Case Lub

[WILCO]

Seems like the place to put this, move if needed.
I know that you should clean the case lub off after resizing. How do you clean it off? Do you clean it off? Should you clean it off? What lub do you use? In short, what is the most efficient/quickest way to clean your brass after resizing?
Dean

I prep my brass on a single stage press. Case lube is wiped off with a rag.
Used sparingly as a rule, but wiped off nonetheless.
I'm a small batch producer. Easier quality control.

[Omega]

My question is why clean the lube off? Does it tarnish the brass or harm the weapon? I hadn't bothered to clean off the sizing lube, ever, and I've used sprays, pads, and now balm. What am I missing?

[Tom W.]

It can collect grit and such....

[frankenfab]

It can also cause excess thrust on the case head.

I tumble my ammo for 10 minutes in corn cob with car wax added. This removes the lube and your fingerprints, and applies a wax coating to prevent tarnish.

[HangFireW8]

For rifle, I use Imperial and wipe each one off.

For handgun, I lube every fifth case lightly with Imperial and use carbide or TiN dies, then do nothing.

As was already posted, lubed cases increase bolt thrust. It can also decrease lockup time on some self loader mechanisms.

[bangerjim]

I just wipe the rifle casings off with a rag. No need to tumble, clean, dissolve the case lube. There is such a small dab on there anyway, wiping off with a rag as I do each one is easy, fast and simple.

There is none left on my rounds!

bangerjim

[sniper]

In the beginning...I used a substance that they sold at my LGS, called "Eagle Blood"...applied with fingers, rifle and pistol. It worked, was slippery, sticky, and RED! Before loading, I wiped it off with rubbing alcohol on a rag. Lubed ammo was used as "Proof Loads" by British gunmakers back in the 19th Century.
Others report good results, but I had never stuck a case before I used Hornady One-Shot, so now, I use Dillon Case Lube, which seems to work well, Inside and outside...the sizer may be carbide, but the expander isn't! I throw them in my vibratory tumbler to clean, shine and remove the excess lube, with a 50-50 mixture of corncob and Lizard Bedding, plus a capful of whatever brass polish I happen to have at the moment. Couple of hours... Works good!

[sniper]

I prep my brass on a single stage press. Case lube is wiped off with a rag.
Used sparingly as a rule, but wiped off nonetheless.
I'm a small batch producer. Easier quality control.

What he said!

[jmort]

I deprime brass and then "wash" my brass or use an Ultrasonic Cleaner. Get it clean enough to lube and size. Then it goes into the wet tumbler aka FART.
This sequence works best for me.

[Jniedbalski]

Does any body use lee case lube and a roll pad? I have used this for years and only time I got a stuck case is when I forgot to lube the case. Iam running low but I have lanolin and achool so use this now

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I moved your thread.

When I FL size rifle cases, I use Hornady's One Shot spray, then size, then trim if necessary, then tumble in clean untreated corn cob media for a half hour to remove the case lube.

[Lloyd Smale]

lanolin and I clean them in walnut with a bit of new finish and isopropyl alcohol added to the media. Mineral spirits added to media will do it too.

[fast ronnie]

Home made case lube size then wet tumble. I remember the original RCBS case lube
1970s version tried everything to get it off ended up using a hot tank with triclorethyline in work,5 second exposure and clean as a whistle.

That stuff is sure difficult to get off, but it does work. I still have several tubes that I use. Small amounts, I wipe off with a red shop rag. I have used mineral spirits in walnut shell, then clean that off in the tumbler with stainless pins. It works, but I don't like the extra steps. Anything less than 100 rounds get wiped by hand.

[mdi]

IMO; unless they are slippery enough to make handling difficult, I don't think there is a reason to remove case lube after sizing (but that's reason enough). I use mink oil boot dressing cream, and very little of that. Handling the brass after sizing itself removes a lot of the lube, but MOBD is hand/skin friendly and my skin absorbs a bit. If I'm going to trim some cases I'll place some on a towel and fold the towel over and roll the cases between the thicknesses of the towel. Bare nekkid brass, ultra clean, will tarnish quickly so I like to have a very thin film, barely enough to feel, of lanolin on my brass...

[country gent]

I use imperial sizing die wax applied very thinly with a towel. I have seen a lot of commercial lubes and some household things used. Back when case forming wildcatting was popular Lanolin was the big lube. On commercial lubes we had a swaging lube water based that looked very much like the lee water souluable case lube in the white tube. worked really good also, no tubes just a few 55 gallon drums with it in it. Some old timers used vo5, Crisco, stp, and some others.

I to lightly lube pistol cases I carbide dies as it lightens the force needed to size them. I lube rifle cases and size then remove lube in polisher with iosso polish and corncobs, It dosnt take a long time. Using auto wax or nufinish is replacing one lube with another (wax).

I have 2 bath towels in the loading room one is impregnated with imperial sizing die wax and used to lube cases. its set on the bench or floor the cases poured on it some lube added and its then agitated by raising and lowering the ends for a few mins up and down. I can lube a couple thousand cases in a few mins like this. It produces a very even coating. The second towel is for cases I don't want to tumble again. a little alchlol and the same as above removes lube quickly.

[Shawlerbrook]

Imperial Sizing Wax then wipe the cases with a rag dampened with ammonia-free window cleaner.

[Omega]

Case Thrust; Ok so riddle me this...I resize pretty quickly after lubing a case because I feel way more resistance, and sometimes stuck cases if I wait too long. Does anyone lube their cases, then wait say an hour, a day, or more, to resize?

[mdi]

My method is to pick up a case with my left hand, which has lube on two fingers, twist the case in my fingers to apply some lube and insert it into the press. No waiting for alcohol/solvent evaporation and I haven't had a stuck case for many, many years...

[Shawlerbrook]

Best system I have found .
http://www.redding-reloading.com/tec...ricating-cases

[Taterhead]

Bulk rifle brass, I've settled on the RCBS lube and pad. Those cases go into the vibratory cleaner to remove lube. Then a pass through a universal de-capping die to clear flash holes of cleaning media. Put the die in station 1 of the auto-index progressive so it goes very quickly.

For handgun brass, a little bit of Hornady One-Shot makes the whole process nicer. I spray a bit into a plastic tub, add the lid, then roll around. Allow to dry then rock and roll. I don't remove that lube. Carbide dies don't require this, but it just makes loading much smoother.