Lee Tumble Lube?

[fusil]

Bonjour mes amis,
I'm looking at my first mold. Lee is the only brand readily available here in France. In the brochure it says you dont need to size them.
With 'micro bands' you tumble lube. Is this enough?
I'll be casting 158g SWC. Light loads for paper punching.:Fire:
Any advice for a first-timer.
fusil

[pdawg_shooter]

I use LLA on all my handgun bullets, micro band and regular. Messy but works fine!

[leadeye]

I have had good luck with the micro band bullets and LLA, have not tried it on any other. It is messy to work with though.

[runfiverun]

if your lee boolits arent too big to chamber they will work fine.
you can thin out your alox a bit with some mineral spirits and apply two coats or one thin coat of thinned alox then another of johnsons paste wax.
thin coats are better.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

B'jour Fusil, Lee Molds will work alright for you. Clean them well before using, pre-heat and smoke the cavities with a wooden match. Follow the instructions and lube the mating/alignment pins. Lee Liquid Allox (LLA) will work fine. Probably the best way to put the stuff on is to take a plastic container-like the one from butter, ice cream or margarine, put some bullets in, add some LLA, put the cover on and then shake it up so that every bullet gets well coated. Then set them out to dry overnight. Messy but it works. On sizing; well that depends on a few things. Generally .38 Special or .357 guns like bullets that are .357-.359 inch diameter, so you first really should check to see what the diameter is of the bullet that comes out of the mold. Some shooters prefer to "slug" the cylinder cavities and the bore of their guns as well, by pushing a soft lead slug or ball thru and measuring that as well. Use a micrometer if possible, to measure. If you get good accuracy with the bullets with out sizing..Ca Va! If the bullets are too big then you may have to size them. What counts is the size of the group/acuracy on the target. Lee sells a very economical kit that consists of a sizing die (that fits in your loading press) and a punch to push the bullets thru nose first. It is made in diameters .357" and .358". Check with the Lee precision website to see their catalogue and what all their products looks like. This is the most economical way and the simplest as well. It will take some experimentation and patience. Good luck. LLS

[Shiloh]

Thin coats of this stuff is all that is needed.

The problems that folks seem to have with LLA or other Alox is that it is applied to thick.
The gumminess or faiure to dry on boolits is almost always do to over application.
A THIN coat only!! Feel free to cut it with mineral spirits. If all the micro grooves aren't completely filled, thats O.K.

My LEE #90352 130gr. .45 six-banger produces boolits with two really scimpy lube grooves
I find them a P.I.T.A. to lube with the Lyman 450 but they work superbly when lubed with LLA.
No leading.

Shiloh

[wfsdno]

I also only use LEE products. Haven't had any problems using lee press, lee dies, lee molds, and lee lube, lee everything!!!. I put the bullets in a ziplock, squirt some lube in and roll and tumble for a few minutes. Then let dry overnigh or longer. Then load...then wipeoff extra lube to keep dust from sticking and gumming up the 'works'. The only bad side, the stuff stinks! Use GOOP hand cleaner (or similar brand) to wash hands.

Roger

[Larry Gibson]

B'jour Fusil

All advise given is good especially Le Loup Solitaire's. Use a thin coat of LLA as mentioned. I like to run them through a sizer just to clean off excess lube. I set the nose on the ram and run them through base first. Suggest a sizer at "as cast diameter" of the bullet or .360" as the largest. I shot a thousands of cast bullets at .359 with complete happiness and excellent accuracy for 20+ years out of a myrid of .38/.357s before I learned that throat size is "best". Enjoy and welcome to the forum.

Larry Gibson

[Newtire]

Like the other guys say, it's messy but it sure does the job. It smokes a bit but then I don't thin mine either.

[copdills]

All of the above , great advice and welcome to the forum:cbpour:

[shotman]

Ok here is a new one . I found by accident and is the only way for HPs warm it up in hot water . get a thick piece of aluminum or metal or 1/4in glass and warm to touch. 100 or so. put a piece of clear wrap on it[ I found that you can get it tight so dont have winkles in it.] pour some Lee tl onit and get even coat .It will level out and stay that way as long as base is warm. Put the lube on about half of the area. Next roll the boolits through the to the no lube area and stand up on another pice of wax paper to dry. You will have lube on the area you want and none on bottom and nose. You will see if it is thin enough if not heat the base material a little more rick

[fusil]

Merci tout l'monde. :drinks:
Thank you all for the info. I'm looking to make my first ingots on Sunday, so I'll let you know how I get on. :veryconfu
fusil

[Omega47]

As a fellow newbie - good luck. I'm using the same equipment as you. I've made 30 1lb ingots so far and about 100 bullets. It is a lot of fun and not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be ;)

[Cloudpeak]

fusil,

I don't think anyone mentioned it but Lee 6 cavity molds have the best reputation of the molds they make.

Bullplate sprue lube is ideal for lubing sprue plate and mold pins. Your aluminum mold will last forever if you use this product.

I'd vote for sizing bullets out of Lee 6 cavity. Every once-in-awhile, as I'm sizing, I'll find one that is really tight. If left unsized, this bullet would surely lead to increased pressure. Lee push through sizer kits are around $13.00 in the US.

I spray my bullets with Hornady "One Shot" case lube (a very, very light coat) before sizing and then lube with LLA. Lots less messy that way.

Good luck.

Cloudpeak

[exile]

I read somewhere on this forum that you can mix LLA with equal parts mineral spirits and THEN mix that solution 50/50 with Johnson's paste wax. Is that true? I hope so, it sounds like a great lube for those of us without a conventional luber/sizer.

exile

[timkelley]

Give your boolits a first coat of thinned LLA as suggested above, let dry over night.
If you are going to run them thru your Lee sizer, Do it now.
Next put on a coat of JPW (Johnsons Paste Wax, probably not available in France) or another coat of thinned LLA and let set a day or two.
Load, shoot, have fun.

[Bret4207]

As far as the stickyness of the LLA (Mule Snot) -when the boolits have died for awhile, dust them with powdered mica or even cornstarch! Works like a charm and polishes the barrel a tiny bit.