Not to belabor this thread, but the Lyman Ezy-Load under discussion is of particular intrest from the collection/historical standpoint. Especially as it relates to Lyman's position in the rapidly growing handloading market during the 1950's. Historically, Lyman had been a major force in reloading tools back to the 1800's. Their "tong" tool had sold by the hundreds of thousands, fitted with their then standard 5/8-30 dies. (Actually they measure 34/64" if you want to be pickey.) During the posWWII era however, larger presses and 7/8-14 dies were becoming the standard. This was a quandry for Lyman as they were still wed to their older dies, and reluctant to recognize the larger size dies. Look closely at 243's illustrated post above and you'll notice that the recommended dies for their new Ezy-Loader were their old style. Notice particularly the die "adapter" that came with the Ezy-Loader, which is significant because the Lyman folks were beginning to recognize that the larger die size was the wave of the future and in fact their new press was threaded for the larger dies, but still they were hanging on to the past and still believed they could sell their old style dies. This partially explains why, within a relatively short while, Lyman introduced and shortly dincontinued a range of different presses, the Ezy-Loader being a prime example. The reason I know this (or think I know)
is because I have the unfortunate habit of collecting and studying old loading equipment.
In my collection are quite a few of the old Lyman 310 tong or "nutcracker" tools. Which I buy whenever I find the older steel ones in original boxes. (Later models made of alumninum are of no interest to collectors) Especially, when in intresting calibers. If you aren't overly bored at this point, I'll enclose a photo of some of my old tool collection, and also tools in .22 Hornet and .218 Bee, which I still enjoy using when loading these classic calibers. Sorry this got so long.