Tumble lube: Ever done this?

[DeanWinchester]

I tumble lube probably 95% of my boolits. Near perfect results. When I tumble them, I toss them about in a plastic coffee can, then pour them out on a thick sheet of hard plastic I have. I even go as far as to stand them up using a pair of hemostats as I have found it makes for a more evenly distributed coat of lube in the microbands and prevents clumping on one side. NOW, as time drags on, the tumble accumulates on the plastic sheet and I carefully scrape it off taking care not to get into the plastic. I also scrape the tumble tub and when the bottles are empty, I cut them open and let it dry, then scrape that too. I have a wad of it the size of a softball.

My ? Has anyone ever used dried tumble lube like regular lube? I could heat this and pan lube the few boolits I cast with regular lube grooves. I wonder how well it would work.

[Ben]

Give it a try and report back. Might do OK ?

[DeanWinchester]

I plan to. If nothing else I'm sure it would work for 38spcl loads.

[mdi]

I haven't used it as a "solid" lube but I have reconstituted some dried clumps/bottles with mineral spirits. Worked as good as new...

[Sonnypie]

My answer to your question would be "No."

I did the same thing as mdi. Re-juice it.

I tried "Ranch Dipping" 50, and stood them up on waxed paper in front of my shop fan.
After an overnight drying and sizing the boolits, I scraped the gobs off with a putty knife and put them in a tuna can with a bit of solvent.
Overnight it turned back into juicy LLA again. So I put it back in with my modified LLA to use another day.
Waste not, want not. :idea: ;-)

[miestro_jerry]

When I use solid lube, I use my Star Sizer.

For tumble lube, I use Xlox.

Jerry

[geargnasher]

Boolit lube needs a carrier, like micro-crystalline paraffin wax or beeswax to work the best, otherwise it's unstable and can dry out too much later. Carrier wax preserves and stabilizes the lube.

I suspect that White Label BAC is made from beeswax, Xlox, and carnauba flakes. It is an excellent formula.

Gear

[longbow]

I have been "hot tumble lubing" with success.

I use an old frying pan, melt a small amount of lube in it then roll boolits in the molten lube. They coat much like tumble lube if the boolit is warm and the lube hardens up quickly after boolits are removed.

I haven't done it with straight dried LLA but have with old dried up LLA/paraffin mix and with my homemade lube. It works for me and seems easier than either tumble lubing or pan lubing and is quicker.

Longbow

[DeanWinchester]

I have been "hot tumble lubing" with success.

I use an old frying pan, melt a small amount of lube in it then roll boolits in the molten lube. They coat much like tumble lube if the boolit is warm and the lube hardens up quickly after boolits are removed.

I haven't done it with straight dried LLA but have with old dried up LLA/paraffin mix and with my homemade lube. It works for me and seems easier than either tumble lubing or pan lubing and is quicker.

Longbow


That's an idea right there. Think I might just try that.

[sqlbullet]

I notice that mine has a lot of extra debris in it. Dust, dirt, whatever else has settled. Perhaps I don't scrape my curing area as often as you.

What I end up with gets used as flux when I am refining lead. works great for that purpose.

[41mag]

I made up some of the 45/45/10, and when I lube my boolits, I pull out enough to cover about 3/8" on the end of a wooden popsicle stick, about an eighth in thick. Then I swipe it off in the bottom of a ziplok freezer bag. Then I put in my boolits and stick the bag into a bowl of hot water for about 5-10 minutes depending on how many are there. This warms up the boolits and melts down the lube to a real thin consistency.

Once everything is warm I roll them around and reach in wearing a nitrile glove, and stand them up on a some sort of a microwave platter I found. I started out using wax paper but found that the warm lube once it settled could be easily recouped. Once I started doing this I simply added back to the baggie for the next go round. So far it has worked just fine, and I get several more lubes before I need to add any to it.

[bryonbush]

what i did was used a screen window and dump them onto that. i dont stand them up, too messy and time consuming. by using the screen, the excess lube will dripp off between the gaps in the screen and not accumilate on the bullet. put some wax paper below the screen or the hard plastic that your talking about and then you can save the excess lube.

[noylj]

Why are you using so much LLA/Xlox?
I have a casserole pan that I have tumble lubed over 10k bullets and all the residue is more like a discoloration.
What is the benefit of all that LLA?
I don't understand Ranchdog's needs, but I haven't found a need for any pistol bullets to have more than a light coating of LLA--in most cases, the bullets still look unlubed, but they are just faintly tacky.
Since LLA is always tacky, that tells me there is more than enough for my purposes.