Thinning Lee liquid alox

[hawkeye1]

So, I got it about thinning the LLA. Is it better to lube then size? The sizer takes the lube off the bands, but an RCBS lube a matic only puts lube in the grooves. Or lube, size and lube again? Or is it critical?

[centershot]

With tumble lube you want to lube-size-lube again. Using conventional lube only the grooves are filled but under the pressure of firing the lube is forced out to coat the bands. Tumble lube can't do that, so make sure the entire bearing surface is coated.

[GuyKickinit]

Lubing twice also fills the grooves

[marlinman93]

I just went through checking 4 bottles of Lee alox that I've had sitting on my shelf for at least a decade unused. I bought it back when I had some Lee tumble lube bullet molds, but got away from those.
I recently got some .50 caliber Hornady bullets from a friend to try in my 1867 Navy Rolling Block pistol, and the bullets have no lube grooves, just little almost knurled looking texture. I figured coating them with Lee alox would help avoid leading the bore of this pistol. But all of the bottles had dried up and were almost like paste wax!
I got out the mineral spirits and used a funnel to pour a little in one bottle. Got a screwdriver and stuck it in the neck to stir it together, and kept adding more mineral spirits until it was finally mixed and thinned enough it would squirt out the spout on the cap. I went ahead and thinned the other 3 bottles, just so they could set awhile and see if it would thin them a little without having to do so much stirring.
Put the .50 caliber bullets in a Ziplock baggie, and coated them. Then poured them on wax paper and stood them on their bases to let them dry before loading them up. I'll get all my cut down .50-70 cases primed and charged in the meantime, and then seat these bullets after they dry.