question on pan lubing

[buckeyeken]

Just getting started in pan lubing I have been told it is best if you preheat your boolits before you pan lube. What I have not able to find is at what Tenp. to warm them up to

[William Yanda]

Just before too hot to hold.

[Minerat]

I set mine in the pan then use a heat gun to melt the lube around them. Next time I put the bullets in the hole and melt the lube again adding more if needed. I use cake cutters to remove.

[kungfustyle]

dip lub. Faster. Just dip them in the lub and set them to dry. An old Crock pot works for the lube.

[Bazoo]

With round cake pans I put them in the oven on 200 or less.

First time, either set the bullets in the pan and melt the lube and pour in the pan. Or, melt the lube in the pan, and while still hot set the bullets in. With either, put it in the oven 15 minutes or so for the bullets to get warm. If the bullets are cold they won't fill the grooves well.

Take them out of the oven and let them cool til the lube is cool enough it shrinks from the pan but ain't cold yet. Then you can dump it upside down and the whole cake, bullets and all will pop out. Then you just push the bullet noses and they pop out of the hole. If you don't do it when moderately warm, you'll not get good fill on the lube grooves.

Then put the cake back in and set bullets back in the holes. If you need more bullets than there is holes, just set them on the cake where you want them and they will drop to the pan bottom when the lube melts.

Size your bullets before lubing, and they will not be as messy with lube all over the noses. It's not the easiest way but it doesn't have to be as messy as others make it out to be.

[John Boy]

Have never pre heated bullets in the pan lube. Set the bullets in a pan that is leveled both ways, carefully pour new lube in the pan in a water bath and turn the heat off when touching the bullet nose which will be hot. When lube pan cools to a semi solid, move it the the freezer to cool so the lube tension doesn't adhere to the sides of the pan. Then with a solid base, turn the pan upside down to remove the cake, turn it nose side up and push out with your finger.... save the cooled lube pan with the holes so to use again by just inserting the bullets and repeat the water bath process

[hornetguy]

I have never heated my boolits to pan lube. I used the little Lee pan on the glass top stove and turn the burner on just long enough to heat up the surface. I watch the lube, and when it's all melted, I slide the pan off the hot part of the glass top to let it cool. Once the lube cools, I use a modified fired cartridge case as a cake cutter and slide it over the bullet and pull it out. I modify it by drilling out the primer pocket, to allow a dowel rod of some sort to poke out the boolit.... easy-peasy. Lube grooves are always filled, no issues there. Put un-lubed boolits back in the holes left in the lube pan, repeat process. Add new lube as needed to keep the level up where it needs to be.

edit: I nearly always use Alox as my lube. I imagine it would work just as well with nearly any lube.

[gbrown]

I have a lot of small pans--old cake pants, small trays, even small 12 inch can lids, like Christmas cookie/candy cans. I just place the boolits in, heat and pour lube in and when cool, use the appropriate cutter to get out. Use excess lube for fluxing, if you want.

[RU shooter]

With round cake pans I put them in the oven on 200 or less.

First time, either set the bullets in the pan and melt the lube and pour in the pan. Or, melt the lube in the pan, and while still hot set the bullets in. With either, put it in the oven 15 minutes or so for the bullets to get warm. If the bullets are cold they won't fill the grooves well.

Take them out of the oven and let them cool til the lube is cool enough it shrinks from the pan but ain't cold yet. Then you can dump it upside down and the whole cake, bullets and all will pop out. Then you just push the bullet noses and they pop out of the hole. If you don't do it when moderately warm, you'll not get good fill on the lube grooves.

Then put the cake back in and set bullets back in the holes. If you need more bullets than there is holes, just set them on the cake where you want them and they will drop to the pan bottom when the lube melts.

Size your bullets before lubing, and they will not be as messy with lube all over the noses. It's not the easiest way but it doesn't have to be as messy as others make it out to be.
This is how I've done it since day one . Only difference is for rifle bullets I don't cut them outa the cake , when the lube is solid but still warm I grab the nose of the bullet with small pliers and lift it straight up comes out easy and makes a little pop/sucking sound . Just fill the holes back up with bullets and so another round . Don't need to worry about pouring liquid lube or the bullets falling over

[Soundguy]

I have never pre heated bullets.

I take my pans.. which are old shallow stove burner stainless steel covers. I spray some non stick cooking spray on a paper towel and wipe them down. place my bullets.. heat the lube in a dedicated old pot.. pour the lube... let cool.. invert the pan and the lube 'cake' falls out.. poke out with a special dowel poker.. easy peasy.

[country gent]

I use a double boiler set up on the stove Place bullets in existing holes in lube then into water pan heat until lube is melted and 5-10 mins "cook" time to heat bullets and let cool on stove top. I then cut out with a cake cutter.

[Targa]

I have a tea pot that I melt my lube in. I place my bullets in a round pie pan, heat them up until warm to the touch, pour lube to just above lube groves, wait til the wax is solidified and the bullets are warm, pull the bullets out of the wax. I then place bullets in the remaining holes, melt wax until it melts and then repeat the removal process. Works like a charm.

[fcvan]

I heated up the lube in the pan until it flowed around the lube groove and boolit base, then I pulled them from the lube with a pair of hemostats, and set them on wax paper. Excess lube stuck to the wax and left plenty of lube in the groove. I used to lube, load, and seat 250 before work of a morning, my quiet time before the salt mine.

[rfd]

dip lub. Faster. Just dip them in the lub and set them to dry. An old Crock pot works for the lube.

