Homemade Case Lube

[North_of_60]

I am almost out of Hornady One Shot Case Lube so I started looking for home made case lube recipes. Most that I found call for mixtures of alcohol and lanolin. I was able to find the 99% alcohol at Fred Meyers but can't find any lanolin locally so I tried Baby Oil (mineral oil with some added fragrance) instead. The store brand was 1/2 the price of Johnson's.

I mixed up a small batch to try out, 1 part Baby Oil to 4 parts 99% alcohol. I put it in a old hair spray bottle and it works great. It's as good as the Hornady one shot and at 1/4 the price. So I mixed up a full bottle.

I don't know if the lanolin would work better or not. I don't have any to compare it to.

It there a down side to using mineral oil? The cases don't seem any more slippery that any other lube I've used. Baby Oil is readily available at any grocery store. And it smells good too.

Al W

[leeggen]

Ed's red does a great job, just put alittle on the pad and roll the case.
CD

[1911cherry]

I found that my homemade bullet lube is a great case lube as well, have not bought either from a store in a while.

[bangerjim]

I use the commercial Hornady Unique lube only. Works great and that little tub has lasted a long time!

I just HATE the smell of baby oil!!!!!!!!!! That smell is totally obnoxious. So are dryer sheets and scented laundry detergents!

banger

[freebullet]

Iso-heat in red bottle with an once or so of pure liquid lanolin works great for me. I don't like the smell of baby oil either. One shot works but you have to use WAY too much for its cost imo.

[scattershot]

I made some up with alcohol and lanolin. Works well, but doesn't stay in suspension. I found the lanolin at a health food store.

[freebullet]

Pure liquid lanolin will stay suspended. I had seperation when I used anhydrous lanolin.

[canyon-ghost]

100295I got this suggestion from Ed Harris, it's Alberto VO5 in a tube. It only takes a little dab (1/4" spot) to do 100 rounds. Contains lanolin and it cheaper than anything else. I've made thousands of good rounds with this.

[canyon-ghost]

I bought a lot of Hornady One Shot to begin with. Just got tired of the revolving cycle of re-ordering case lube, that, and it gets expensive. With so much alcohol, it evaporates before I can load 100 rounds, the VO5 doesn't. Smells a bit but, it's the easiest case lube I've found to use and takes very little (very, very little, as a matter of fact). Tried RCBS spray on, was way too sticky.

Good Luck,
Ron

[cuzinbruce]

Lanolin can probably be found in most drug stores. I got mine on eBay. I put some in a small jar, touch it with my fingertips and rub it on the cases. Works fine, probably better than Imperial. But I usually don't load huge quantities. In my swaging book, Corbin says to use half lanolin and half castor oil. I am not a big fan of mineral oil for lubing things, it is mostly good on a sharpening stone. Doesn't really have much lubing ability. I broke a couple taps last week that I tried to use mineral oil on. That was what I had handy but it didn't work out very well. You want to have a good lube for sizing when you know what a hassle it can be to remove a stuck case from a die. I am putting some in my next batch of Ed's Red.

[jmort]

I too like the Unique Lube but it is "pre-mixed." Not home-made.

[Hickok]

100295I got this suggestion from Ed Harris, it's Alberto VO5 in a tube. It only takes a little dab (1/4" spot) to do 100 rounds. Contains lanolin and it cheaper than anything else. I've made thousands of good rounds with this.Great, never heard of this before! Told the wife, and she just got me some.:cool:

[HABCAN]

One container of STP Oil Treatment will 'do' your rollon pad for LIFE.

[Dan Cash]

Castor Oil is not mineral base, it comes from the castor bean. Nipple balm for nursing mothers from drug store works but I use my bullet lube which contains lanolin. Works for me.

[Rich/WIS]

Got some lanolin at Walgreens drug store, box says it 100% pure and natural. Not sure how much alcohol to add. Is there a difference between isopropyl and denatured alcohol (have both)? Use One Shot now in the spray bottle, but running low and can't find it except in spray cans.

[freebullet]

Pure liquid lanolin and 99% iso alcohol. Cheaper to buy heet in red bottle than 99%

[scattershot]

Pure liquid lanolin will stay suspended. I had seperation when I used anhydrous lanolin.

Mine's pure lanolin, but I used 91% alcohol. That's more likely the problem. I looked at some of that Red Heat at the auto parts store, but it had some kind of injector additive in it, and that scared me off.

[BrianC636]

I used the lanolin and 91% alcohol yesterday and it worked fine. I just had to shake it since it separates after it sits.

