Converting lubed boolits to powder coat

[barrysuperhawk]

Okay so here's my situation. Many many years ago I laid in a huge supply of what was the standard back then regular Blue Lube cast bullets. I got them from a couple of major manufacturers including one that was going out of business so I bought everything that I could get my hands on. My idea was to have a good supply of bullets for a rainy day , so I never loaded much out of this stock, I've just let them sit in their cans. Well given all of the shortages we are currently experiencing it seems like I might be a good idea to start preparing these to be able to load.

So now I have ammo can upon ammo can of cast bullets, did you know that a standard 50 cal can with one layer of cardboard covering the inside will hold almost exactly 2500 200 grain semi wadcutter 45?

But I have a problem. A lot of my shooting is done in indoor ranges. And cast bullet Lube does make more smoke in indoor ranges than powder coating. So now I'm contemplating how much effort would it take 2 clean the standard blue bullet Lube off of these and to powder coat them.

I expect I will process these by the ammo can in batches, doing whatever I need to do to clean off the old Lube and then running them through my powder coat oven to add the new coating, and then back into the ammo can for future loading.

So anybody have some insight on what the best way might be to remove the lube from these bullets, has anybody done this before?

[Conditor22]

With some lubes, this is not an easy process.

You could start by boiling off as much lube as you can (skim all the lube off the top) , dry the boolits then soak them in acetone to remove the rest. Occasionally it takes 2 applications of acetone soak. (some run the acetone through coffee filters and reuse it

I'd melt them and start over, doesn't take long to cast that many IF you are set up to do that.

[Denver]

I've done this by putting the lubed bullets in a pan of water and heating it to boiling and leave them in until the lube is boiled off. The lube will float to the surface. Turn off the heat and wait until the lube hardens and can be removed before taking the bullets from the water. Just to be sure all the lube is removed, I have put them in a second pan of water and boiled them again. I didn't do this with the first batch and after PCing some of the coating flaked off.

D

[06ackley]

When I did the ones I had on hand I soaked them in gas for a little while. Took all the lube off. I did let them sit for few days to dry and lose the gas smell though....ymmv.

[JimB..]

I wouldn’t use gas, the additives don’t evaporate and will not enhance the adhesion of the coating.

Too much work for an indoor range where you probably aren’t allowed to shoot fast enough for the smoke to matter anyway.

[Burnt Fingers]

Melt them down and recast. It's the fastest way. Not only that you can soften the alloy by adding an equal amount of pure lead.

[JWFilips]

I second Conditor22! Boiling takes most of the grease and wax off! Always wait until the water is cold and remove the wax/grease wafer!
Acetone will then do the final degreasing

[Walks]

I did 500 .44's with HARD blue lube. Acetone for a week, just bleached out the blue. Boiled next, lube floated to the top. Skimmed it three times.
I'd never do it again, too much work. I could have cast 500 bullets in the time I invested in such a project.
Just melt them down, throwing in a few into the pot to flux with.

[richhodg66]

Best course of action is to shoot these up on an outdoor range. In fact, the best course of action is to shoot on outdoor ranges period.

[Cherokee]

I would load and shoot, indoor or outdoor, unless the indoor range complains. You'll soon use them up. If want to PC, do newly cast. YMMV

[recumbent]

After powder coating don't they have to be sized again??

[ih772]

Melt them down and recast. It's a lot less work and you will have a clean surface without lube or oxidation for the powder coat to stick too.

[fcvan]

I did try to remove lube from boolits, did the boil and cool thing and skimmed the top. I then reboiled with Dawn dish detergent. It worked but it was time consuming. After that, I just recast with the added benefit of flux on each boolit. I finally took to casting 50/50 with new alloy and old lubed, made the 'flux boolits' go farther. Besides, re casting meant I got to cast more, I like ASBBPC so much that re casting just made more to coat.

My only problem now is the cases of loaded ammo with lubed boolits I need to 'rotate old stock.' I have plenty of primers and powder to do so, I just save that for when I am out with friends. We shoot a bunch, and then a mag of PCd boolits to clean the bore. Guns still needs more of a cleaning than just shooting PCd boolits, mainly more residue from the lube. I always have my cleaning gear at the range, best to get it done and not wait until home. Mind you, my wife is used to me cleaning guns on the dining table (I'm a neat freak when cleaning) and sometimes she tells me to leave her guns and the gear out. Sometimes she does not because she is making chicken tamales.

Cleaning at the range is quick, but the boss 'saying do it at home, I need to cook dinner' because our shooting friends are following us home for dinner. It isn't always tamales, but her cooking is always fantastic. Sometimes, she already has dinner ready to go in the oven when we get home knowing we are going to have a full crew coming.

[bdicki]

I use brake clean

[parson48]

I tried some paint stripper thinned with mineral spirits recently. Worked great. I washed the residue off with dawn and very hot water, the powder adhered just fine.

[Burnt Fingers]

After powder coating don't they have to be sized again??

They should be resized after coating.

[onelight]

I would shoot them as is , or at most tumble lube them without cleaning off the other lube.
Just depends on how much time you want to spend on making a hole in a can or a piece of paper :)

[charlie b]

If you cast bullets then simply melt them down and cast what you want.

If you powder coat then you may have to resize depending on your guns and the sizes of the bullets you have.

[mehavey]

Boil them 10-15 min
Skim
Acetone rub @ w/ paper towel (sorry, but ya gotta pick up each bullet)

Done

[44Blam]

melt them down and recast. It's the fastest way. Not only that you can soften the alloy by adding an equal amount of pure lead.

^^^ this ^^^

[fredj338]

melt them down and recast. It's a lot less work and you will have a clean surface without lube or oxidation for the powder coat to stick too.

^^this^^

[doulos]

^^this^^

Do you just throw them in the pot lube and all?

[Targa]

Yep, skim off the crud on top just like anything else. If it were me I wouldn’t do it in my casting pot, I would put them in my cast iron processing pot and reform them into ingots. Well not entirely true, if it were me I would and do just shoot the lubed ones at the indoor range .....:bigsmyl2:

[onelight]

Do you just throw them in the pot lube and all?
The lube will be flux . If I have culls after lubing for whatever reason I put them in a coffee can and flux with them.

[fredj338]

Do you just throw them in the pot lube and all?

Yes sir, it will smoke but you are fluxing too. Its not any diff than fluxing your casting pot.

[onelight]

Light the smoke in the pot it will burn and greatly reduce the smell , it is the most toxic part of casting with clean lead . You are burning the gas given off by the flux.

[mdi]

Has anyone at the range complained about your "smoky" loads? Smoke doesn't bother me (I used to shoot black powder in a revolver!). I have removed standard lube from a bunch of my lubed bullets (C-Red and Speed Green mostly). Since I had a toaster oven to cook the PCed bullets, I just sat the lubed bullets on a paper towel in a shallow pan and heated them in the oven @ 175-200 degrees. Not hot enough to ignite the towels and just hot enough to melt the lube. I then quickly rinsed them in acetone and the PCed them. No mess and the PC stuck quite well...