Stripping lube from cast bullets

[Boarhog]

Over the past few weeks I've been experimenting with powder coating my cast bullets. Since I have many boxes of pre-lubed commercially cast 9mm and .452 to work with, I decided to remove the lube and pc them. I tried pouring boiling water over them, soaking in alcohol, degreaser, carb cleaner. None of these gave me what I needed, they all left behind oily residue! Then I tried soaking them in paint thinner, bingo! I soak them overnight and strain them out and redip then in clean thinner, wipe with a clean towel, let them dry and I'm ready to coat! I'll be doing this from now on with the projectiles I pull as well.

[bangerjim]

That is the exact proceedure I have posted and have been using of 3+ years. Only I use laq thinner because it is a MUCH stronger degreaser and really cuts old dirty grease and new clean grease.

Then I rinse in Simple Green and VERY hot water. Then rinse in VERY hot water for a final clean.


Dump to cool.....no wiping needed at all! Perfectly degreased. Much better than boiling in water as some have promoted on here.

100% success with PC, even on very old dirty greasy boolits.

banger

[wmaximusd]

I put the lubed bullets in a container, add some dish soap and some boiling water then agitate. Then pour off the water and repeat. This gets rid of almost all the lube. Give them a quick dry between some paper towels and then dump them in some mineral spirits (paint thinner) to remove any remaining residue. Since the bullets are almost clean before they get dumped into the mineral spirits you can reuse the solvent many times.
I too have tried a few other solvents like acetone and lacquer thinner but mineral spirits seems to work best.

[C. Latch]

I get powder-coating (I PC many of my bullets and have been doing so since the craze started years ago) but why in the world would you strip lube off of a bullet just to PC it?

If they're lubed and ready to shoot, shoot them. Then make more and PC those.

[Boarhog]

To prevent leading in the barrel!

[Boarhog]

That is the exact proceedure I have posted and have been using of 3+ years. Only I use laq thinner because it is a MUCH stronger degreaser and really cuts old dirty grease and new clean grease.

Then I rinse in Simple Green and VERY hot water. Then rinse in VERY hot water for a final clean.


Dump to cool.....no wiping needed at all! Perfectly degreased. Much better than boiling in water as some have promoted on here.

100% success with PC, even on very old dirty greasy boolits.

banger

It's not the exact procedure if I don't use any of the same materials or procedures as you, is it? I don't use lacquer thinner, Simple Green or hot water! And I also have found 100% reliability! Not trying to compete just displaying the results of my trial.

[wmaximusd]

I get powder-coating (I PC many of my bullets and have been doing so since the craze started years ago) but why in the world would you strip lube off of a bullet just to PC it?

If they're lubed and ready to shoot, shoot them. Then make more and PC those.

If you aren't set up for casting your own yet and can't buy what you want unlubed...what other choice do you have?

[dahermit]

To prevent leading in the barrel!

If you are getting leading when using conventionally lubed (grease/wax/Alox), bullets, you have been doing something wrong. As stated many times for many years, "correct loads do not lead".

[BILLYBOB44]

If you are getting leading when using conventionally lubed (grease/wax/Alox), bullets, you have been doing something wrong. As stated many times for many years, "correct loads do not lead".

AND---Correct loads DO Smoke....

[noisewaterphd]

If you aren't set up for casting your own yet and can't buy what you want unlubed...what other choice do you have?

Buy them already coated?

But, just FYI, I'm pretty Missouri sells all of their bullets in an unsized, unlubed option. I'll bet just about any other cast manufacturer will do the same if you call them.

http://missouribullet.com/details.ph...ary=&keywords=

[Hardcast416taylor]

Read on here awhile back about using a tablespoon of Dawn dishsoap along with a tablespoon of Lemishine in boiling water and agitating then strain and re-rinse with more clean hot water to remove boolet lubes.Robert

[fredj338]

Personally, I don't understand the stripping lube off bullets to PC. Just shoot the bullets & make more or dump them all in the pot & cast more. If you do not cast, then just buy them coated. Buying bullets to strip & PC seems kinda pricey time wise. The add'l cost of buying them coated is a few $$.

