The Meepos Co.
4558 Council Street
Los Angeles, California
Before 2004 I'd never heard of Meepos. In the nearly 40 years of handloading at the time, in Los Angeles county,
I'd never seen one of these.
It was at an estate auction in Wimamac, Indiana. Quite a good size crowd of people north of town. There were some guns, a like-new 1873 Springfield and M1 Carbine and some other less interesting firearms. Among the boxes of "things" and "parts of things" was this sorry looking "thing". I knew what it was, saw that it was missing the main handle, saw that it was fairly old but seemed to be well made. I ended up with the box of "things" that this was in, to include an ancient powder scale that I sold to some gentleman for $10 leaving the cost of this Meepos Speedlube and some other "things" at $10 total.
From Complete Guide to Handloading by Philip Sharpe
3rd Edition 1953
Meepose Speedlube. The Speedlube bullet sizer and lubricator is an excellent addition to the Meepos line, and with the exception of the war years, has been on the market continuously since 1940. It permits accurate and careful bullet sizing at the speed the modern handloader requires for that work. This unit is designed to be operated on a bench and should be bolted or screwed into position. It occupies but little room- width 3 1/4 inches and height 8 inches. Pressure lubricators should be versatile - and this one is.
Those who have used bullet lubricators recognize that in changing dies from one bullet to another, it is also necessary to change the diameter and length of the forcing punch. In the Meepos this is a simple matter. Dies may be replaced by unscrewing one lock nut at the bottom of the die. The bullet seating punch is removed and adjusted by means of a screw thread in the ram, a lock nut securing it when the adjustment is correct.
The Meepos Speedlube was formerly produced in two models. In the earlier type, lubrication was automatic-pressing the bullet into the die starts the lubricant into the grooves. The upward stroke finished the job. The only trouble with this idea as used in the Meepos first model is that the lubricant starts before the bullet is in proper position, wasting much lubrication in the die and soiling bullets badly. This model was discarded in 1941 and the Improved Speedlube adopted.
In use, the seating plunger is set to force the bullet into the die until the lubricant ports are opposite the grease grooves in the bullet. Once the set-up is complete, the machine is ready to operate. The grease cylinder at the rear of the machine is filled with stick lubricant and the pressure screw on top is turned down to force the lubricant into the auxiliary chamber. When this has been filled to proper pressure, the lower operating lever handle will rise to the upright position.
The bullet is then pushed into the die with the fingers; the sizing lever operated which forces it into proper position into the die, the lubricant lever given a pull to force grease into the grooves, and another bullet started. The process is repeated--the following bullet forcing the lubricated one through the bottom of the die without a messy surplus of grease all over it. Pressure on the main grease supply is renewed from time to time--every twenty bullets or so--as the operations are continued.[/end quote]
Numbers in the photos correspond to the parts listing below.
The main frame and lube housing looked good once cleaned up.
And surprisingly even the leather seal on the piston was pliable and soft.
The ram and nose punch on the left, sizing die in the middle. There was even a crusty old bullet in the die body.
The nose punch and die body are made from bolts. The nose punch is simply a 3/8-24 bolt with the hex head turned off and the cavity and spanner hole machined.
Not much to the sizing die. I heard they were made from Grade 8 bolts but I don't know if that's true.
A Grade 8 bolt would certainly be adequate but so would a Grade 5.
The parts of the lube valve assembly.
