spraying boolit lube ?

[XWrench3]

so, i have been thinking on and off, trying to figure out a better way to apply my home made boolit lube to my cast boolits. i have tried pan lubing, way to messy. painting the melted lube on with a brush, which is horribly time consuming. and what i have been using lately is applying it by hand (like packing a wheel bearing by hand) which is both way to messy and time consuming. at this point, i dont have the money for a lubrisizer, as one of my rifles is being repaired to the tune of $200.00. a thought poped into my head last night about maybe spraying on molten lube with a airbrish. the biggest forseeable problem is the cold air solidifying the hot lube before it reaches the boolits. so then i thought about pre heating the boolist so the lube would remelt. but then, it will probably just run off. now, i just thought about making the lube into sticks, and rubbing the sticks across the grooves to fill the grooves with lube. i dont know if that will work or not. so basicly, without spending a bunch of money, anybody have a GOOD way of applying lube i havent tried?

[Rex]

How about thining liquid Alox and spraying it?
Rex

[Calamity Jake]

Go back to your pan lubing and use a fired case for the caliber your are loading for, outside chamfer the case mouth to make a cutting edge then cut off the case head and use as a cookie cutter to remove the lubed boolits. A whole lot less messy

[Echo]

+1 for using a cake cutter. My first casting effort MANY years ago involved a Lee setup that included a cake cutter (casting 140 gr SWC .358). It works. And the original cake cutters were cases modified as CJ said above.

[mooman76]

How about putting your lube in a mini crock pot and diping your bullets in?

[mdi]

I don't have a lubersizer and don't plan on getting one soon. I pan lube or tumble lube all my cast boolits and for pan lubing my 44s, I made a "cookiecutter" out of a piece of stainless tubing reamed out to about .440" or so. It's about 6" long and I can punch out 6 or 7 boolits and then empty it. I also have one for 38/357. Pan lubing allows me to experiment w/diff. formulas for my "Exotic Special Mike's Lube No. 1" without having to waste a lot of components. I once tried cheap chapstick for lube but that is sloooow, holding the boolit in one hand, smearing on the chapstick with the other hand, smoothing with the holding hand and place on a piece of wax paper. Been there, done that.

I think spraying on melted lube would run into several problems (which can be remedied though with some really high $$ equipment) like hot lube/cold propellant, and cold ambient air, etc.

I once tried spraying on "Catapillar Dry Lube" on cast boolits, two or three coats. Results were so-so, very little leading, stinky, lot of time sprayin/drying, etc. Hmm, might try that again if I cn find the spray...

[Recluse]

Tumble lubing?

:coffee:

[montana_charlie]

now, i just thought about making the lube into sticks, and rubbing the sticks across the grooves to fill the grooves with lube. i dont know if that will work or not.
I used that method to try a new lube on some bullets without emptying my luber.
It's a bit like grating cheese, and you have to do some finger work to keep the 'crumbs' policed up.

Grating cheese requires a sharp grater. Lubing bullets this way requires sharp corners on the driving bands.
If yours (like over half of the bullets pictured on this site) have rounded corners, you are much better off with pan lubing.

It's a slow way to lube bullets, but it ain't bad if you just want to do twenty, or so.

CM

[lwknight]

I once tried cheap chapstick for lube but that is sloooow, holding the boolit in one hand,
I think that some one has tried just about everything on earth that is slippery for lube and that someone has tried just about everything burnable for flux.
Sometimes it just cracks me up.

[MtGun44]

If you are lubing very many you should invest in a lubrisizer.

Bill

[smithgar3840]

Go to the lube section and look under the tumble lube sticky. I've tried and it works great.

[softpoint]

If you really want to spray lube some bullets, there is a rust preventative in a spray can called "Defense" It is alox. It dries a little faster than the Lee tumble lube,(unless you really thin it) and it is just as good as the Lee. I couldn't see any advantage to it, as I'm sure it costs more. Warehouse cleanout, gave me about 40 cans of it, so it's cheap for me. :coffeecom

[johnlaw484]

Check ebay or gunbroker for a used lubesizer. I have seen them go as cheap as $45.00.

[XWrench3]

If you are lubing very many you should invest in a lubrisizer.


Check ebay or gunbroker for a used lubesizer. I have seen them go as cheap as $45.00.

yes, i KNOW, and WANT a lubrisizer! no questions about that especially since eventually 70-90% of my shooting will be cast rounds. i will get one AS SOON as i can afford one. i have been watching e-bay, but not gunbroker. that is a good idea, thanx! a couple of you mentioned spray can lubing boolits, any idea if something like spray graphite would work? i have a couple of cans of that laying around, but i do not want to make a bigger mess than i already have. i bought some spray moly to try, that works, but is terribly expensive. i dont know if graphite would be cheaper or not, the cans were in the garage when i bought the house!

[Recluse]

OK, I guess I'm still confused.

Have you tried tumble-lubing? There's no better or faster way to lube a large quantity of boolits evenly and thoroughly and reliably.

:coffee:

[lwknight]

I'm not casting anything for rifles at this time so I took my lubesizer off the bench. Its Alox TL all the way for me. 100 boolits lubed in 15 seconds easily. I also use a Lee push through sizer now. Its at least 3 times faster than the Lyman 450.

[XWrench3]

yes, i tumble lube for my pistol plinking rounds. but in my 44 mag or any of my rifles, the lla is not enough to keep the lead from transfering to the steel of my barrels. so i made up a batch of home made lube from a combination of a couple of the recipies form this site. it seems to work pretty good so far, but i have not gone way wild on velocities yet (as in full 300 win mag loads). in any case, i kind of like recoil from my rifles, but i dont like j bullets $$$$. i shoot 30-30, 300 win mag, 45-70 in the rifle catagory. 1500fps just isnt enough for me to be happy. so gas checks and real lube help a bunch. it is just a pia to apply the ways i have tried. i guess i will just have to keep messing (pun intended) around doing it the messy way until i can afford a lubrisizer.

[Greg in Malad]

XWRENCH,
For the rifle bullets try grabbing them by the nose and dipping them into a bowl of liquid alox, then stand the bullets up until they dry. Ranch Dog had instructions on his web site, I don't know if it is still there. Anyway it's fairly quick and works very well.

[XWrench3]

I have tried several times to find ranchdogs site unsucsessfully. I would really like to know much more about what he was doing. Unfortunatly, i got into molding shortly after he closed up shop. I will try dipping the boolits in l.l.a. I have nothing to loose, and it is a heck of a lot cheaper than a lubrisizer! Thanx!