I'm a noob! Uh, where do I start?

[Castnshoot]

Ok, so I got me a Lee 20# 110v furnace with bottom pour. I put two six cavity molds on lay away, one 124gr .356 TC for my .357 Sig, and another 200gr LSWC for my .45. Ingot mold and mold handles are on layaway, as is the 20# cast pot. I also want to order the Lee Size/Lube kits to use on my single stage press. I'm going to get me a turkey roaster for smelting.

Here's the thing, I'm not sure if I want to go with tumble lube bullets or cannelure lube bullets. Reason behind this is, tumble lube bullets molds are limited, but are the quickest to lube, and I can make my own lube. The cannelure bullet molds have more variety, but require the stick lube, which would tie me to a company in a dependent way. No good. I don't mind getting the lube heating press with the punches and all that, but which one am I better off with?

[jonk]

Not so! No reason you can't tumble lube bullets with a traditional cannelure. I do it all the time using Lee liquid alox, even for rifle at modest velocity. On the flip side, you can lube micro-band tumble style bullets in a regular lube sizer if you ever decide to go that route. So I'd say, go with whatever floats your boat.

[No_1]

I have to agree with Jonk, get whatever works for you but please keep in mind that if you can make your own lube for the tumble lube boolits then you can make your own lube for the sizer press. Do a search here for "Felix World Famous Lube". It is not as hard to make as it may seem.

Robert

[looseprojectile]

IMHO, you are well on the way. :smile:
I started with a lot less. If the moulds you have selected are not Lee micro groove type you are most likely going to need some way to lube and size the boolits. Luber-sizer makes sense.
I have had very good results with the Lee type boolits recently and have nearly abandoned the use of my luber-sizer. Lee makes the size dies for cheap and they work excellently in conjunction with the liquid lube that is also available from the vendor at the bottom of this page, called Xlox. NOT a laxative!
Looks like you know what you want and we here are ready to help you with any problems that you may run into.

Welcome to Cast Boolits.

Life is good

[Castnshoot]

Yes, they are microgrooves, and was thinking of getting the Lee size/lube kit for them. Can I use either microgroove or grease groove bullets in the Lee size/lube kit?

[AZ-Stew]

...The cannelure bullet molds have more variety, but require the stick lube, which would tie me to a company in a dependent way. No good. I don't mind getting the lube heating press with the punches and all that, but which one am I better off with?

Castnshoot,

You're not "tied to a company" with the stick lubes. There is a great variety of stick-type lubes for sale commercially. In addition, you can make your own, melt it and pour it into the lube reservoir of your press. When it cools, you're good to go. The safest method I've found for melting lube is to put it into an empty beer can with the top cut off that I hold with Vise-Grips. I use a heat gun, the type used for shrinking the covering for RC model airplanes (http://www.hobby-lobby.com/heatgun.htm), which can be had for few $$ via mail order. The thin aluminum of the can conducts heat readily and bees wax will melt quickly. Be careful not to overheat. Most of our lube materials are flamable.

A year or two ago someone else on this board posted a method using sections of PVC pipe and dowel rods with which he cast his own hollow stick lubes. There were pictures showing the moulds and process, if I recall correctly. See if you can find it with a search.

Regards,

Stew

[Castnshoot]

Castnshoot,

You're not "tied to a company" with the stick lubes. There is a great variety of stick-type lubes for sale commercially. In addition, you can make your own, melt it and pour it into the lube reservoir of your press. When it cools, you're good to go. The safest method I've found for melting lube is to put it into a beer can with the top cut off that I hold with Vise-Grips. I use a heat gun, the type used for shrinking the covering for RC model airplanes, which can be had for few $$ via mail order. The thin aluminum of the can conducts heat readily and bees wax will melt quickly. Be careful not to overheat. Most of our lube materials are flamable.

Someone else on this board posted a method using sections of PVC pipe and dowel rods with which he cast his own hollow stick lubes. There were pictures showing the moulds and process, if I recall correctly. See if you can find it with a search.

Regards,

Stew

So, in your experience, the type of size/lube that is best is the RCBS Lubeamatic type?

http://www.midwayusa.com/midwayusa/staticpages/highres/172702.jpg

[AZ-Stew]

Typically, I use the standard 50/50 Alox/Beeswax. Just about every commercial boolit lube vendor sells it for $3-4 per hollow stick. It's a very safe place to start, as this lube will cover 90 percent of your needs. Remember, cast boolits are not the same as jacketed. Generally speaking, you can't drive them as fast as jacketed in a rifle. There are exceptions to this, but the exceptions involve advanced techniques. It's not beginner's stuff.

Handguns are a different story. As long as your casting alloy is of the appropriate hardness for the pressure developed by your handload, cast boolits can easily be driven as fast as jacketed bullets. As a beginner, though, you should keep your speeds and pressures down until you learn a bit about casting and loading lead alloy boolits. After you've become succeessful with low and mid-power loads you can begin to experiment with magnum loads, if that's what you're after.

When you've mastered casting and loading accurate lead alloy boolits, you may want to experiment with some of the other lubes that are available, or with making your own.

BTW, welcome to the board!

Regards,

Stew

[No_1]

Check out this stuff: http://www.lsstuff.com/lube/index.html

I use it exclusively and have no problems. He is a member of our board to boot!

Robert


So, in your experience, the type of size/lube that is best is the RCBS Lubeamatic type?

[Castnshoot]

Am I better off with microgroove or greasegroove bullets?

[Larry Gibson]

I'd suggest you pick up a copy of Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook. The new one is good but you might find an older copy or a one in a used book store. It is kind of the elementary school "primer" to read first. Lots of good basic information plus loading data. That will give you the basic to build on. Welcome to the fun, fascinating and some times frustrating hobby of casting your own bullets.

