Trouble pan lubing Lee boolits

[Arkansas Paul]

Anyone else have trouble pan lubing Lee boolits?
I have 2 Lyman molds and they both have nice deep lube grooves that hold a lot of lube, and fill nicely when pan lubed.
I own several Lee molds and the darn lube grooves are so shallow, I try to pan lube and half of them or more, don't hold any lube when I punch them out. These are NOT the tumble lube bullets, they have lube grooves, just extremely shallow ones. All of my Lee molds are the same.

Any tricks to help, or do I just need to use Lee molds for tumble lubed stuff, and buy Lyman, RCBS or Seaco molds for stuff I want to pan lube?

[country gent]

Try "cooking" them a little longer. Set the pan in the water bath and not only melt the lube but give it a 15 min-20 min "soak" time in the hot water. This will get the lube and bullets up to temp and give some time for them to fill. Last is don't cool to quickly. I pan lube all my bpcr bullets with spg. I have one 2" X11"x13" pan that has 2 rails fit in it to keep inner pan off the bottom. The inner pans are 1 1/2" X 9" X 11" These get the bullets and lube. I sit the outer pan on a stove burner level and the rails then the inner pan with bullets and lube fill outer pan with water at least to level of bullets grease grooves a little higher is better. Turn on burner and heat when lube is melted if needed add to fill grooves completely. And let heat for 15 mins. turn off burner and let air cool to solid. I don't push bullets out but use a cake cutter to pull them out. This leaves the lube and hole pattern in the pan allowing me to sit next batch in the holes after and inly replacing what lube was used by the bullets.

My cake cutters are a push thru design I made from .030 wall brass tubing. Cut 3-4" long and a tubing handle. I bought the tubing large and swaged 1" of working end down .010 bigger than bullet. Sharpen edge with a deburring tool inside only. This slops over bullet easily and the inside chamfer when cutting bullet from lube pushes the lube in to the grooves slightly compressing it. THe cutter is simple as a bullet is pushed in one comes out the top.

[Froogal]

I have 2 Lee molds for .45 Colt. A 452-200 and a 452-228-1r. I pan lube both of those and it works very well with an occassional bullet that did not retain the lube. However, a Lee 358-158 round nose did not work so well. Almost none of those retained the lube. I even did it a second time and got the same results. I am using SPG lube.

[Kraschenbirn]

What are you using for lube? I pan-lube with (home-brewed) Emmert's for all my BPCRs but only cast two Lee boolits - the 379-250RF for .38-55 and the 459-405HB for .45-70 - and have experienced no lube problems with either.

Also, how long are you letting your boolits cool before you 'punch them out'? Lube will cool much faster than boolits and if you don't allow temps to equalize, lube in grooves will be much softer (due to heat retained by the boolits) than the surrounding cake. If I'm really in a hurry, I may stick my filled lube pans into the small fridge under my workbench for 20 minutes or so before pushing out the boolits.

Bill

[Froogal]

I let mine set overnight. Sometimes even longer. I might try the refrigerator trick.

[country gent]

I pan lube with both spg and emmerts improved ( only 5% canola oil and 5% Lanolin added) but like stated I use a cake cutter to remove mine. I think the softer lubes like spg and emmerts / improved are more susceptible to pulling out of the grooves rather than shearing to stay in the grooves. The cake cutter helps push it in and hold it in place. My pans hold 200+ bullets and with lube that's a lot to hold on to when pushing them out.

[mdi]

I've found that if I get the bullets and the lube up to the same temperature the lube stays in the groove better, and I put them in my toaster oven @ around 180-200 degrees for mebbe a half hour and allow them to cool in the oven. None of the lubes I use allow good clean "punching out" bullets from the lube cake, so I cut them out with a "cookie cutter". I started casting in about '90 and so far don't have (want) a lubersizer as I quite successfully pan lube and dip lube, and I rarely need more than 100-125 bullets lubed at one time...

