Imperial Sizing Wax vs Lanolin

[David2011]

This is not about bashing Imperial Sizing Wax; it's one of my favorite case lubes. It's just a report on what I ran into while trying to use it last night.

A friend has been loading small pistol rounds for some time but recently got a .500 S&W and was trying to reload those cartridges. He told me they were too big to fit in the sizing die. Hmmm. That doesn't sound right. He also said his reloads wouldn't fit in the cylinder. I was at his house over the weekend and had a chance to look at his setup. It turns out that all of his other dies are carbide and he has never had to use case lube for 9mm and .40- he had never used case lube for anything. He had Lyman plain steel dies for the .500 and was trying to size them on a little RCBS Partner press without case lube. It's no wonder that he had broken the handle and the counter top of his loading bench trying to size them. He had swapped pieces of the dies around so he could decap, prime and assemble rounds without sizing them.

While breaking down the 16 rounds he had assembled I found that they most certainly would have allowed the bullets to walk out if he had successfully chambered them. There was not nearly enough roll crimp. The bullets came out of the cases with a single whack of the inertia puller.

The cases would fit in the die; he just didn't have enough oomph with the Partner press to size the big .500 cases. I took all of his .500 stuff home to see how much force was required to size the big cases. I polished the brass (he didn't have anything to clean them with) and sized 2 or 3 on my RockChucker using Imperial Sizing Wax. They sized with a little effort so I moved the sizing die to the JR3 that I intended to loan him if it was adequate for the task. It was a little spooky. The press/brass protested much. The brass chattered and grabbed as it went into the die. I progressively pushed the brass in deeper with 3 strokes to get it sized while not getting it stuck. After sizing 3 cases that way it wasn't a good idea to keep going. There was a new bottle of lanolin sitting on the shelf so I rubbed a little straight lanolin on a case. It sized MUCH more easily than the Imperial lubed cases. I ran a couple more through just to test. Still smooth and very reasonable force was was required. The rest of the cases were generously sprayed (in retrospect, way more than enough) with Dillon lanolin based lube and the alcohol was allowed to evaporate completely. The cases sized with surprising ease. There was no chance of mistaking these cases for .38 special or .45ACP but the lanolin was a far superior lube for this specific cartridge. I'm a huge fan of Imperial Sizing Wax. It just wan't the best choice for this application and gave the JR3 press a huge advantage in utility.

David

[joesig]

I've always been a fan of Lanolin and haven't had the best luck with the Imperial Sizing Wax. I've tried it a few times and have given up. I'd love it if you were able to do some kind of a side by side test. Very interesting with straight wall cases. My 308 experience has me wondering if my tin of wax is defective or my dies just don't like the wax.

[OuchHot!]

Thanks for the info. I always thought the sun moon and stars of the imperial wax but never cross compared to lanolin. I'll give that a whirl.

[Bayou52]

Thanks for the info. I always thought the sun moon and stars of the imperial wax but never cross compared to lanolin. I'll give that a whirl.

In my experience, I've had great luck with both Imperial Sizing Wax and Hornady Unique Sizing Wax. Both have worked equally well. I'll give the edge to Hornady Unique based solely on pricing - it's much less expensive than Imperial. A whole tub of Horndady Unique costs about the same as 1 oz. of Imperial.

[David2011]

This is the first time I had ever tried Imperial on straight walled cases and the .500 is probably among the worst because it is so big and has no taper. All of my pistol dies are carbide (The 500 is my friend's) although I still have some steel dies left from when I didn't feel like I could afford carbide. That was also when I only bought 400 primers at a time at $0.69/100 and it was hard to turn loose of $8.95 for a pound of Bullseye.

I use Imperial for all bottlenecked cartridges except 5.56/.223. Those are most often lubed with lanolin based lube. I have no trouble with .22-250, 6.5x55 and .30-'06 and Imperial. All of my expander balls have been polished starting at 400 grit going down to 2000 grit with plenty of intermediate grits so they have a high polish on them but there's no measurable reduction in diameter. That makes a huge reduction in the effort required to retract the expander from the sized case. The polised surface is almost as good as a carbide expander compared to the matte factory finishes. If your expander squeaks as it pulls out of the case it's probably stretching the case in addition to requiring more effort on the press handle. Mine are all quiet after polishing.

David

[wordsmith]

I started with several different lubes including RCBS 2, Lee Case Lube (cut 10:1 with alcohol), and Imperial. I ran into real problems when sizing 7.62x51 Military OFB that had been fired in generous machine gun chambers. These thick walled cartridges can be difficult to resize, which started me looking for something better. Short version - liquid lanolin cut 10:1 with 99% alcohol (both can be easily found online) produced the best results, by far. Easy resizing. I make batches for all my reloading friends, at less than half the cost of the Dillon equivalent. 4-6 squirts from a spray bottle will do hundreds of pieces of brass when rolled around in a closed container. Just make sure and let the alcohol evaporate (happens quickly with 99%), and sizing is easy. I clean it off with a liquid solution that includes water, vinegar, Dawn and maybe an ounce of Mineral Spirits. Cuts the Lanolin quickly.

