Set up for pan lubing

[Jal5]

I have only tried to pan lube a couple of times with mixed success.
Used a version of Darr Lube trying it on 38 spec. WC boolits cast from Lyman 35891.

For the pan, I used a tin foil pan smaller than a turkey pan but bigger than a loaf muffin pan- don't have it here with me right now or I would measure it- approx. 10x10. It was hard to get the boolits to stay straight in that type of flimsy pan. The cake flipped out of the pan easy enough and I used a homemade cake cutter to take the boolits out- 35 REM case opened enough to fit over the top of the boolit.

What would be a better pan to use? The ridges or design in the bottom of this pan made it hard to line them up and get a uniform level of lube to fill the grooves on all the boolits. Plus the pan is just too flimsy to manipulate or even to move very much.

Thanks,
Joe

[docone31]

I went a few rounds with pan lubing untill I tried a cookie sheet.
I lube .30, .303, and .357 castings. They fall over easy!
I set the cookie sheet in the oven, with the castings, then bring the temp up. I set it as low as it can go. Once it is all at temp, I pour in the lube to the height that I want it. I let it sit in the oven for about an half hour, then turn the oven off. Once it is cooled, I take the cookie sheet and set it upside down. Once it really cools, the cake falls out of the sheet.
I push them out nose first, size, and they are done.
Get a good cookie sheet. That should do a lot of lubing.

[Bloodman14]

I use a Bakers Secret loaf pan. Stand 50 of the 316299s up and pour in the loob. When the loob is solid but still soft, the boolits will pull out with a 'snap'; experiment on solidity/temp. Also loob my Lee 150's and 155's this way.

[cajun shooter]

Look in any second hand store or buy new from wally World. Buy the one that has the best feel for you. Round or square makes no difference. Look on You Tube for some good How To's. They have one guy with a full beard that has a good one to view.

[Recluse]

You'll find what you need at the Reloader and Boolit Caster's Mecca. . .

The Dollar Store.

:coffee:

[fryboy]

IMHO with a cake cutter you wouldnt have to remove the cake just cut and remove and refill , but i agree the foil pan is flimsier than a soggy fritter , i use a variety of pans from little condiment cups and homemade quickie foil ones ( for simple quick testing of only a few ) to bread loaf and larger , pie pans etc also work great , none have to be expensive and i think most of us use what we can scrounge ,

[BrassFever]

I too pan lube with darr lube. My recipie is 1lb parrafin, 1lb vasiline, the wax off the top of a maker's mark bottle(carnubura), plus a small squirt of LLA.

The pan I use is like a small Aluminum pie pan, but with steeper angled sides, and made from a heavy gauge aluminum. It has no ridges or grooves. I simply set this directly on the element on my stove, set the heat to the lowest setting, stand my boolits up in it, then turn the heat off and let her cool down. Just did 170 boolits and they all came out perfectly lubed.

[Jal5]

Thanks Guys I will scrounge around for more suitable pans.
I left the cake in the flimsy aluminum pan and used the cutter, it worked pretty good once I experimented with a few.

Brassfever- does that recipe harden up at all over time on the boolit? Mine still feels pretty soft even after adding extra parrafin. What does the wax off the bottle add to the recipe?

Joe

[Shooter6br]

Check out this link Look under "members articles. Look for "A piece of cake" for pan lubing using Emments lube http://www.castpics.net/

[mdi]

Yep, I think your alum pan is too flexable. I personally use some non-stick 9" pie pans, and I've got a couple silicone baking pans. Silicone pans are too flexible for me (I had to use a piece of sheet metal under the pan to remove it from my toaster oven.) and I haven't had any probs with removing the cake from the pie pans so that's what I mostly use.

[Jailer]

I use a 9x9 silicone baking pan. The lube "loaf" just peels right out of it.

[BrassFever]

Jal5: I'm not so sure that it hardens over time. It really depends more on the temp. For example, there have been times when I threw the cake in the freezer to get it solid in a hurry. If left in too long the lube ring on the bullet is extremely hard. That is until it warms up. Up here in the PNW too high of a temp isnt really a problem, so I'm not sure how the lube would behave in say, 100 degree temps. About all I can tell you is that this recipie seems to really stick to the lube grooves and I've yet to have issues with the lube coming off due to handling. Then again, I am very new to this hobby myself.

I read on this forum that the wax from a makers mark bottle is carnubura wax. Apperantly it is supposed to enhance the lube somehow. I just kinda tossed it into my mix for experimentation purposes. I have not done a close evaluation of darr lube VS. my formula of darr lube. The only issue is that the makers mark wax has a much higher melting temp and it makes your wax pink.

[Jal5]

BrassFever-
I tried that darr lube recipe 1-1 parafin to vaseline with shot of STP for the oil and it seems to not want to stick in the boolit grooves very well. I hardened it up some with more parafin and that helped a little. I may need to experiment with it some more. I wonder if the LLA gives it the viscosity to allow it to stick better?
Joe

[BrassFever]

I'm not sure how STP would effect the lube, haven't tried it myself. 1 part parafin to .75 parts vaseline might do the trick. Honestly I have noticed no effect from the LLA. I just throw it in there because I have some and I hate tumble lubing.

Here's a little tip you can try:
My method is to heat the cake and the boolits in the pan directly on my stove element. This accomplishes two distinct goals. First, it heats the boolits up to help the wax stick to the lube grooves. You'll notice that when first melted, the wax on the surface contacting the boolit slopes downward toward the base of the boolit in a concave fashion. Once the boolit heats up to temp, the wax will almost draw up the boolit, with the end of the wax on the surface touching the boolit pointing towards the boolit nose. Once you observe this, the boolits are warm enough, and you may take them off the heat. This concept is similar to how we have to heat our molds up to temp before they will cast good boolits.