Larry Gibson

[44man]

Oh boy, A new fella! :bigsmyl2: There is a wealth of info here, just search and read.
As far as boolit types, either lube works on all boolit styles. I use Felix on the Lee boolits made for LLA. My suggestion is to try all lubes until you find the most accurate. Lose your fear and get to work! :cbpour:

[Castnshoot]

Thanks, guys! I can't wait, I have my furnace sitting there, looking at me crazy. I have about 130# of usable lead, and hope that this week or next I can get my smelting operation going to start making ingots now. I guess I'll have to get to a casting book before doing anything, but I do want to know which mold I'm going for before investing in that.

[jonk]

Well again, either type of mold is fine but all things being equal I'd go with a grease groove type first. It can be tumble lubed no problem, and lends itself more to injection type lube sizing with the RCBS unit better later on.

[happy7]

You probably wouldn't need to even size your bullets from those molds. Just tumble lube and load em. That is actually what Lee recommends. If you find that they drop bullets on the large size you might need to, but before I invested in a sizer or dies I would try without first and see what kind of results I got. Especially when I cast high volume caliblers like the auto pistols you refer to, I like to skip sizing and tumble lube to save time.

[PatMarlin]

Am I better off with microgroove or greasegroove bullets?

Welcome to cast boolit heaven Catnshoot... :drinks:

I don't think micro or "tumble" groove boolits are limited at all. I use them in my Lyman "H" die sizers and lube away, and have had fine accuracy doing so.

[Castnshoot]

By looking around I see there's plenty of homemade lube to be made, which throws away the notion that I may run out of lube or companies to sell it to me. That was pretty much my main concern. Now, seeing that actually stick lubes are the way to go for the homemade recipes, the Lube-A-Matic seems like the natural choice. Right now I just want to at least start smelting and cleaning my lead, but I can't until I get my roaster. :sad: The only thihgs that will be of concern, then, would be powder and primers, 'cause I get to reuse my brass and my lead will be practically free. I'm going to have to stock up on those so as to assure me a lifetime of economical, yet quality, shooting, which is what I'm after.

[Wayne Smith]

Do a search on pan lubeing. It's another alternative for lubing boolits, especially small batches. I use it when I don't have (yet) a size die the right size and when I'm experimenting with a new lube or variations on a lube. I have two lubesizers. I also tumble lube some boolits.

[Castnshoot]

Do a search on pan lubeing. It's another alternative for lubing boolits, especially small batches. I use it when I don't have (yet) a size die the right size and when I'm experimenting with a new lube or variations on a lube. I have two lubesizers. I also tumble lube some boolits.

So, what I understand is that you can either pan lube, tumble lube, or press lube, either microgroove or grease groove bullets, but what I should focus on is check to see if either one comes out of the mould sized correctly, and only get a lubesizer if needed, because I can press, pan, or tumble them?

[Castnshoot]

You know what? I just saw a video on pan lubing. Seems like that's the route I'm going to take! I get to set it and forget it, do bunches at a time, and if done correctly, won't have to worry about anything going wrong. If I use this method, then I can use the simpler/less expensive Lee lubesizers. Man, this is great.

[Wayne Smith]

Pan lubing microgroove boolits is something of a challenge. You have to cut the boolits out of the lube, and even then the lube may not stick to the boolit well. They were made for tumble lube, I'd stick to tumble lubing them.

[Castnshoot]

I'm thinking that, at this point, it doesn't matter if I get the microgroove or not, because I need to see if they come out well as cast. When, and if, I need a lubesizer, I can get it, but not totally necessary right now.

Do you have any recipe for the G30 and the 200gr SWC? I'd like to make some boolits just to shoot and begin the quest for the magic recipe afterwards.

[docone31]

I pan lube exclusively.
The trick is to get both the pan, and castings to the temp of the lube, then let them cool reasonably slowly so the lube does not pull away from the grooves.
I push them nose in from the cake.
Where the lube is sparse, I dab some on with my fingers before I push them through the Lee die.
I make my lube somewhat soft. Not runny, just soft enough so it can be dapped on. The Sizing die scrapes off excess lube so there is usually some at the bottom of it to dab on a missing spot. So far, I have not had leading.

[Castnshoot]

I pan lube exclusively.
The trick is to get both the pan, and castings to the temp of the lube, then let them cool reasonably slowly so the lube does not pull away from the grooves.
I push them nose in from the cake.
Where the lube is sparse, I dab some on with my fingers before I push them through the Lee die.
I make my lube somewhat soft. Not runny, just soft enough so it can be dapped on. The Sizing die scrapes off excess lube so there is usually some at the bottom of it to dab on a missing spot. So far, I have not had leading.

Mmm. What sizing die do you use, and for what calibers/velocities?

[docone31]

I use the Lee Push Thru system.
With my .45ACP, I size to .452. I load with 10gns of Blue Dot. How fast? You got me.
With my .357, I size to .358. Same load, 10gns of Blue Dot.
No leading, fast clean up, shoots real well. I gave up on my .303 with a casting, and went to paper patching.
Size to .314 after paper. GREAT groups at 100yds. Full tilt load.

[Castnshoot]

I use the Lee Push Thru system.
With my .45ACP, I size to .452. I load with 10gns of Blue Dot. How fast? You got me.
With my .357, I size to .358. Same load, 10gns of Blue Dot.
No leading, fast clean up, shoots real well. I gave up on my .303 with a casting, and went to paper patching.
Size to .314 after paper. GREAT groups at 100yds. Full tilt load.

Any recipes for the .45 with Unique?