Tumble Lubing--Made Easy & Mess-Free

[Case Stuffer]

I have now used the Delux Xlox (White Label Lubes a.ka. Recluse's Super Tumble Lube) on just over 6,000 9MM 125 grain lead pills.

Three very nice points / improvements over the Lee and straight Xlox from WLL. The odor is nothing like as strong, the 45-45-10 dries so much faster and it is harder and less tacky when cured.

My old hands do not like long casting sessions anyumore but with a Lee 6 cavity and my RCBS Pro Melt I can cast 500 plus in an hour taking my time, put the first coat on wait 3 or 4 hours ,size them in one hour ,apply the second coat and let dry over night box them up and move on to the next batch.

I have only chased around 200 down the 3" barrel of my XD SubCompact with a powder charge 6.0 gr. HS-6 but I am impressed. No noticeable smoke shooting outdoors and only a trace of leading in the last inch of the barrel. I have only fired around 30jacketed rounds thru this one and even they left copper fouling in the same area of the barrel. If it was a 50 yard gun I would do some work on the barrel but for CC and up close an personal it does fine.

Recluse ( Terror of the Hospital) thanks for all of your efforts with this lube and thanks also to Gleen for making it availble ready to use for those of us that like it simple.

[nouseforaname1246]

Id say about a half teaspoon or so sounds right for 100. If your starting with a clean (no lube already coating the inside) container you will probably need more. I lube in batches of 400-500 and use 2 teaspoons. An old Nyquil measuring cap works great. Makes boolits much more consistant from batch to batch.

[3jimbo3]

i have a question about alox....

i use lee alox, just plain nothing added or mixed in. is it good enough by itself to lube the boolit? i have some leading after about a hundred rounds or so. i am thinking the lube is failing, there is not much of a coating on the outermost part of the boolit. my lead is plenty hard and i am loading the charge moderate. the accuracy is great until the build up starts. it's like the alox is weak or burning off too fast. any suggestions guys?

[Fire_stick]

i have a question about alox....

i use lee alox, just plain nothing added or mixed in. is it good enough by itself to lube the boolit? i have some leading after about a hundred rounds or so. i am thinking the lube is failing, there is not much of a coating on the outermost part of the boolit. my lead is plenty hard and i am loading the charge moderate. the accuracy is great until the build up starts. it's like the alox is weak or burning off too fast. any suggestions guys?

Lee alox by it self is good stuff, and you don't need much. It's just tacky and that's the advantage of this recipe. Try softer lead with your moderate loads and make sure your bullets are .001" to .002" over groove diameter.

[noylj]

I put so little LLA on my bullets, that you can't see any. Still, leading is light to none and accuracy is not affected (though I do clean every few thousand rounds or so).
Where is the leading? Location will give a clue to the cause.
Have you slugged your barrel? Without knowing the barrel's actual groove diameter, you may be shooting undersized bullets and the LLA is what is preventing you getting massive leading.
Are your bullets at least 0.001" over barrel groove diameter? See above. You may need to go 0.002 or even 0.003".
What cartridge are you firing? Most handguns do best with 9-14 BHN alloy and NOT a super hard alloy.

[62chevy]

I recently tried Glenn's 45/45/10 (he generously sent me a bottle of it upon perfecting the formula) and it is the cat's meow. He said he is having phenomenal success with it even in his larger, faster moving calibers--in particular his 30-06, with excellent groupings and zero leading and one shiny clean bore afterward.

Well that settle it then, as I'm new to casting, so new I still have stuff on back order that I need, that I'll get my 45/45/10 from White Lable. Just hope Glenn's stuff isn't on back order too.

Thanks Recluse for starting this tread.

[w0fms]

Okay.. since I had a couple bottles of LLA from the sizers.. I decided to mix up a small amount (50 ml or so) of the 45/45/10 with store bought JPW. I did it all by volume in a small stainless steel "sauce cup" on my PID controlled hot plate (set for 275F) and it seems.. well.. a little too thin-- or at least I am thinking I'd like it a little more viscous.. the coating on the finished product might be fine. I am guessing that the mix should be "thinner" than the LLA is.. but by how much? It seems to coat the boolits okay, though.. the stuff looks more "white" or "beige" on the cast boolit than straight Alox and doesn't appear to be sticky like the Alox. Am I probably alright with the mix or should I try to thicken it up a bit by adding some more melted JPW and/or Alox? Thanks...

