Lee Lube . get it unsticky ? How ?

[WehrmannsGeweher]

Have used Lee Tumble lube for years. Works great but gets all over everything. Want a mess ? Use it in a semi-auto Magazine.

Here is S Florida ---- YUK !

What can do to make it dry and hard after it cures ?

Thanks !

[Jniedbalski]

You can use mineral spirts to cut it with or a solvent . I find if I put to much the sticker it gets. I still use it but mostely use white label lube now. It’s I think 45/45/10. It’s alox mixed with liquid wax and I think mineral spirits. I Think it dries a lot faster and harder. It has a waxey coat over night. One 32 oz bottle has lasted me two years and is cheep. I wanted to mix my own but for 13$ it was cheaper to buy and works just as good

[poppy42]

Ben’s liquid lube! Do a search in the lube forum for the formula

[WehrmannsGeweher]

Well I tried to plow thru 65 pages of ben's liquid. The liquid Johnson's product is no longer made.

[JBinMN]

I use 45/45/10. Basically, 45% Johnsons Paste Wax in the yellow black & red can( 16oz), 45% LLA, and 10% MIneral Spirits(<usually the odorless kind, but I use what I have at hand.)

I don't consider it sticky/tacky at all after it dies except for it sticking well to the boolits.

That is the only way I can suggest to help. I decided to try it when I could not find any of the Liquid Johnsons & just have not changed since.

I did buy a quart of it from White Label Lubes, a while back to try, but I am still using my original mix & I still have about 1/4-1/2 of it, or so left. This is after using it for prolly a couple thousand boolits at least, if I am not mistaken. From 102gr. to 240gr. invarying amounts.
I pan lube as well, so some of my boolits use that & so I don't have an exact number to use for how long it lasts, but it is a goodly amount of boolits, IMO.

Perhaps you might try it & see how it works for you.
If you don't want to go get the ingredients & follow the instructions, you could always get some from White Label lube that is pre-made & then you could decide from there if you want to make your own , or just buy the pre-made. To be honest, I can't say for sure, but at the price White Label sells it by doing things in bulk, & knowing the time & expense I have to put into making it, if his works fine then I will just be buying his & save myself the time of making it. YMMV of course.

Well, G'Luck on whatever ya decide!


P.S. - if I think of it, and if I have any more bottles of LLA left around here, I am going to try cutting a bottle of LLA with straight M.Spirits just to see how that works & I can always use it for more 45/45/10 if it doesn't work for me. That is something for you to consider as well if ya like.

[JBinMN]

BTW, if you are really wanting to try BLL, there is an optional recipe using Lundmark Liguid Wax in substitution for the Johnsons Liquid Wax.

I am not sure if it is the same exact recipe portions, but that is an alternative if you did not already run across it yet.

[WehrmannsGeweher]

Thx, found the Lundmark receipe. Ordered stuff from Amazon.

[JBinMN]

Thx, found the Lundmark receipe. Ordered stuff from Amazon.

Cool. G'Luck! & I hope it does what ya want it to do.

[GhostHawk]

I have used nothing but BLL for the last 5 years.

It has been my experience that an additition of 1-2% of total weight of carnuba wax does exactly what you desire. Makes a hard shell. Dries faster, ohhh and does nice things to your rifle bores as well.

My first try was melting a little Carnuba in an ounce of MS. Heating it till it melted.
This made a whitish/clear gel. About a pea sized piece of this after 2 light coats of BLL worked well.

Next was to simply add a chunk of JPW to Alox, heat it till it melts, then make BLL as normal. Less tacky much quicker IMO. But I would not go nutz with the JPW. Figure out of the can it is roughly half spririts in your calculations. Then warm the alox until the JPW melted, combine with mineral spirits as normal.

But accept the fact that once you change the recipe, YOU are the only one who can get you back onto the path trod by others. Your new recipe may take you out into the muskeg and peat swamps and leave you there stuck to the waist.

The only way is to make 1 change at a time, lots of notes. And if you get lost. Dump it and start over from scratch per original recipe.

I also tried a batch using isoprople alcohol replacing part of the mineral spirits.
My problem was I grabbed the wrong bottle, got the 50%, so half was water.

And my batch of BLL with JPW had a pretty good layer of water in the bottom of my mixing jar.

I was able to seperate them by chilling until the lube setup somewhat firm then drained off the liquid. It was a bit of a mess. But it still shoots just like BLL.

Hence my warning to be careful stepping off the road. You can end up in the swamp with no clue where the road is.

[gunauthor]

I use mica (available through Midway as well as many others). After the coating dries overnight, I put a small amount of mica and a bunch of boolits into a zip lock bag and shake it until everything has a coating. This has worked for me to get rid of the stickiness.

[Froogal]

I've used a lot of the Lee alox tumble lube. The trick is to spread the bullets out on wax paper after tumbling and let them dry. Overnight is usually sufficient.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

You are probably using too much if it is getting everywhere. Use just enough to barely wet the boolits. You should hardly be able to see it once the lube dries. Or try powder coating. There is a bit of a learning curve, but once you get it, you'll find it much cleaner.

[Yodogsandman]

Use LLA very, very sparingly. It helps to cut it with a solvent and to heat bullets before hand. You should see just a slight golden wash of color on the bullet when done.

I've switched to BLL but, LLA wasn't a problem when used very, very sparingly and allowed to dry overnight.

[Beagle333]

BLL does very well for me. Coat it thin, let it dry overnight. It's nice to handle then.

[sghart3578]

I have used BLL, 45-45-10 and Lee Alox straight.

All work fine if you use very sparingly.

Lately I have been using Lee Alox mixed 50/50 with mineral spirits. Use about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon per 100 bullets.

Let dry overnight. It actually dries much faster than that and much faster than any of the other products.

I have seen no difference in accuracy in any of my loads. And no leading.

I have one more test to perform on the 50/50 stuff and that is the velocity test.

I didn't get a chance last year before the winter arrived but in my ammo pile I have several boxes of my very hot loads, hot for me any ways, loaded and coated with 50/50.

I am just waiting for the range to dry out.


Steve in N CA

[WehrmannsGeweher]

Mixed up the alternate Ben's. Did some of my new NOE 30s and 10mms. Dried nice. Sized some of the 30s and redipped the butt ends. Will try in 300 B/O Contender rifle, subsonic w/can. Took some of the 10s and shook them in a bag with dry case lube. Waiting for sizing die for them.

The lube does look like Coca-cola and the dry lube like the other coke !



as cast and before sizing

[megasupermagnum]

What is all that white stuff? The lube on just one of those pictured bullets is enough for 100. Two coats should just barely color a bullet golden. If you see any globs of brown, you've used too much.

[WehrmannsGeweher]

As the post said, it's dry lube. Kinda hard to get "golden" out of stuff the color of Pepsi.

[WehrmannsGeweher]

As the post said, it's dry lube. Kinda hard to get "golden" out of stuff the color of Pepsi.

Look like mine.

[Elkins45]

After the LLA has dried you can dust them with fine white motor mica, or (believe it or not) just plain corn starch.