Pan Lubeing

[swallytrip]

Has anyone on here pan lubed the Lee 158 round flat boolit for .358 it has a bigger lube groove so i was wondering if pan lubeling would be enough for it. The second question has anyone tried the liquid Xlox from white lable versus the lee Alox. Im just trying to find a faster way to lube them instead of melting a mix of things and basting into a pan and pushing them out and hopeing it stays in the grooves. Thanks
Scott

[kbstenberg]

HELLO SCOTT. another newby here. Ive used both types of lubricants. The only difference i could see was that the Xlox was a little thicker out of the bottle. But basically they acted the same after being diluted.
As to filling the lube Grove because of the size. i cant see a problem. The area fills in when the lube is liquid, it cools, You cut thats it. What kind of lube are you using? All i have use is FWFL when pan lubing
Kevin

[MtGun44]

Pan lubing fills the groove all the way. What method are you using that you somehow
don't get the grooves all the way filled? I'm confused.

[swallytrip]

Well fellas im doing the canning wax and petroleum jelly and oil treatment and melted in a double boiler type set up. Then using a turkey baster to fill up a nonstick cake pan and then when it solidifies again pushing them out and hopeing the groove stays filled sometimes yes sometimes no. I was really wondering how much of a mess the tumble lubeing is and what the process is after it hardens, it does harden right. I've heard of people dipping then one by one and putting them on wax paper and then using someting to cut something from them i guess im just confused with the tumble lubing in general. I could just ask my buddy about it but then I wouldnt get to talk to all the cool people on here and burn up some time.

[prickett]

Well fellas im doing the canning wax and petroleum jelly and oil treatment and melted in a double boiler type set up. Then using a turkey baster to fill up a nonstick cake pan and then when it solidifies again pushing them out and hopeing the groove stays filled sometimes yes sometimes no. I was really wondering how much of a mess the tumble lubeing is and what the process is after it hardens, it does harden right. I've heard of people dipping then one by one and putting them on wax paper and then using someting to cut something from them i guess im just confused with the tumble lubing in general. I could just ask my buddy about it but then I wouldnt get to talk to all the cool people on here and burn up some time.

When pan lubing are your bullets room temp or are they heated up to the same temp as the wax? If not the same as the wax, try it. I found it to be the difference between wax fully filling the groove and not. Cooler bullets cause the wax to solidify prematurely, sometimes preventing the wax from getting into the grooves.

Also, I'd lose the baster. Its too slow for me. I pour the wax directly from the pyrex measuring cup that I melt it in into the pan. This too means the wax will be more liquid than using the baster (which tends to start hardening as you are filling the baster with the next batch of wax).

[MtGun44]

I put clean boolits into the holes left in the lube in the lubing pan, then warm the whole
thing with a heat gun from top until lube melts. Wait until the lube hardens but not too cold and
hard, cut out with a case with the neck sharpened by using a neck chamfering tool ONLY
on the outside and hacksawing off the head. Depending on the caliber & boolit length, several sit
in the cutter (case) and then you dump them out as it fills up. I got 100 % fill this way
every time.

TL seems to be a marginal lube method, works for some designs, some calibers at some
velocities in some guns. Does not work in a lot of cases, we hear a fair number of folks that
succeed and a whole lot that do not. Great way to get started cheap, but not a lot of margin
in the lube capabilities, it appears.

Frankly, once I could afford it, I moved up to a RCBS lubrisizer and never went back to pan
lubing. The reason I pan lubed is that I was a VERY poor beginning engineer and absolutely
could not afford anything better. Limited my shooting a bunch, but I did feed my Browning
9mm for several years that way. Works well and zero leading with the Lee 105 SWC, great
accy in a caliber known for being fairly unforgiving with boolits. IIRC I pushed something
thru a .30-06 case to expand it and cut off the head for a cutter to get my 9mms out of the
pan lube. Can't remember what I found that left the -06 case the right size to cut out the
.358 boolits, that was in about 1976-77!

[Whitespider]

swallytrip,

Your pan lube probably isn’t bonding to the boolit and it’s just falling out of the groove(s).

The first problem is the canning wax (paraffin) base; paraffin isn’t sticky enough. Bees wax, on the other hand, is sticky but won’t readily release from the pan. The trick is to use bees wax as a base and add just barely enough paraffin so the lube “cake” will release from the pan (maybe with a bit of human aid) after complete cooling/shrinking. Use too much paraffin and the lube won’t stick to the boolit, not enough and it won’t release from the pan; takes a bit of playing around.

Second, as has already been mentioned, you need to get the boolits and lube up to the same temperature in order to facilitate the bonding. Just stick the pan full of boolits and lube in the oven (set at about 175 degrees) for ½ - ¾ hour or so. After pushing/knocking the boolits out, just set the “cake” back in the pan (or set the pieces back in the pan), plop some more boolits in the holes and stick it back in the oven.

[pistolman44]

I use a propane torch lightly run it over the boolits in the pan to heat them up a little. Then pour you lube mix in and it will flow and fill all the lube grooves evenly. This is the lube mix I use: 1#Beeswax-1 tube of lithium grease and 4oz. of parafin wax. I use this lube in all my Pistol magnum calibers. I made kake cutters to cut the boolits out of the cooled wax.

[mdi]

I had similar problems with the lube coming off when I tried to push the boolits out of the cake. I fixed that by heating the lube/boolits inn an oven at 175 degrees to get everything the same temp. and using a cutter I made to cut the boolits out of the lube cake. (I shave/cut up some lube and put it aroun the boolits in the pan. When it melts I adjust the depth to cover the top lube groove by adding or removing lube.) Easier for me that way instead of trying to get the cake/boolits out of the pan and pushing the boolits out of the cake. I'm sure my lube may be too soft for pushing but it works for me...