Swaging Lube

[Danth]

Never understood the various view points on swaging lube. I've tried alot of various lubricants and all seemed to work about the same, so I settled on using case lube from a RCBS pad as it's very convienient. Well, for whatever reason, swaging 30cal in a Hollywood Senior press became a nightmare. A tremendous amount of force was required to swage and more so for ejection. I've swaged these bullets countless times before, but this time it was a real task. Decided to try some lanolin/castor oil mix I made up some time ago and presto--- problem solved. Lanolin/castor oil will be my lube from now on!

[GRUMPA]

I've made the castor oil lube some time ago. Getting the Lanolin shipped is no biggie but the castor oil is another story. For the sake of convenience I now use equal parts of Lanolin and Vaseline which works just fine for my needs. Just having a couple pounds of Lanolin and mixing it up you realize just how long a couple of pounds lasts. And the Vaseline can be had locally at a dollar store all the time.

While the Castor Oil mix seems to wash off easier using the stainless steel pins for me it's harder to obtain locally. And keep in mind just getting Vaseline up here is a 2 1/2hr round trip and I don't make those trips often.

[JRPVT]

Lanolin/ castor oil has been the goto mix for swaging since I started almost 20 years ago. Also had the sticking problem with RCBS case lube, 35 years ago with .38 special wadcutter brass. Ended up using olive oil for them. Dave

[aaronraad]

Never understood the various view points on swaging lube. I've tried alot of various lubricants and all seemed to work about the same, so I settled on using case lube from a RCBS pad as it's very convienient. Well, for whatever reason, swaging 30cal in a Hollywood Senior press became a nightmare. A tremendous amount of force was required to swage and more so for ejection. I've swaged these bullets countless times before, but this time it was a real task. Decided to try some lanolin/castor oil mix I made up some time ago and presto--- problem solved. Lanolin/castor oil will be my lube from now on!

Big difference in pressure required for full-length resizing and swaging, if you were just referring to RCBS case lube. The die makers often talk about the "diesel" point for lubricants. Essentially the point at which the lubricant will undergo a chemical reaction under pressure, similar to the combustion methodology of diesel fuel in a 4-stroke engine. Sometimes this can be seen as a black smear or smut on and ejected core or jacket from the die.

Pound for pound, bees wax is highly prized for core seating and pointing jacketed bullets, but is too viscous in it's pure form. It's normally cut with combinations of those lubricants mentioned above to maintain viscous properties more suitable to bullet swaging, especially in colder climates. It becomes a compromise therefore how much bees wax you can introduce and have an acceptable level of even lubrication.

Ideally you are applying the lubricant as evenly as possible with just enough to perform the swaging operation, without building up in your die. Handling lubricated jackets for example, with unlubricated finger tips (or gloves), will actually strip off lubricant to the point that it will affect performance in small calibres for target grade projectiles. Again application, handling and repeatability are important if you require a precision product with each batch from your dies, regardless of your choice of lubricant. Once all this sinks in you will probably start to pay a little more attention to how your brass cartridge handloads feel going through the dies in your press.

For the amount of lubricant you typically use, its worth finding a pharmacist with the almost lost skill of mixing compounds. I live in a city of over 2M and we're not short of pharmacists and retail chemists, but there are only about 5 that can mix compounds and require at least a weeks lead-time.

[just bill]

I made the Caster oil (bought off the shelf at Wally World) and anhydrous lanolin and it seems ok.

However the heet (red bottle) and The anhydrous lanolin mix, keeps separating. I haven't found a way to emulsify the mixture to keep the lanolin suspended. The old army trick to make napalm( jellied gas) was mixing Tide as the fuel thickener. Would be nice to not having to keep shaking the bottle before using it. I've read that liquid lanolin is the ticket, but the only I've found in one health food store is $11 per couple ozs.

Bill

[runfiverun]

get your lanolin right here from randyrat.
in the V.S. section.
he usually has bees-wax, and other stuff too.

I have been using lanolin and castor oil [2 to 1] for quite a while now for everything from lip balm to swaging. [I even have mixed it with B-wax to make boolit lube]
I started adding in just enough neets foot oil to make it more of a slurry than a thick paste and really like the results.
I put the jackets in a baggie and add in the lube with a Q-tip and mush everything around this gives them all a thin even coat that doesn't leave wrinkles.

[just bill]

runfive

I have bought from Randy and used his formula for case lube, however it keeps separating. Just wanted to try to ticken it up a bit you know. The swaging lube seems ok, so far.

Bill