Degreasing boolits

[thumbs]

Long story short but I would like to degrease some bullets. Some are prelubed store bought boolits and some are tumble lubed with 45-45-10. I would like to degrease them so I can powder coat them.

thanks

[blueeyephil]

I have soaked TL bullets in acetone to do that. Might work in prelude too. For prelude you can melt the lube off and then give them a soak. Probably don't need more than 200 degrees. Put them on newspaper or paper towels in your toaster oven.

[bdicki]

I use brake cleaner.

[bangerjim]

I have mentioned this quite a few times. It works 110% of the time!

1. soak in laq thinner overnite. Or until grease totally dissolves.
2. dump & save thinner for next batch
3. Rinse in clean thinner
4. Dump & save in separate container for next batch
5. Swirl in VERY HOT water + Simple Green
6. Dump & rinse in VERY HOT water
7. Dry

Boolits will be totally clean and ready for PC.

This is the best of all the other methods that have been mentioned on here....and I have tried them all. I have degreased many hundreds this way. Many were dirty old crusty grungy greasers.

Works VERY well for me and my PC needs.

banger

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Before I realized Mineral Spirits will remove TL in a heart beat, I used a concentrated cleaner from the dollar store called "LA's Totally Awesome".

I suppose Mineral Spirits might leave some residue, that could be cleaned with a concentrated cleaner or lacquer.

store bought prelubed bullets, I'd heat them with heatgun, then Lacquer rinse

[Wardo1974]

Just dump them in a pot of water and boil them on the stovetop. All these other methods are needlessly complicated. The lube melts off in minutes.

[NavyVet1959]

Dump them in your casting pot and recast them. Works EVERY time. :)

[WMB30]

Right On Wardo1957

[WMB30]

Right On Wardo1974

[bangerjim]

Just dump them in a pot of water and boil them on the stovetop. All these other methods are needlessly complicated. The lube melts off in minutes.

Might work for a light coat of fresh new TL grease, but definitely not for old hard dirty crusty grease. And the buildup in the grooves.

My way gets rid of all the dirt, gunk, garbage and grease. Use whatever method fits the condition of your grease to be removed. One method does NOT fit all applications!!!!

banger

[NavyVet1959]

Might work for a light coat of fresh new TL grease, but definitely not for old hard dirty crusty grease. And the buildup in the grooves.

My way gets rid of all the dirt, gunk, garbage and grease. Use whatever method fits the condition of your grease to be removed. One method does NOT fit all applications!!!!

banger

Uhh... The casting pot does... :)

[Dragonheart]

Gasoline is less expensive than thinner and quickly gets all the lube off, then a light rinse in acetone removes any residual oil. But I like the boiling water idea, never tried it , but is sounds good.

[bangerjim]

Uhh... The casting pot does... :)


If I have several thousand excellent boolits already cast (which I have had in the past), why in the world would I melt them down? Just to re-cast them. Waste of time & electricity in my book. But do what floats your boat.

Mabe if you had only a few dozen, melting down might make sense.

[bangerjim]

Gasoline is less expensive than thinner and quickly gets all the lube off, then a light rinse in acetone removes any residual oil. But I like the boiling water idea, never tried it , but is sounds good.

In all my workshops, gasoline has absolutely no place as a solvent. FAR too dangerous. Gasoline resides only in my cars and lawn mowers.

Check out the LEL/UEL of common liquids:

https://www.mathesongas.com/pdfs/products/Lower-(LEL)-&-Upper-(UEL)-Explosive-Limits-.pdf

[DaveSpud]

NavyVet has it right. Dump them in the casting pot. No muss, no fuss, the coating just adds to the flux.

[Tenbender]

I tried boiling the letting it cool . Skin off the wax and whatever then a wash in acetone. They looked perfectly clean. PC'd them and it didn't stick. Dumped them in the pot and recast. lol

[bangerjim]

I tried boiling the letting it cool . Skin off the wax and whatever then a wash in acetone. They looked perfectly clean. PC'd them and it didn't stick. Dumped them in the pot and recast. lol

I rest my case.

Hear me now and believe me later! [smilie=w:

My method listed above works perfectly for PC'ing. I have done several thousand that way and every one coated with powder 100% and baked with a perfect coat. They were perfect cast boolits and I did not waste time melting them down and re-casting. I did not even have the mold like most of them were cast in. And I wanted that boolit design!

banger

[NavyVet1959]

If I have several thousand excellent boolits already cast (which I have had in the past), why in the world would I melt them down? Just to re-cast them. Waste of time & electricity in my book. But do what floats your boat.

Mabe if you had only a few dozen, melting down might make sense.

Probably also depends upon how many cavities you have in the mold for them. If it's a six cavity mold, a few hundred is no big deal, but if you only have a single cavity mold, it becomes more of one. :)

Personally, I would just shoot the conventionally lubed bullets and worry about powder coating the next batch I cast.

[bangerjim]

Probably also depends upon how many cavities you have in the mold for them. If it's a six cavity mold, a few hundred is no big deal, but if you only have a single cavity mold, it becomes more of one. :)

Personally, I would just shoot the conventionally lubed bullets and worry about powder coating the next batch I cast.

Believe me.........you would have NEVER shot these dirty grimy filthy greasers! They had been around for a long time and had picked up lots of abrasive dirt. And the grease was HARD in the grooves. Yet, I wanted that specific design of boolit, so I came up with the method I outlined above. It worked perfectly for what I needed and has never failed me yet after 2 years of using it.