Plus, I've noticed some bullets just have shallow lube grooves; my 45 Colt 255 RNFP, Lee mold bullets, has shallow grooves, but those same bullets I purchased from a commercial caster (Missouri?), also have shallow lube grooves...

[Arkansas Paul]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm using the following lube recipe.

1 lb paraffin wax
1 lb beeswax
1 entire container (12 oz maybe) of Vaseline
2 Tbs STP oil treatment

It is a fairly soft lube. Maybe that's the issue.
I don't want to go too hard though. I use this lube for everything from light .38 Special plinking loads up to full throttle .44 magnum stuff and it works really well.

Also, I may need to let it set longer. It only set up for an hour, maybe a little less.

I'll try letting them stay in the cake longer.

Thanks again.

[RED BEAR]

I also had a problem pan lubeing some lee bullets the 38 158 gr rnfp never did get it figured out switched to a luber sizer after son bought me one ust have raised him right.

[country gent]

Try the cake cutter. For a test cutter use a fired case with the primer hole drilled out for a 3/16" - 1/4" length of dowel. Just :sharpen" the inside of the mouth with a deburring tool to a sharp edge

[WRideout]

I use a home made cake cutter for my 357 boolits, made from a fired 35 rem case. I haven't had too much trouble with all the lube coming off, but the case mouth diameter is slightly oversize, so it leaves a LOT of lube on the boolits. My home made lube is fairly stiff and waxy, but it seems to hold on okay when using the cutter.

Wayne

[JBinMN]

To the OP, Arkansas Paul,

If you do find a solution to your lube sticking to the boolits issue, please return & let everyone know what you ended up doing so those who have asimilar issue might see your solution in the future.
:)

I can't think of anything to add to help you other than what others have offered, ut for the below if you were not aware of it...
;)
----------------
For anyone,

Here is a pan lubing tip , for those who were not aware, or are just starting out. For those who might already know, then great. I just did not see it mentioned here & it may help those who are just getting in to pan-lubing, or even some who have been doing it for some time. Particularly when they start using a new lube to try, or adding a new component to the mix & need to start over with a good mixture using old & new lube components in the mixture.

While some folks already know that once you have cut out or punched out the boolits,, to leave the "cakes" with the holes in them alone, & use those holes to set the next run of boolits in to help hold them up.

Well if you are just starting out & don't have the holes & you set the boolits on their bases/gas-checks to pour the lube in & some tip over, here is a tip to keep that from happening, & it is a really simply one....
( I use to always have boolits tip over during one part of the process or the other until I started doing the below tip, and it was always frustrating to me, particularly when they "dominoed" & knocked over a lot of them & I had to start over to set them back up. When it happened while the lube was still liquid it was even worse...)


Just make the holes ahead of time.

Melt the lube in the pan , or pour it in when liquid without any boolits & then just cut the holes in the "cake" for the boolits with whatever size "cutter" you want. Then place the boolits into the "cake" of lube, put the little "cot out pieces in the pan as well to remelt them, & re melt the lube.

That brings the heat of the lube and boolit up to the same level of temp for the melting point you need & helps to keep them upright while the lube cools & then when the lube has cooled sufficiently...Then you can take the pan of lube & boolits & place in a cold place to complete the job.

Anyway, some may have known about this little tip, and some may not, but I did not see it mentioned so I added it here.
;)

G'Luck!
:)

P.S. - Larger boolits I usually push them out. Smaller ones I use a cutter I make out of a case with the primer left out, and a slot cut into the side of the case to open up the case to accommodate larger diameter boolits, with the mouth beveled.
I use a .357 case for all boolits .358-.359 or smaller, and use the corresponding case to boolits with larger cases/calibers.
I use a little Allen wrench to push the boolits out & I hold the case with a needle nose vise grip, lightly tightened around the case rim, as my fingers get sore from trying to hold the case & use it after many boolits cut.
Those little 102 gr. boolits I use for the .380 for example, are a pain to push out, so I started using cutters on all the smaller boolits.

YMMV, but I thought I would make another mention of making & using a home made DIY cutter.
;).