Cable Pulling Lube

[ACC]

I have been told that cable pulling lube works great for sizing cases. There is a water based one that they are talking about. Is this true? Any one try this? If it was to work it would be a whole lot cheaper than the LEE lube.

ACC

[rancher1913]

all the cable pulling lube I have used would dry with residue on the wire or conduit, and it was kind of a mess to use.

[lefty o]

ive pulled a few feet of wire in my life, and i suppose if a guy had absolutely nothing else it would work. imo , wire snot really doesnt possess the properties one desires in a case lube.

[Maven]

I have most of a quart of wire pulling lube left, and have used it on occasion to lube both CB's and fired bottle neck rifle cartridges. Although it works, it is not the best substance for FL resizing or CB resizing beyond .001". Additionally, you'll need to clean and re-oil your dies after using it as it is H20 based.

[jimkim]

There are a ton of threads covering this. I once had a link to one that told which ones RCBS and Lee were supposed to have rebranded. Unfortunately, that was about eight years ago, and I don't have it anymore.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/arch...hp/t-5650.html

Sent from my VS880 using Tapatalk

[NyFirefighter357]

This is what I use. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-To...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Put brass is container add a couple of drops of lube and shake & swirl, remove brass & allow to dry. You can also cut this with 91% isopropyl alcohol mix in a spray bottle and spray cases in container, shake & swirl & allow to dry.

This is the only case lube I've used so I can't tell you if it works better or worse than others. I haven't resized enough brass to give a real opinion but it worked fine for my needs in my Lee turret with standard resizing dies.

[NyFirefighter357]

I found some threads about this subject:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...se-sizing-lube

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...e-pulling-lube

[mdi]

I worked for a large city Department of Water and Power for 25 years. Most of the trouble trucks and gang trucks had a 5 gal. bucket of cable pulling lube. I "borrowed" a cup full and used it to F/L size my rifle brass. IIRC it's the same as the Lee case lube (I checked the MSDS but that was 30 years ago). I inspect every case after sizing, so while looking at the case a quick wipe with a shop towel got most of it off and I had no residual gunk on the brass or the dies...

[lightman]

The stuff that I used to pull wire with was the yellow stuff that was mostly wax and water. I never tried it as sizing lube because I didn't want the water based stuff on my dies. But it felt like it should work.

I've tried most of the lubes that are sold as case lube and many of the other things that people use. I've pretty much settled on Imperial for neck sizing and the alcohol/lanolin mix like Dillon markets for fl sizing.

[6bg6ga]

Just google home made lube with (Heat with isopropyl alcohol) and lanolin. Much better lube and no chance of sticking the shell cases in the die. Make sure its the Heat in the "Red" container. The "Yellow" contain methanol which you do not want.

Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgsimvLoddo

You can also get drug store alcohol (isopropyl) and use it in place of the "red Heat"

[1hole]

imo , wire snot really doesnt possess the properties one desires in a case lube.

Can't help wondering what missing properties that would be?

[leadhead]

Just go buy a can of Bag Balm at your pharmacy and your set for years.
It cost me about $12 a can about 6 years ago and it's still 3/4 full. It's
a pretty good size can. Hope this helps.
Denny

[doulos]

Case lube made by the reloading companies is fairly cheap. Ive been using the same 3 bottles of RCBS lube for a long time. Its about 2.50 a bottle. A case lube pad is about 9 bucks. Once its saturated an awful lot of cases can be lubed. I can understand using stuff in a pinch when out of the stuff that is intended specifically for the job. But this stuff isn't so expensive that I would be looking for alternatives. Just my opinion.

[webfoot10]

RCBS case lube is basically just STP oil treatment. $1.75 a pint at Wally-World.
I've used it for twenty years and never had a stuck case, wipes off easily with
a rag.

[1hole]

Case lube made by the reloading companies is fairly cheap. Ive been using the same 3 bottles of RCBS lube for a long time. Its about 2.50 a bottle. ..... I can understand using stuff in a pinch when out of the stuff that is intended specifically for the job. But this stuff isn't so expensive that I would be looking for alternatives. Just my opinion.

STP is not specifically made for case lube but it's sold (at a very high price per ounce) for that purpose by RCBS and other brands too.

No offense intended but until you've tried some of the other lubes you have no valid basis for comparison.

[Cole440]

I believe most varieties are water based. Weather or not it works well remains to be seen by myself...

[6bg6ga]

I believe most varieties are water based. Weather or not it works well remains to be seen by myself...

Dillon..no, RCBS....no, Hornady one shot...no not water based.

Advantages of lanolin/alcohol (isopropyl) over other like one shot is it does NOT dent the cases like one shot and some of the others do. Cleaning for me is simple as I just put the sized cases with lanolin residue back in the tumbler and 1/2 or less later the cases are once again ready to handle. No having to wipe them off.

[doulos]

STP is not specifically made for case lube but it's sold (at a very high price per ounce) for that purpose by RCBS and other brands too.

No offense intended but until you've tried some of the other lubes you have no valid basis for comparison.

No offense taken. But I wasn't comparing other lubes to RCBS. I just stated the stuff is cheap. And so is a lot of the other lubes on the market. Im just not understanding why some are looking for alternatives that arent that much cheaper. And RCBS lube I just saw at Midway seems pretty cheap to me.
Just inquiring. Not trying to start an argument. Im probably still in the dark ages.

[Rich/WIS]

The lanolin/alcohol mix has worked well for me and has replaced the lube pad and other sprays. Stand the brass up in a tray from an ammo box (stagger to assure spray hits whole case) and a quick spritz and rotate the tray and another spritz, let stand for the alcohol to evaporate. After sizing lay the brass on an old T shirt and a quick spray with brake cleaner will remove most of it, then into the tumbler for an hour or so. Don't think there is a cheaper or better method, but YMMV.

[6bg6ga]

I think maybe I do it even simpler. I take a ice cream plastic bucket and fill with brass and squirt it several times with the lanolin/alcohol lube and simply use my hand and mix the brass up. You can size right away or I have let it sit for as much as 5 hours before I process it. It works great no stuck brass in the dies and the effort to full length resize is considerable easier. My 308 brass is a dream to full length size. Like I mentioned when I'm done processing the brass I simply throw it back in the tumbler for a while and the brass is once again clean and ready to go.

Correction and clarification.. I have let the 5.56/223 brass sit for as much as 5 hours. The 308 brass I process right away simply because having the lube wet or semi wet eases the effort need to size the larger brass.

I realize this is a cable lube pulling thread and I will state my opinions on that. I personally wouldn't use the snotty yellow crap that is water based unless I was going to clean it right away in the ultrasonic cleaner but then in my opinion that makes more work yet because the brass then needs to be dried before it can be primed and loaded. For me its simpler to tumble the lanolin off the cases and its ready to process.