Most of my MANY MANY molds are 5 and 6 cavity, but I did not have that specific design, so I wanted to save them and PC them. I feel 1 & 2 cavity molds are a total waste of time, even though I have several of them.

banger

[NavyVet1959]

Believe me.........you would have NEVER shot these dirty grimy filthy greasers! They had been around for a long time and had picked up lots of abrasive dirt. And the grease was HARD in the grooves. Yet, I wanted that specific design of boolit, so I came up with the method I outlined above. It worked perfectly for what I needed and has never failed me yet after 2 years of using it.


I would have probably just boiled them to get most of the lube and crud off of them and then relubed them with a tumble lube.


Most of my MANY MANY molds are 5 and 6 cavity, but I did not have that specific design, so I wanted to save them and PC them. I feel 1 & 2 cavity molds are a total waste of time, even though I have several of them.


I probably have a 2-cavity mold for every 6-cavity mold that I own. I started out with the 2-cavity ones to try them out and then bought the 6-cavity versions when I decided to cast more in one session. There's still a couple of molds that I only have in 2-cavity models though (e.g. 405 gr for .45-70, 230 gr for .300AAC, 300 gr for .45LC, 210 gr .41 mag for resizing to 10mm, or anything which I only have a Thompson Encore barrel for).

[Dragonheart]

Bangerjim is right. I can't understand why anyone would elect to buy anything smaller than a 4 cavity or larger, it is just not that much cost savings? I have some 2 cavity, but they are 50 years old and not used.

[NavyVet1959]

Bangerjim is right. I can't understand why anyone would elect to buy anything smaller than a 4 cavity or larger, it is just not that much cost savings? I have some 2 cavity, but they are 50 years old and not used.

Over at Midway, the Lee 2-cavity molds are $21 and the 6-cavity ones (if they even *have* that particular mold in 6-cavity) is $40. When you are just starting out, you might think that the 2-cavity ones will be enough, but you soon realize that it would be nice to have the increased production capacity of a 6-cavity model. Lee doesn't produce all their molds in 6-cavity though. Plus, if you only have a single shot rifle in that particular caliber, it's not like you are going to be needing a *lot* of those bullets at any one time. I'll often keep one of the low usage caliber 2-cavity molds handy for when I'm casting with a 6-cavity high usage caliber so that if I find the mold getting a bit too hot, I can let it sit for a bit while alternating with the 2-cavity one.

[Wardo1974]

I tried boiling the letting it cool . Skin off the wax and whatever then a wash in acetone. They looked perfectly clean. PC'd them and it didn't stick. Dumped them in the pot and recast. lol

Gah. I've done thousands of new AND old boolits on the stovetop. Just boil them in the water, watch the lube melt right off, and while it's still hot, you pour the whole thing through a spaghetti strainer and you rinse. I never said anything about letting them cool in the wax. If needs be, you boil it twice just to be sure, and they come out shiny clean and don't even need the acetone. This method costs you nothing - why not give it a try?

I've never, ever had the PC not stick to the boolits I made this way. And I melted off old hard grease too - so what if it's dirty? You have nothing to lose by trying this first. Having said this, there's more than one way to skin a cat, but I'm all about doing it cheap and easy first, if possible.

[thumbs]

Thanks guys. In my particular case I am trying to find bullets and loads that will work in my 1894. I have bullets that I bought for my revolver. I do not have a mold at the time. I would like to buy the correct size but don't know what that is. I am using the toaster oven,dedicated to my loading work. It works pretty well. I am trying to "perfect" it.
Thanks for all the help guys.

[45cal]

Just did half a gallon can of 44 bullets I had made three years back.
Got tired of the blue lube smear on my 629.
Reg gasoline for a day on them in can.
The next day grease all gone,the a bath in hot water and simple green solution.
P C them yesterday in red this time.
The last ones I did I mixed up several colors and that bunch came out school bus yellow.

[Dragonheart]

Just did half a gallon can of 44 bullets I had made three years back.
Got tired of the blue lube smear on my 629.
Reg gasoline for a day on them in can.
The next day grease all gone,the a bath in hot water and simple green solution.
P C them yesterday in red this time.
The last ones I did I mixed up several colors and that bunch came out school bus yellow.

Actually, you don't need to leave them in the gasoline for a day, about 30 minutes did it for me when I had a few thousand to degrease. I also did a quick rinse in acetone, which took off any remaining oil. They all coated with no problems.

[Jesse Heywood]

Some of us are old enough to remember when gasoline was used for cleaning parts in the garage. The older shop manuals even called for gasoline as a degreaser. Stoddard Safety Solvent replaced gasoline. I haven't tried it on bullet lube.

Today I had a batch of bullets that had been tumbled with Rooster Jacket. The stuff wouldn't boil off, so I tossed them in the tumbler with small grind walnut hulls. An hour later and the remaining lube was gone. Now I need to clean in dishwater and rinse.

[Beagle333]

Actually, you don't need to leave them in the gasoline for a day, about 30 minutes did it for me when I had a few thousand to degrease. I also did a quick rinse in acetone, which took off any remaining oil. They all coated with no problems.

That's the way I do it whenever I find any older alox'ed boolits to clean. :D

[Dragonheart]

Yes, there are still some of us that remember cleaning all the greasy auto parts in gasoline, even when it cost a whopping $0.17 a gallon. I can't understand it, but somehow we survived.

[leadman]

Paint thinner (mineral spirits) will work well for degreasing boolits but does leave a film. For this I use Purple Power alkyd soap I buy at WalMart for about $12 for 2 1/2 gallons. This is a pretty good degreaser for general shop use as it does not attack your skin like Castrol Super Klean does.
Powder coat may work well for coating previously sized and lubed boolits but Hi-Tek coating does not stick well to the burnished surfaces.
Boiling the boolits in PP will lightly etch the boolits burnished surfaces and sometimes the HT sticks, sometimes not. Just for general info.