[DerekP Houston]

Personally, I don't understand the stripping lube off bullets to PC. Just shoot the bullets & make more or dump them all in the pot & cast more. If you do not cast, then just buy them coated. Buying bullets to strip & PC seems kinda pricey time wise. The add'l cost of buying them coated is a few $$.

I'm pretty lazy I would've shot them too. As I read it though, these are previously purchased commercial bullets that leaded his barrel? IMHO they are probably slightly too small and PC indeed would help fatten them up a tad.

[bangerjim]

Why clean grease off? The reason I did it the way I listed above is I acquired about 400# of com-cast very old-new boolits where the grease had turned very hard, had picked up dirt and chunks of rock, as they were TOTALLY un-shootable with the grease on there. But they were excellent Keith-design boolits I wanted to use in several cal's. I did NOT have the molds to re-create them or I would have just melted them down.

So the laq thinner and Simple Green baths did the trick.

If is were just taking off new grease I had just put on, you could get buy with a lot less, but I want the boolits to be 110% grease-free. And I do not shoot ANY bare lead with greased boolits thru any of my guns anymore. All polymer jackets now.

Yup........dun hung up my Pb miner's hat.

[noisewaterphd]

If you are stripping the lube just because they lead, maybe try tumble lubing a few to see if that allows you to shoot them without leading? Alox, BLL, 45/45/10 etc. will tumble on to the already lubed bullets in a matter of seconds. I'll bet it helps a lot with the leading too.

That would be a lot quicker and easier way to be able to shoot up the remaining stock.

[fingers284]

I have removed wax lube from commercial hard cast so I could PC them just for comparison purposes from the groups "as bought" to pc'd.

Every hard cast I have tested have went from 2.5 moa with fliers and such to 3.5 or so... to very consistent 1.25 moa. with the same rifle. So far I have had basically the same results with 3 different guns. So far the gratification with the improvement makes the time worthwhile.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

I just stand them up like I would to PC, and set the trays in the pre-heated oven at 250-degrees for about 20 minutes. Melts very well.

[dahermit]

I just stand them up like I would to PC, and set the trays in the pre-heated oven at 250-degrees for about 20 minutes. Melts very well.

I think the point of the post of stripping the grease-type lube from cast bullets is to clean them prior to powder coating them. While oven heat will melt the old lube off, it will not likely result in the bullets being clean enough for powder coating to stick.

In my own experiences, I have found that sending the bullets down-range and then re-casting them to be powder coated is the easiest way by far to get rid of alox, grease based lubes. With all the labor involved in casting, lube-sizing, I am not about to waste time removing grease from a perfectly good bullet.

[bangerjim]

All it takes is a molecule-thick coating of grease to interfere with the adhesion of powder coating when baking. The only real way to get rid of totally ALL the grease is to dissolve it and wash it away with strong solvents and water-based degreasers. Boiling or heating will not rid the Pb of all the grease - - from the many trials I have done in the past. Not here-say or BS, but proven by my many tests to find out - FOR ME - what works every time.

But do what you feel works for you. I know what works for me.

[BILLYBOB44]

All it takes is a molecule-thick coating of grease to interfere with the adhesion of powder coating when baking. The only real way to get rid of totally ALL the grease is to dissolve it and wash it away with strong solvents and water-based degreasers. Boiling or heating will not rid the Pb of all the grease - - from the many trials I have done in the past. Not here-say or BS, but proven by my many tests to find out - FOR ME - what works every time.

But do what you feel works for you. I know what works for me.

bang, I agree with you mostly..On the lubed projectiles that I have removed the grease, I boiled them first..Removed 95% or so of the lube.

An additional "Splash" with some Coleman Fuel that I had sitting around removed the rest. I heat to warm to the touch with a HF heat gun just before they go into the PC mix..

This works well for me...AND YES...Each to His Own..Bill.