[olaf455]

It should be thin, mine is about the consistency of runny peanut butter at room temperature. after applied to the boolits it will dry and be hard (non tacky). Two thin coats works well. Coat-size-second coat.

[gareth96]

k... so I just finished making my first batch. 'cooked down' half a 16oz jar of JPW by 50% till I had 4oz, and added a whole 4oz bottle of LLA. Then added one oz of mineral spirits once it cooled off a bit. My consistency is closer to that of the original JPW, maybe a little softer, but definitely not liquid enough to flow (like runny peanut butter). Should I add a little more mineral spirits?

[Lucky Joe]

My mix is thicker than that, I just warm it up under hot water or what ever and lube. I think you should be fine, try a few and see how it goes, and let us know if you have the chance.

[Case Stuffer]

I purchased Delux Xlox (45-45-10) from White Label Lubes and at 75 F it is thin enough to pour , at 60 and below I have to warm it up. I get best result by warming the boolits ,warming the lube if my shop is cold then adding lube ,swirling them around , let dry then size then recoat but on the recoat I do not warm the boolits. I used straight Lee Alox by the gallons back when it first came out but the 45-45-10 works a lot better, drys faster, is harder,does not smell nearly as strong and does not smoke nearly as much.

[gareth96]

Thanks for the replies.. I'm new to bullet casting, I think I have everything I need except for the handle. Got one on ebay a few nights ago (yes, I paid too much), but it's for a 2-cav and I have a 6-cav (45 ACP 200gr lyman). So from what I've gathered so far I'll have to grind down the 'arms' a bit, and maybe make the holes a bit larger. If needed I can even get my buddy to weld some extensions on, we'll see. Hopefully will give casting a try this weekend and will let you know how it all goes. I did score an older turkey fryer from a co-worker today.. A 160,000btu monster with a base that will hold me (212lbs on a good day). Going to re-melt some ingots I got a while back when I was planning on getting into this.. The guy had a nice picture of evenly colored shiny lead bars. When I got the lead (supposedly WW) there were about 10 different sheens, and 6 different ingot brands/stamps/types, so definitely not from the same pour. So I figure I'll re-melt them all together to get a more homogenous batch and toss in some sawdust.. and hope there's no zinc... nay, pray there's no zinc.

[Lucky Joe]

Well keep at it, don't let any moisture fall into the hot lead. And we will keep hoping and praying with you.

[3jimbo3]

Lee alox by it self is good stuff, and you don't need much. It's just tacky and that's the advantage of this recipe. Try softer lead with your moderate loads and make sure your bullets are .001" to .002" over groove diameter.

My leading is toward the end of the barrel. My bore is a .354 and I size at .356. I am using 4.6 grains of unique. The .356 boolit is very hard and close to impossible to get into the bore by hand. My slug is soft lead not my cast mixture.

[noylj]

Leading toward the end of the barrel generally means that the lube has given up the ghost and died on you.
Slugging the barrel requires an over-sized bullet. I prefer to use 0.360" or larger so I know I am getting a 'real' measurement.
Your bullets would appear to be sized correctly, but sometimes you need to go larger. 0.357" works in all my 9x19s except a BHP with a, according to Browning, in spec barrel with a groove of 0.359".
There is science in shooting cast bullets, but there is also the mysteries of the gun/bullet interaction that don't always follow the "rules."
I also do not like bullets over about 16 BHN (except for 1700fps+), but with your measurements, the bullet should not need any obduration to fill the bore. However, I would pull a couple of seated bullets and verify that you are not swaging the bullets down during seating.
I shoot as-cast (unsized) bullets and a light tumble lube of LLA. With commercial bullets, when I get leading, I give those bullet a light tumble lube also.

[psychicrhino]

Most excellent write up that answered many questions.

[w0fms]

Thanks.. it sounds that my 45/45/10 is close to the correct consistency based on the commercial Xlox comments. Oddly enough after the boolits I coated sat for a couple of days it seems like it looks correct to me.. it didn't the night of.. even though it was dry. I did coat those three times, but the stuff dries so fast compared to the overnight needed for Alox, even if I have to do that, it's still 2x faster.

[nouseforaname1246]

I like mine a little thinner. So it is liquid at room temperature but just barely. Im not sure of the actual amount but id say im at around 20% mineral spirits. That way I dont have to warm the lube up.

[hylander]

Loading for 30-06 with LEE C312-185-1R
Is this method good for say 1900fps

[JD9620]

Why lube after you size? The groves are still full of lube. And when using a lubeasizer the sides of the boolit aren't lubed.