Am I doing this right?

[Tango2020]

I'll try to keep this short. After a failure with Lee Alox ( my first run at casting and l lube.) I had leading. I'm sure my fit is good so I switched to Felix lube. My first batch turned out too soft, I think. Had a hard time sizing getting lube everywhere. No leading though. Woo hoo. I used 8 weighted oz of bees wax the first go around.
Now I jumped to 12 oz bees wax to my new batch. It's about the consistency a little thicker than toilet ring wax.

What is too thick or too thin? I'm pan lubing and loose the lube from the lube ring about 20% of the time. Don't have a cutter, working on finding something about .402.


Casting for a .40 XDM by the way. 5.1 unique under 175 gr SWC. Single groove lee mold.

I added a tbs os JPW to the new batch to help shine the bore. Haven't shot the new batch yet but the stuff turns into a bit of a mess when sizing and seating. I clean the excess lube here and there.

I guess my question is. Too soft? It's messy. Too hard, too much wax. Coming out of the groove.

Any thoughts will be appreciated.

[Tango2020]

34 views and no replies?

[btroj]

Many lubes, and most good ones, are a bit gooey at times. I have used Felix lube in the past and it worked quite well. It was a bit messy to handle the bullets but it worked well enough ignore that downside.
If your loads rounds are a bit messy just use an old hand towel, put a very small amount of mineral spirits on it, put some loaded rounds on, and roll back and firth while holding the towel like a hammock. This will quickly remove the vast majority of the excess lube.

I don't know that you can easily make Felix lube too hard short of adding way too much beeswax, paraffin, or stearate. I bet your batch with 12 ounces of beeswax will work just fine.

As for no replies, many here are not familiar with Felix lube or may just be lurking around. Give it time, you will have more replies I assure you.

[Tango2020]

ok. Thanks for the input btroj. I'll try and be patent.

[dragonrider]

Tango welcome to the forum you will find your answers here just not from me as I don't use LLA (Lee Liquid Alox), don't like the smell and performance was dissapointing to say the least. And I have never made Felix lube so I can't say what it should be like. From your description I think it is too soft, I prefer a harder lube but not so hard as to need a heater in order to use it. I use a Star lubrisizer so it has to go through that without heat. To firm it up maybe some parrafin?? or beeswax?? Wish I could be more helpfull.

[Tango2020]

Thanks.... I want to get a lubsizer but I just got back into reloading this past year and I don't even want to think of how much I've spent up to this point on reloading EQ. I'm trying to slow down cuse this is like a disease. I don't think I'm happy unless I have an active tracking number. LOL.

[colt 357]

I am shooting lead though my Taurus .40 using unique but I'm not pushing the boolits that hard. I am using 4.5 grs of unique. When I was test my first batches of reloads I was loading as high as 5.5 or 6.0 but then back it down to 4.5 grains and the leading stopped. I pan lube my boolits with lanolin wax, beeswax, vaseline and tranny fluid. don't know the mix ratio off hand been a while since I mixed it up. Backing off of the powder may help you as it did me. Hope this well help you.

[Tango2020]

Mine Chronographs around 925 FPS. I made a kake cutter out of 3/8 copper tubing that seems to be working better at keeping the lube in the grooves. I'll have to shoot this batch and see if it leads with 12 oz bees wax and the JPW. Hopefully it's not too hard.

[Tango2020]

Lubed and sized.

[btroj]

Other than being good at gunning up the gun a soft lube does a great job. The good thing is that the soft, gooey fouling doesn't seem to tie up an auto very quick.

Try your lube and see if you can tell differences on target. That is all that matters- the gun will let you know what it does, and doesn't, like.

[Sonnypie]

Lubed and sized.

Those little treats look tasty on that plate!

I've been tumble loobin myself.
But about to try pan loobin. (Thank You Bowfin!)
I had foot surgery Friday (yesterday) So I'm kinda restricted right now.
I need my shop on a TV tray...

[Calamity Jake]

If you want to make your FL harder/stiffer just add a little more BW and or some carnuba wax.

[mdi]

I've added lanolin to my lubes to make them a bit stickier, to stay in the grooves. But some of my lubes need to have the boolits cut out, as they just won't punch out cleanly.