[Desertbuck]

Bag Balm works really well! I have used it since I started reloading. I do use lee case lube ones in a while. I have experimented with oils, soaps, and uther skin care products. Bag Balm is the best I found.
But you have to clean your case's with hot water, white vinegar, dawn dish soap, & a pinch of salt for 30 minutes agitate it for 30 second in a water tight container every 5 minutes, then rinse with hot water and dry. Also this is the best wet case cleaner there is. It will not make your cases glisten but it will sure get your cases so clean that your fingers squeak when you run them over it.

[GunFun]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13iRxKdajAA&index=2&list=PLSq6wScgUXRxZd2GkN1PYQ3-UwyuETZIt

And that's about all I have to say about tha-at.

[w5pv]

I have used Marvel Mystery Oil for years and have never stuck a case yet with it.A very little between the thumb and fore finger will do.After you get the hang of it you can go two to 4 3006 size cases with one application.

[scattershot]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13iRxKdajAA&index=2&list=PLSq6wScgUXRxZd2GkN1PYQ3-UwyuETZIt

And that's about all I have to say about tha-at.

Good tip on using the jar. Thanks!

[3006guns]

I got exasperated with the cost/waste of the Hornady One Shot and began looking into home made spray lube. The lanolin/alcohol mixture seemed to be popular but I couldn't find any lanolin locally. Part of my background is in aircraft history and I recalled how the Gnome rotary engine used castor oil as its lubricant. Since the demands of engine use are pretty severe, I decided to try the castor oil and mixed it 7:1 with alcohol. The results were good and I've used it ever since. Although my sprayer does a good job of coating the cases, I think the plastic jug/sponges trick might be even more uniform and somewhat cleaner. I still keep a container of Imperial for those forming jobs though.

One thing I've noticed is that the normal handling of the cases after sizing seems to remove any remnants of case lube, making further cleaning unnecessary.

[slughammer]

I didn't like the tackiness of lanolin. The effort it takes to clean lube off doesn't matter much when I'm loading 20-50 rounds, but more than that is too much for me.

My favorite right now is 12oz of 91% isopropyl and a bottle of RCBS case lube. I put this in a sprayer bottle with some marbles to agitate it every time I use it.(though I'm not sure it needs that). I like the video tip about using a jug, I use either quart or gallon ziploc bags. I spray 2 or 3 squirts in the bag and then add the brass, work it around and dump them into a cookie tin for the small batches or onto a cookie tray for the big batches. The alcohol flashes off quickly. The bag is pressed flat and reused until dirty, then replaced with a new one.

I loaded a bunch over holidays. Several thousand pistol rounds on the progressive and also about 800 .223's. For these big batches the lube cleans off in a few minutes in clean media in my vibratory tumbler. Smaller batches clean off with a rag misted with water. Since then I've also prepped 400 30-06 cases and loaded several 50 round batches of 222 and 22 hornet multiple times. I've used about half of the mix, but that is for 5000+ rounds. That probably cost me $3.

I like the RCBS and alcohol mixture. Easy to find ingredients. Easy to apply. Ziploc keeps the spray waste down. I've already bought another bottle for when this one is done.

[gwpercle]

Alberto VO5 and Bag Balm...now that's some old school products.

[GunFun]

The anhydrous lanolin is much more convenient than things like mobil one, etc because you don't need a new process to clean it off the brass. Just leave it on. I tried STP and some other synthetic motor oil. They work, but they aren't coming off easily.

[Tar Heel]

I order my Lanolin from Duro-Felt. Real nice folks and great service.
http://durofelt.com/image_33.html

[Wayne S]

Try the Wal Mart brand of "PAM", fill every other of a loading block so you can spray mainly below the shoulders on bottle neck cases

[Tar Heel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13iRxKdajAA&index=2&list=PLSq6wScgUXRxZd2GkN1PYQ3-UwyuETZIt

And that's about all I have to say about tha-at.

Great video. Well done.....

[GunFun]

thanks.

[Tar Heel]

Having read on this forum as well as other forums about users attempting to blend their own case sizing lubricant either to save money or to improve the lubricant, I must say that perhaps we are overlooking the obvious; the actual cost, per ounce, of the available lubricant versus the cost, per ounce, of homemade lubricant.

Almost to an individual, the referenced and apparently preferred case lube formula sought after is the one produced by Dillon Precision which contains Isopropyl Alcohol and Lanolin. Anyone who has used this lubricant is well aware that it works effectively. Self-formulators seem to gravitate to a 10:1 ration of Alcohol to Lanolin.

