Dip Lube Discovery

[milkman]

I prefer to dip lube most of my boolits even though I have an RCBS LAM2, but it is sometimes messy with a push through sizer. Especially in the winter lube really makes a thick coat on cold boolits and gets squishied out around the sides of the boolit being sized and smeared onto the noses and bases as they are stacked in the sizer.
I use an old drip coffee maker lower heater with the reservoir broken off and a tuna can to melt the lube for dipping, and had collected another heater to use as a backup in case the old one failed, when a light went off in my head.
I stood boolits on the second unit and allowed them to heat up, then dipped them and wiped the base on a paper towel. This left a very light coat of lube and clean bases. The mess was almost totally gone. Tumble lube boolits can be dipped hot and larger grooved boolits work best only warm which allows more lube to solidify on the boolit. You can place about 50 on the heater plate and use them hot or just put 2 or 3 on and use the warmest as you replace it with a cold one for less heat.
Works for me.

[whisler]

Clever idea, I like it!

[mdi]

Yep, I use much the same method, and it seems that when bullets and lube are the same temp I get great results.

[barrabruce]

I've,e taken up dipping while casting.
I pour a bullet then pick up my last one with tweezers and place in my lube tin which melts the lube then place it on some grrese proof paper to cool off.
Then I cut the spruce of the new bullet drop on the cloth then pour another one.
It slows my cadence down for my single popper mould but I gain time as my bullets are lubed when still hot.
i size later if needed .
best way to lube tapered bullets.
i don,t own no fangled sizer luber thing.

[FergusonTO35]

Great tip! I've been thinking about my own pan lube and dip lube techniques. The biggest problem I have is with lube accumulating on the ogive of the boolit from the cutter. Been pondering a sort of hybrid method, in which I heat the pan/lube/boolits up as normal, but pull the boolits out by the nose when the lube has solidified to about the consistency of grease. let them dry and then push them through the Lee sizer, the sizer will remove the excess lube. Gonna try it tonight!

[GhostHawk]

I use a stainless steel bowl (Looks like a cat food dish) when I'm done casting I unplug the lee and set the bowl on top. My lee is just a dipper pot, so nothing in the way. By the time I'm done crimping on gas checks a minute or 2 with a heat gun and the lube is all melted ready to dip.

[ghh3rd]

I stumbled on this method when I was making some Felix lube. I had some Ranch Dog 265 gr tumble lube boolits ready to lube, and dropped a few into the warm lube. I pulled them out with tweezers after a short time, set them base down on a paper towel, and was pleased to see that they cooled down with a nice ring of lube at the bottom of each TL lube groove. I did the entire batch that way, and wondered if it was enough lube, but they shot very well without leading.

I did the same thing a few weeks ago with RD 350 gr TL boolits and Felix lube, and pushed them 1500+ fps from my Guide Gun without leading.

The only drawback was the I had water dropped the boolits, and suppose I lost some of the benefits by putting the boolits in hot lube. Also, I think I will try heating up and maintaining a lube depth only high enough to cover the grooves.

[big bore 99]

Great idea. I also moved from pan lubing to dipping. Much better results here too.

[DrCaveman]

I like it!

Ive taken to holding my (unheated) boolits in the melted lube until my fingertips get nice and hot. Then a quick wipe of the base on the paper towel, and set on hardwood slab to dry. Seems to get abiut the same results as the preheating you mention. And really only takes about 2 seconds per boolit