Nothing else to date has compared.

[zuke]

I'm going to be forming 24 gauge brass into 577-450 soon and will give lanolin a try. I have about 1lb of it but will most likely just put it on with my finger tip.

[abunaitoo]

For years I've been using Kiwi Mink oil.
Looks, and works just like Imperial. Much cheaper for a bigger tin.

[David2011]

Zuke,

This is just seat-of-the-pants testing but the sprayed on alcohol/lanolin lube took considerably less effort on the press handle than the straight lanolin I applied with my fingertips. I was surprised at the difference but attributed it to the more even coating from the sprayed on lube.

David

[zuke]

I'll have to mix up a batch then.

[r1kk1]

It is very similar to the Dillon case lube. I don't know what the ratio the Dillon stuff is. I've added alcohol when I empty the bottle and try to redistribute the lanolin left in the bottle. I'm also trying out Royal case lube. I do form a lot of cases and have a 500 S&W barrel to try different lubes on.

Take care

r1kk1

[ph4570]

I have used nothing but my mix of lanolin and 99% alcohol for the last 10-15 years. I'll never return to anything else.

[358wcf]

Thanks for the info! I've used nothing but Imperial Wax for over 40 years, thinking there was nothing better- I will be placing an order for lanolin this week!
Chuck 358wcf

[SOFMatchstaff]

You can get a perfectly good lube at wally world in the hair care section, called Blue Magic. Its cheap, 4oz for $3 or so, has petrolatum and lanolin and some smell good stuff and it works on every thing from 50BMG on down. the only time I have to use the Imperial is on the bitchy 50AE nickle cases. the application method varies, with carbide dies its every so often to ease the passage, on bottle necks it is applied when I insert the case in the press. I will sometimes use a spray product on the 9mm and supers, fill the hopper on the 1050 and 1000 and give them a spritz while its turning is all they need.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

I use Unique because it flat out works and comes off the cases easily. Lanolin tends to gum up my SS pin tumbler and make the brass come out dingy looking. Just my experience.

[cuzinbruce]

I have both Imperial and a jar of lanolin (anhydrous). Mostly I seem to use the lanolin. In my swaging book, Corbin recommends a 50/50 mix of lanolin and castor oil. Castor oil is also a great lubricant. That is what they use (or used to use) in racing motorcycles. You could smell it in the air when they were racing two-stroke MC's. I have to mix up some 50/50 one of these days.

[bruce drake]

For years I've been using Kiwi Mink oil.
Looks, and works just like Imperial. Much cheaper for a bigger tin.

Exactly my thoughts as well.

[David2011]

I use Unique because it flat out works and comes off the cases easily. Lanolin tends to gum up my SS pin tumbler and make the brass come out dingy looking. Just my experience.

Maybe I put too much effort into the brass but it really takes very little time. The polisher does all the work. When I size using a steel die whether rifle or pistol, I tumble polish for a little while so I won't be sizing dirty brass. The brass is lubed with alcohol/lanolin or Imperial depending mostly on how many I intend to do. After sizing the brass goes back into the tumbler to bring a nice shine and remove the lube. I know it's not necessary for it to look new. I just do it because it makes me happy. Trimming is done after the second polish if needed.

I keep thinking about getting SS pins; just haven't yet. My first encounter with SS pin polishing was when I bought a pot load of .40 brass from AZSHTR. When I opened the package it looked like new brass, even the primer pockets and inside the cartridges. It's awesome. He was kind enough to explain how he polished it.

Really, I never had much trouble sizing anything with RCBS pad lube, RCBS spray, Dillon Spray or Imperial until using a too small press and Imperial on the .500 S&W cases.

David

[zuke]

I LOVE my SS pin set up!
Punch primer's,tumble, size,tumble to clean off lube (15 min),trim,reprime,load,shoot,repeat

[zuke]

You can get a perfectly good lube at wally world in the hair care section, called Blue Magic. Its cheap, 4oz for $3 or so, has petrolatum and lanolin and some smell good stuff and it works on every thing from 50BMG on down. the only time I have to use the Imperial is on the bitchy 50AE nickle cases. the application method varies, with carbide dies its every so often to ease the passage, on bottle necks it is applied when I insert the case in the press. I will sometimes use a spray product on the 9mm and supers, fill the hopper on the 1050 and 1000 and give them a spritz while its turning is all they need.

You wouldn't happen to have the bar code number's would you? I think it might be a USA item only. I spent 30 minute's with the little strawberry blond looking and looking and just couldn't find it.