass Smith is actually the name for a the entire press lineup. What you have is the Lyman All-American 8 press. I bought one last year for Christmas. I've been using it for 6 months now and I had issues with priming system. I had to order new parts from Lyman for the on-press priming system and also new primer pickup tubes. So far, the new parts they sent me are working much better than the ones that came with the press. I'm thinking I bought one of the first production run so they might not have worked out all the bugs at that time. But so far, I do like the press. The price made it a huge attraction to me.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the correction. I came to that realization when I tried to explore YouTube videos. It returned reviews of every Lyman product under the sun. Thus far, no one likes the priming system. Sad, as I really came to like the Hornady system after I added the Auto Prime. One would think that a new press would have worked out all issues related to on the press priming. No matter...glad you like it. I’ve dealt with Lyman Customer Service in the past (Ram Prime self-induced problems). Quality operation and I’ll expect the same should my All-American 8 cause me any issues.

Olympus said:

For a turret, it is a very solid press. I'm still debating on whether I should buy a Hornady Iron Press and switch all my rifle dies over to the LnL bushing system.

Click to expand...

That is one of the things I’m not thrilled with in adopting the Lyman All American. I have a sizable investment in LnL bushings...my only dies that don’t have them on are the new Lyman .458 SOCOM dies I just bought. It’s a really nice system that helps bridge the gap between a turret press and a single stage. Nonetheless, Lyman has been putting out a lot of new products...affordable products. So I am going to give them a try.