There is a reason that Dillon uses Isopropyl alcohol in their product. The reason they use Isopropyl Alcohol (C3H8O) instead of Methanol (CH3OH) or Ethanol (C2H6O) is that the evaporation rate (vapor pressure) of Isopropyl Alcohol is significantly slower than the other two types of alcohols. Methanol or ‘wood alcohol’ evaporates “crazy fast” to quote a chemist friend of mine. Ethanol evaporates slightly slower but you may prefer to drink your ethanol instead of spraying it on cases. Isopropyl Alcohol fits the niche precisely with its low volatility and acceptable evaporation rate – allowing case handling, rolling, and effective surface flow of lubricant to coat the case before the carrier (alcohol) evaporates off.

Lanolin used should be of the liquid variety to allow for saturation in the carrier solution (alcohol). Those who don’t read the entire posts here will be doomed to repeat the failures of others who did not read the entire post and used normal and readily available Lanolin in its ‘greasy’ state. Liquid Lanolin, while slightly more expensive, allows for ready mixing and will not form precipitate when in solution.

So having made the decision to reproduce the Dillon formulation using Isopropyl Alcohol and Liquid Lanolin, and using the consensus of the home brewers of a 10:1 formulation (which may not be a Dillon formulation) let’s investigate the cost savings.

The Dillon Case Lube plus shipping works out to be $1.30/ounce. That’s 8 bottles at 8 ounces of product each for a total of 64 ounces of case lube. Shipping to North Carolina would cost me $11.99. Combined with the product equals $83.59 total. So we have $83.59 divided by 64 ounces for $1.30 per ounce - delivered.

I purchased 4 bottles of Liquid Lanolin (16 ounces) from PipingRock.com for $5.49 each. With free shipping, the total order was $21.96. The cost of the Liquid Lanolin worked out to be $1.37 an ounce.

The 99% Isopropyl Alcohol which I ordered through my local chemist was $29.70 for four 16 ounce bottles. This works out to a total of 64 ounces at $0.64 per ounce

My total cost for the liquid components of the lubricant (no spray bottle) using 99% Isopropyl Alcohol and Liquid Lanolin (the Dillon Formulation) are $7.77 for 11 ounces of product or $0.70 per ounce.
(10 ounces Alcohol is $6.40, 1 ounce Lanolin is $1.37)

Frankly we can see that the home brew using ideal components costs us $0.70 an ounce whereas the Dillon product costs $1.30 per ounce or almost twice the cost of home brew. We are assuming too that the Dillon product is a 10:1 ratio which it probably isn’t.

Now the larger question looms. Is the 100% savings of a home brew product worth it? I have an 8oz bottle of Dillon Case Lube on the reloading bench I have been using for a few years. I have another in the closet to replace the first bottle when needed. I do not load thousands of rifle cases every year nor are the majority of my handgun calibers run through standard dies. I use carbide Dillon dies on my Dillon 550B progressive which does see a few thousand rounds per year.

I expect the Dillon Case Lube to last a while and just don’t see the need for 28 ounces of lubricant in the next 10 years. I could have spent $20 bucks on a single bottle of lube from Dillon and saved 30 bucks for something more useful on my reloading bench.

Another point to ponder is that by patronizing companies like Dillon and “giving” them the $4.00/bottle profit (if it actually is that much), we will continue to receive the EXCELLENT customer service from them we have grown to expect. The last time I called Dillon to get a part for my 550B press, I almost got into an argument with the guy about letting me pay for the part that I BROKE. He absolutely refused and kept quoting Dillon’s “No ********” warranty policy.

The few extra dollars we spend at Dillon, RCBS, Lyman, Accurate Molds, Lee, and a host of others, allows them to pay Americans to fill American jobs and answer phone calls from a dummy like me with a positively stupid question. It allows companies like Dillon to provide us with “No ********” product warranties to keep us banging out ammo for matches.

Please keep in mind that unless you use gallons of lubricant every year, and if you are like most of us where 16 ounces will last a decade, our American companies need our support and dollars to keep them healthy and viable. If you are using gallons of case lube every year, you may be able to swing a deal with one of the commercial suppliers to get your lube at a reduced cost.

While researching this piece, I did happen to watch a great video by user GunFun in post #20. His use of the plastic jug with sponges inside of it will save quite a bit of lubricant, either homemade or commercial. That is a GREAT idea and one I will adopt. Even the ‘whippersnappers’ have a good idea every now and again!

While I’m at it, have you considered contributing the tons of money you saved by making your home brew case lube to this fine forum venue? Cast Boolits is a labor of love that needs your support to keep the ideas and hardware banging onward. Please be sure to investigate contributing and helping us keep this outstanding venue ticking. And like GunFun said:

“And that's about all I have to say about tha-at.”

Update on 5/3/14: A mixture of 10:2 Alcohol to Lanolin is working better. (10 oz Alcohol with 2 oz Lanolin)