learned what not to do... need a laugh?

[hershey]

well, my first lube experience is over, you would think idgits like me would know better than to not just follow the advice of the stickies...

lesson #1 once you have to much lube on a bullet, you are pretty much screwed.

after lurking here for 2 years, i finally got around to casting my first bullets, in my lead stockpiling and ingot making, i had experimented w/ a cheap mould i bought at a show and had a pretty good clue as to what was involved. i bought the lee 6 cavity moulds in 230gr 45 acp and 9mm 124gr... picked up a small lee pot and ladle w/ the weep hole in it. all said, that went well.

i started reading up on the lubes and decided the alox/jpw would work, so i rigged up a "double" pan system on my turkey fryer, put water in the bottom pan to heat the 2nd pan, did have one little fire, but kinda knew i was vulnerable to that w/ the open flame, so no biggy.

now rather than listen to you all, i opted to try a few slight changes. i took a stainless strainer and hammered it to contour the pan and used that to put my bullets in. i melted down my jpw, added some alox and started drowning boolits... i wasn't smart enough to just do a few, i did 2500. i had them all laid out on a sheet of formica'd plywood, and as everything cooled, i realized i had way to much lube.

never fear, i proceeded to size them w/ the little lee kits...

i then proceeded to relube again, this time i added a little wax to try to cut down on the tackiness, but i had to heat the boolits pretty good to get the excess jpw off, well it just proceeded to get uglier and the mess just kept getting worse...

finally, after much trial and error, i got to the point that if i keep the boolits in motion till they cooled considerably that they did not all dump out in a big globby mess. my neighbors probably questioned my sanity as to why i was wandering around the back yard in the snow constantly shaking the strainer all morning.

finally i got a huge pile of boolits on my plywood that kinda looked like boolits, but still had way to much lube to do anything w/. so i tediously stood all the boolits up like soldiers, and by using a hand held torch i would heat them, then advance the ranks w/ a metal ruler to advance the troops out of the puddle of goop, and after multiple marches forward and backwards out of the puddles, then cleaning up the puddles, and marching some more, i finally got something that could be advanced to the reloading press.

i think next time i will lube as per the sticky suggestions...

[hoosierlogger]

It is only a mistake if you do it again. Otherwise it is a learning experience.

[imashooter2]

Next time you need to remove lube, put all the boolits in a pot and boil them. Skim the wax off the surface of the water and relube as desired.

[gray wolf]

We need a what not to do section.
Or if you want to screw up click here LOL.

Bet you wont do that again.

[Recluse]

finally, after much trial and error, i got to the point that if i keep the boolits in motion till they cooled considerably that they did not all dump out in a big globby mess. my neighbors probably questioned my sanity as to why i was wandering around the back yard in the snow constantly shaking the strainer all morning.

Sorry, but the mental picture of you doing this made me laugh out loud this morning.

Experience is a pretty good teacher.

[Calamity Jake]

IF ALL else fails!!!!! Follow the directions!!!!!!

[fredj338]

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but a luber/sizer at this point seems like, a real bargain.

[buck1]

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[runfiverun]

i'da just threw more boolits in the pile.

[stubshaft]

Next time you need to remove lube, put all the boolits in a pot and boil them. Skim the wax off the surface of the water and relube as desired.

imashooter - You know they have to get to "boolit man" status before you can reveal a secret like that.

[rbuck351]

You younger folks are so lucky that you have all this advice right in front of you to ignore. My first attempt to lube bullets was to simply take a stick of lube and rub it on the boolits. I also didn't know some cast boolits need to be sized. Some of my first cast 38spl loads wouldn't fit in the cyls so back in the sizer with the loaded rounds. It's amazing what you can learn the hard way if you live through it. It didn't take long to figure out I needed a lube sizer. I found a lyman 450 with G,H&I dies that someone had ordered and not picked up for the princely sum of $25. My how times have changed. It sure makes putting grease in them little groves a lot easier. Makes the ammo fit the gun better too. My high school science teacher said most discoveries are by bunglers trying to do something else. Where would we be if no one stepped off into the unknown?

[geargnasher]

If no one went wrong trying to do something, we wouldn't have Post-It note adhesive, TRW credit score database software, or fruity pancake syrup.

Gear

[Blammer]

Hey, we're men, wer're not programmed to follow the directions until it's broke and we want to know why. But when it's broke we usually don't care.

sounds like quite a bit of entertainment went into lubing those boolits already. With all that work put into them you may just not want to shoot them, seeing as how they have achieved trophy status and all.

[AriM]

My first attempt to lube bullets was to simply take a stick of lube and rub it on the boolits.

this made my day.....

[jonk]

Not entirely off base actually. I have dunk-lubed bullets before. The key is letting the bullet sit in the lube until the lead has reached the same temp as the lube. Otherwise the lube flash hardens on the cold boolt and you have a mess.

Not too much sticks this way but there is a thin film, enough for handguns for sure, sort of like a melt version of tumble lubing.