Pan lube didn't take, suggestions? (might try tumble lube too)

Hi,
This is my first time doing everything from casting to lubing. I do have experience reloading so at least that's not part of this huge learning curve. I'm using a process from youtube which removes the block of lube w/bullets intact and push them out from behind.

Using the Darr lube I successfully pan lubed some 358-148-wc yesterday. Kinda sticky but they are sized and ready to load today.

Last night I left some 452-200-swc (both Lee moulds) in the lube. This morning they just pop out with no lube in the groove.

The big difference looks like the 148 has sharp edges on the lube grooves while the 200 is curved and smooth, so they just slide out of the lube.

I do have some Alox and have the the tumble stickly (looks very good) and that's my plan B. First though I'd like to see if I can tweak my process to get pan lubing to work.

Anyone have experience with this bullet and pan lubing them?

Thanks

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Last night I left some 452-200-swc (both Lee moulds) in the lube. This morning they just pop out with no lube in the groove.

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Sounds like you left them in the "cake" to long and the lube fully cured. try again, but don't let the lube cure. push them out while the lube is a little soft.

I don't think it's the bullet design. Most likely it's the lube. I use a fairly soft type lube for most pan lubing. It is a "modified" Felix type I guess. Beeswax, vegetable oil, pinch of LLA, carnauba, castor oil, lanolin. The big two ingredients are beeswax and vegetable oil. These are melted together until it reaches the firmness I want. The others are simply "additives". I use a teflon coated cake pan. Heat the lube to melt then place bullets in. Cool down until the lube cake can be popped out of the pan. Push bullets out with thumb pressure on the nose. I think the lanolin provides some of the sticky quality that may help stick the lube to the bullet. I've never had a problem like you describe. I suppose some "tumble lube" designs may not work but all grease groove designs seem to work, pan lubing with the lube I use.

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Originally Posted by 405

I don't think it's the bullet design. Most likely it's the lube. I use a fairly soft type lube for most pan lubing. It is a "modified" Felix type I guess. Beeswax, vegetable oil, pinch of LLA, carnauba, castor oil, lanolin. The big two ingredients are beeswax and vegetable oil. These are melted together until it reaches the firmness I want. The others are simply "additives". I use a teflon coated cake pan. Heat the lube to melt then place bullets in. Cool down until the lube cake can be popped out of the pan. Push bullets out with thumb pressure on the nose. I think the lanolin provides some of the sticky quality that may help stick the lube to the bullet. I've never had a problem like you describe. I suppose some "tumble lube" designs may not work but all grease groove designs seem to work, pan lubing with the lube I use.

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Hey 405, no thread hijack intended and don't know if you're old enough to remember, but I just can't get by my mom holding my nose and making me swallow that stinkin castor oil when I was a kid...............I'll die of constipation before I ever smell that **** again.

And for the poster, someone here posted about making a cake cutter with a brass cut to length and drilled to allow a wooden dowel to go through the bottom. You can cut them out with the expanded case or a case that is a bit bigger than the bullet and then pop them right out with the dowel. Seemed to work great although I'm not a pan luber...

Art

open top nailed the problem.
a golf club shaft makes good cookie cutters.

Art, I'm plenty old enough to remember :(
Even though I only add a very small amount to the lube, every time I heat it up I get "Castor Oil Flashback".
Seriously, I add it to bullet lube as one would add odd ingredients to a magic potion. I think castor oil is still used in the aerospace industry as a high temp-high pressure lube.... at least it sounds good :)

Thanks for the help. I did let them sit overnight so trying again when before the lube cures might do the trick. If not I may try the cookie cutter approach.

I melt the lube with boolits in an oven at about 175 - 200 degrees. This gets the boolits warm to the same temp. as the lube and the lube sticks to the boolits better. Works for me...

It sounds like you did not heat your boolitts.
First, bring them to temp, around 160*. Then pour the lube. The oven will have been turned off at this point. Let the entire assembly cool to room temp.
I put a sheet of wax paper on the sheet before I lube. This way, when it starts to pop off, it all goes.
Push them through, from the nose pushing the base through first.
You will get it.

I put my pan of Darr lubed boolits in the freezer to harden the lube, pop the boolit filled lube cake out of the pan, hold it in the palm of my hand, and gently tap the boolits loose with a small nylon dead blow hammer.

lyman used to make a cutter.all it was was a case with a hole in base to let the billets out.you could get a piece of tube and use that.:coffee:

The 200 swc bullets don't seem to pop out and hold the lube. The 148 wadcutters do just fine though.

I did some experiments yesterday and figured out a cookie cutter approach that works, I just have to size the cutter a bit smaller and it should work well.

I tried pushing them through with the lube barely set, waited a little longer to sitting it in the fridge and having it very hard and none of it worked except the cookie cutter, but after about 12-15 minutes once removed from the oven. Soft enough to cookie cut 80 rounds very quickly. Waiting until it's completly set it's a bit of a pain and takes too long.