+1

Dip lubing is faster and easier, at least for me. I use a case to "cookie cut" the bullets once the lube has hardened. No need for me to heat bullets as long as they're at a reasonable room temperature. Gato Feo #1 home brew lube. No longer lube bullets as I "graduated" from greasers to PPBs years ago. :)

https://i.imgur.com/VlWFLTQ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/JNC7Mi5.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Ayzcwwg.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/GystNup.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/aXU8KPP.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/HrnARBz.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/0N5EBPM.jpg

[hornetguy]

+1

Dip lubing is faster and easier, at least for me. I use a case to "cookie cut" the bullets once the lube has hardened. No need for me to heat bullets as long as they're at a reasonable room temperature. Gato Feo #1 home brew lube. No longer lube bullets as I "graduated" from greasers to PPBs years ago. :)

https://i.imgur.com/VlWFLTQ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/JNC7Mi5.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Ayzcwwg.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/GystNup.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/aXU8KPP.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/HrnARBz.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/0N5EBPM.jpg

Great post... nicely documented!

[Bloodman14]

I use an old electric skillet. Melt the lube, put the boolits in, let them come up to temp, pull them out with a small pliers, and set on a metal cookie sheet to cool. Size as normal, and load. The excess lube will form a cake around the sizing stem (lee push-through), which can be recovered and melted.

[bigwagon]

I've been using a small crock pot to melt the lube before I pour it into the tray with bullets, which I pre-heat in the oven. I like the idea of dip lubing too. Seems like it would eliminate a couple of steps but maybe would take as much or more overall time depending on the size of the batch.

[Soundguy]

Seems it adds steps to dip and then cut.

I stack my bullets in a shallow pan that I have wiped with a release agent. Heat my lube, pour. When. cool, punch out. with a dowel. Done. The punching keeps the lube grooves full. No dipper wires and handling each bullet and then rehandle to cut them. I'd quit casting if I had to do that... So many extra steps, time and touching the bullet so many times..not to mention if I used forceps to grab them I could mark the ogive. No thanks! I don't have unlimited time to handle and rehandle all my projectiles.

[rfd]

Seems it adds steps to dip and then cut. ....

Unlike pan lubing, where ya hafta wait for a huge amount of pan lube to cool and harden, dip lubing is immediate. I can dip and cookie cut 50 bullets that are ready for immediate loading inside of 15 minutes or lots less. That's why I'd rather dip lube than pan lube. But really, PPBs are so much better that greasers. ;)

[indian joe]

I set mine in the pan then use a heat gun to melt the lube around them. Next time I put the bullets in the hole and melt the lube again adding more if needed. I use cake cutters to remove.

yep !!! best system of all

dip lubing boolits one the time would drive me nuts !!

[Soundguy]

Unlike pan lubing, where ya hafta wait for a huge amount of pan lube to cool and harden, dip lubing is immediate. I can dip and cookie cut 50 bullets that are ready for immediate loading inside of 15 minutes or lots less. That's why I'd rather dip lube than pan lube. But really, PPBs are so much better that greasers. ;)

I just plan my loading to use that down time. For instance I generally will cast micro groove bullets and grease groove bullets in the same session. I set the ones for pan lube and pour. Then I take the micro groovers and lightly tumble lube and size immediately, then tumble lube them again and pour out to cure. By that time the pan lube cake is ready to punch. I punch and size. No down or wasted time..and no extra handling of the bullets.

[Shanghai Jack]

Nice looking projectiles hornetguy, what are they? - afraid I couldn't balance the bullet with my shaking hands. Since I breech-seat a lot of my cast bullets I leave the in the lube until I'm ready to shoot.

[DonHowe]

Never preheated bullets. Never needed to do it. Maybe lubes make a difference.
I have pan lubed thousands of BPCR and schuetzen bullets with modified Emmerts and have also pan lubed with Darr lube and Narayan a preheated bullet.

[justindad]

I melt the pan o’ lube in a toaster oven, then set boolits in after melted. The boolits are room temp, so the wax hardens immediately, which does not allow for good adhesion... so I put the pan back in the oven until the boolits are warm, then allow to cool. Adhesion, generally speaking, benefits when the components are same temperature as the adhesive, so this post-heat should be equivalent to pre-heat.
*
When you have holes in the lube cake from last use, placing boolits in the holes before melting the lube should also achieve good adhesion without pre-heating (together-heating).

[metricmonkeywrench]

My first time 50/50 beeswax/Crisco from the microwave over REALS didn’t do as well as your descriptions... the cake fell apart and there was no reusing the cake when I was done. No pix of the carnage as my hands were covered in goo. But my skin was real soft for the night.

281187

[Soundguy]

I melt the pan o’ lube in a toaster oven, then set boolits in after melted. The boolits are room temp, so the wax hardens immediately, which does not allow for good adhesion... so I put the pan back in the oven until the boolits are warm, then allow to cool. Adhesion, generally speaking, benefits when the components are same temperature as the adhesive, so this post-heat should be equivalent to pre-heat.
*
When you have holes in the lube cake from last use, placing boolits in the holes before melting the lube should also achieve good adhesion without pre-heating (together-heating).

the issue is your lube wasn't hot enough. when i pour my lube into the pan with bullets.. it stays liquid at least 10 minutes.. and is not ready to harvest for over an hour.. if your lube is just barely liquid.. then yeah.. any temp drop will quick freeze it. so... warm it up.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Just finished a mess of 275 gr. .44 boolits using the simple lube recipie https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?168373-simple-lube I do it in a round cake pan on low on the glass top stove. You need to have the level of the melted lube about 1/16" or more above the grease groove. I wait until the pan cools to warm and pull the boolits out by the nose gently with a pliers. So far it has worked perfectly. If the lube is not staying in the grooves it's too warm and you need to let the pan cool a bit more. Be careful with the heat though, beeswax will ignite if it gets to hot.