The second goal accomplished by heating the boolits directly on the element is that the boolits conduct heat much better than lube, causing the lube to melt faster. It seems like the more densly packed the boolits are in the cake, the quicker the lube melts.

Finally, once the heat has been off long enough for the surface of the lube to skim over, move the pan to the freezer, and leave it in for 15 to 30 minutes. The longer you leave it in, the harder the lube will be, and the better your lube grooves will fill out. However, the longer you leave them in the freezer, the more difficult they are to "punch out" from the cake.

Hope this helps
-Mark

[mdi]

I've been able to push out boolits from the cake by watching the cooling time. I don't put the cake in the freezer, just watch it cool, as I'm doing other things (adding boolits to another pan, heating boolits/lune in my toaster oven, etc). I started out by waiting until the lube was firm but not hard set. I tried pushing a boolit, but lube didn't stick in the grooves. Waited a little longer and tried again. Waited/pushed until lube stayed in the grooce and remembered the cooling time, barely warm to the touch (not exact minutes needed, just approx.)Y ou'll have to experiment with your lube to find the "hardness/cooling". Now I have no probs with lube sticking in the grooves with my Beeswax/Vaseline/lanolin/secret ingredients mixture.

[zomby woof]

I take the top to a small can. I fill it with lube. Then I heat the lube up with a heat gun and place in my boolits. After they cool, I cut them out with a modified case that I epoxied onto a flat piece of metal. The metal is like a handle and is more comfortable to push done with. After I cut out the boolits, i have a cavity that I place another boolit into. I then warm the lube and boolit up with a heat gun again. It only takes minutes to cut out and fill up again. I can do hundreds with ease. 2500 works great for this.

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/DSCN0431.JPG

[Jal5]

I'm not sure how STP would effect the lube, haven't tried it myself. 1 part parafin to .75 parts vaseline might do the trick. Honestly I have noticed no effect from the LLA. I just throw it in there because I have some and I hate tumble lubing.

Here's a little tip you can try:
My method is to heat the cake and the boolits in the pan directly on my stove element. This accomplishes two distinct goals. First, it heats the boolits up to help the wax stick to the lube grooves. You'll notice that when first melted, the wax on the surface contacting the boolit slopes downward toward the base of the boolit in a concave fashion. Once the boolit heats up to temp, the wax will almost draw up the boolit, with the end of the wax on the surface touching the boolit pointing towards the boolit nose. Once you observe this, the boolits are warm enough, and you may take them off the heat. This concept is similar to how we have to heat our molds up to temp before they will cast good boolits.

The second goal accomplished by heating the boolits directly on the element is that the boolits conduct heat much better than lube, causing the lube to melt faster. It seems like the more densly packed the boolits are in the cake, the quicker the lube melts.

Finally, once the heat has been off long enough for the surface of the lube to skim over, move the pan to the freezer, and leave it in for 15 to 30 minutes. The longer you leave it in, the harder the lube will be, and the better your lube grooves will fill out. However, the longer you leave them in the freezer, the more difficult they are to "punch out" from the cake.

Hope this helps
-Mark

Thanks mark I tried this over the weekend and it worked much better. I also had to size these particular boolits using the Lee sizer and found that the lube adhered much better than I thought it would after sizing.

Joe

[BrassFever]

glad to hear this worked for you

[songdog53]

I always used several silicone pans and just peeled them off lube and punched bullets out then used Lee sizer when was using pan lube method. Broke down and bought a Star and don't pan lube much now. They not really good for reheating them in oven with new bullets in old holes for pans are too soft. Would just break lube up and reheat it and sized bullets while waiting for it to reheat, I used bee wax, paraffin and Vaseline and crayons for color.

[DukeInFlorida]

I believe that the best pan is one of those silicone flexible pans.....

Makes it easy to remove the wax after use.

Cheap these days!!! (They used to be very expensive!!!)

[atr]

my method is almost exactly like xomby woof's....even down to the size of the pan (think small not large)
the big difference is that I use a modified case with a flat on one end (think 16d nail) to the other end I attach a piece of rounded dowel which allows me to push the boolit out after having cut it from the cake. the flat end of the 16d can be ground to the correct diameter for a good fit in the modified case (cake cutter)

[timbuck]

I forgot where I saw this. There is grating for a floresent light that is in a grid. I just trim a piece to fit the pan and load it up with boolits. Before you pour the lube, remove the grid. The grid holds the boolits up straight until you are ready to pour.

[Jal5]

All good suggestions thanks.
I made one of those cake cutters too and it really helps.
I am making another one for a different caliber using a golf ball so that the lubed boolit moves through the case and up through the golf ball handle popping out the top. There was a picture on here of another guy who did that and it sounded like a good idea to me.

Joe

[Jailer]

I always used several silicone pans and just peeled them off lube and punched bullets out then used Lee sizer when was using pan lube method. Broke down and bought a Star and don't pan lube much now. They not really good for reheating them in oven with new bullets in old holes for pans are too soft. Would just break lube up and reheat it and sized bullets while waiting for it to reheat, I used bee wax, paraffin and Vaseline and crayons for color.

I put the silicone pan on a cookie sheet while it's in the oven and cooling. Makes a nice flat solid surface.