Is pan-lubing inherently messy?

[Bazoo]

The Beeswax / crisco I use, firms up and comes out without mess.... Its the sizing afterwards that is messy. It never occurred to me to size first. I wouldnt even have to use a cakecutter.

[RED BEAR]

Rcbs lumber sizer if adjusted right gives nice clean bullets lube only in grooves. Must agree pan lubing is messy but worked did it for a long time.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

OK. Thanks to the fellow who said he powder coated all his boolits. That caused me to go searching for what the heck that meant.

I've experimented with VHT epoxy paint, and so far it looks good (haven't shot it yet). But I keep reading posts that puzzle me. I read claims that powder coating or spray-painting and baking the boolits for a few minutes is somehow much slower than traditional lubing. I just don't get it.

I stood some boolits on an old pizza box. Sprayed VHT epoxy from a few different directions, let sit until dry to the touch, stood the same boolits on a metal pan and popped 'em in a toaster oven for a while. Turned off toaster oven and let it cool. Pushed through sizer - and they're ready to load!

To do traditional lube, I stand boolits in pan while waiting for lube to melt. Pour lube in pan til lube grooves are full - oh crud! Half the pan has lube up past the crimp-groove! Wash hands, wait til cake is hardened. Cut out boolits with fired case. Push boolits through sizer, clean nasty gunk off sizing die, examine boolits, aw nuts! They all have lube high up on the nose, past the ogive! Wash hands. Using dry towel clean lube off the nose-end of boolits. Wash hands. Load boolits. Wash hands. If I leave the lube on nose of boolits the seating die get fouled with lube and after some time I get erratic seating depths.

For $9 at Autozone I can get a can of VHT epoxy paint and coat what I'm guessing would be 100's of boolits. Say 500, That would be $0.02 per boolit. So if that $0.02 per boolit saves me the hassle of having to individually wipe off excess lube, or keep my seating die from getting fouled, it seems well worth it. Plus if I can shoot softer lead had higher velocity (treat it like a paper-patched boolit) that would be perfect for .357 magnum in a rifle.

Now I suppose I'm comparing pan-lubing to epoxy/powder coating. But lube sizers ain't cheap. If I did the powder coat, I would probably do the BBDT method since I don't really want to spend any money on more equipment.

[D Crockett]

I started with pan lubing (what a mess) then went to tumble lubing (what a mess) the I bought a lube sizer the best money I have ever spent as far as getting rid of the mess I was making plus it turns out it was way faster to do the bullets live and learn D Crockett

[Chill Wills]

posts 10 and 15 are on to it. No mess at all. (how can that be you wonder?!)
BUT, like anything, (like casting) if you don't know how to do it, it will be a mess and working it out on your own takes some persistence.
There is so much bad info on here about pan-lubing that a mess is just about assured! So, you try it once, you won't make that same mistake again. Then, ....off to the next method.

Here is the first hint. Loose the Kake Cutter.
Okay........ I am ready for the hate mail and letter bombs!
P.S. if you are going to send a letter bomb, I like 2F Swiss powder.

[beagle]

Yeah man. I started pan lubing 311291s way back when and sizing through a 310 tool sizing die. Lube was Lyman's old graphite lube. I commenced to get my bench black, my clothes black, the management's stove black (I was melting on her burners) and the light switch covers all over the house black. Management was not pleased with this sizing method at all but it works. The newer lubes minus the graphite are better and less messy./beagle

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Chill. Thanks. You've caused me to start searching other problems with pan lubing.

Looks like I have some options and the good news is none of them involve purchasing more equipment (I've already blown my tax refund on shootin' iron).

[Drew P]

Hitek coating is a great way to reduce mess. Both inside the gun and out!

[EMC45]

To me, pan lubing is very messy. Very tedious as well. I began pan lubing when I started casting. I used 50/50 beeswax and Crisco in the pan and then push them through Lee dies. I got a Lyman 4500 and dies for it. I then got a Lyman 45 off here and dedicated it for .358 sizing. I despise pan lubing, almost as much as I despise trimming brass.

[Chill Wills]

To me, pan lubing is very messy. Very tedious as well. I began pan lubing when I started casting. I used 50/50 beeswax and Crisco in the pan and then push them through Lee dies. I got a Lyman 4500 and dies for it. I then got a Lyman 45 off here and dedicated it for .358 sizing. I despise pan lubing, almost as much as I despise trimming brass.

I hear you. A lot of people feel this same way.

Pan lubing can be the easiest, fastest, least messy way to lube, but, you have to know how.

Powder coat does not work for BPCR. For pistol shooting, once setup to do a lot, it may be a good way to go. The jury is still out on accuracy.....match accuracy.

[RogerDat]

I read all about pan lubing, and then decided I really liked tumble lubing and shake and bake powder coating. The first takes a squirt of alox based lube in a big zip lock bag, tumble and dump on tray. The powder coat is a bit more work but works so freaking well and looks great doing it. Tallow/Crisco & bees wax for black powder is dip lube and messy but that's ok it's like baking cookies, you get to look forward to enjoying the finished product the whole time you're making it.

Lube sizer bullets look great but another piece of equipment, and more consumables to buy and keep on hand I just don't feel a compulsion to get started down that path. Saving it for retirement I guess.

[bangerjim]

In a word(s)......................HECK YES!!!!!!! Messiest procedure I ever performed, short of the frontal-lobotomy I once performed.....or was that a bottle-in-front-of-me? I forget.

But it is very messy and I now use PC for all my loads. I would recommend you drop your pans and go to powder coating! You will not be sorry. No greasy mess, no smoke shooting, no leading to mine out of your guns.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

What kind of respirator and cartridges do you use for powder coating? That's one plus for traditional lube - no health risk

[dsayer]

If I didn't know better, I'd swear this was written by Dale53. This is virtually word for word and step by step identical to what he said to me when he showed me his method for pan lubing, right down to the Emmert's lube! He was showing me that I was wrong when I said there was no way to do pan lubing neatly when I didn't have the die I needed for my lubrisizer or my Pope style lube pump. He was right and I was wrong! OP... this is the answer to your question. It has been published elsewhere and I can probably look it up (or ask Dale directly) if you need details.

Froggie

It's also pretty much spot on with the linked article below from SPG. I'm only casting for my muzzleloader currently but this is the method I use to lube my 380gr Lee REALs. The only difference is that the SPG article recommends pushing the boolits out point first. I've actually found the easiest and cleanest method for my purpose is to use one of my plastic speed loader to cut them out. Learned that method from FrontierMuzzleloading on this forum.

http://www.blackpowderspg.com/HTML/i...0for%20web.pdf

[quilbilly]

I guess it just is personal preference and I don't find it particularly messy. I pan lube with Alox in a special 8" pan used only the job and dry overnight on aluminum foil. I don't do that many boolits at a time (in a day) since I make my alloy for cast boolits after finishing making a fishing jigs commercially. I rarely do over a hundred boolits in a sitting. It might be different if I was doing hundreds of boolits at a time.

[JSnover]

Been pan-lubing for ten years and haven't had half the problems mentioned here. It's like anything else: as messy as you make it.

[JBinMN]

Been pan-lubing for ten years and haven't had half the problems mentioned here. It's like anything else: as messy as you make it.

Not messy for me either... I agree with the underlined above.