Lee Lube / Sizing Method - Any Good?

[Racingsnake]

Hi guys,

I am new to casting and know nothing about sizing and lubricating boolits. I know it's necessary - I just don't know how it's done.

I shoot 38 spl and 357mag and want to cast 148g WC and 158g SWC. Is the Lee Alox and 'push through' sizing system a good method or should I be considering an RCBS / Lyman conventional lubesizer?

Thanks, Racingsnake

[Doby45]

The lubrisizer really depends on how many bullets you shoot. If you are a shooter that goes through 1000 a weekend then I would say you definently need a lubrisizer. If you shoot maybe 200 a month then I would say you can pan lube and then use the Lee push through sizer.

[smith52]

All I use is Lee Liquid Alox (LLA) and the Lee push through sizing dies. I really like this method and it is easy to to do larger quanties of boolits at one time, it just takes longer than a conventional lube/sizer. I lightly lube the unsized boolits and let them dry over night, the next day I size and relube the boolits and let them dry over night again, then I have boolits that are ready to load.

[Ben]

This will work. You'd just take a .35 Remington , fired case, and make yourself a " Cake Cutter " to remove the sized bullets from the lube :

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=34058

[geargnasher]

Hi guys,

I am new to casting and know nothing about sizing and lubricating boolits. I know it's necessary - I just don't know how it's done.

I shoot 38 spl and 357mag and want to cast 148g WC and 158g SWC. Is the Lee Alox and 'push through' sizing system a good method or should I be considering an RCBS / Lyman conventional lubesizer?

Thanks, Racingsnake

For the basics, please get a copy of the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook and read the sections that cover subjects with which you're unfamiliar. We'll be glad to help with questions, but as to the basic process you should do a little homework on your own.

Gear

[GeneT]

For the basics, please get a copy of the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook and read the sections that cover subjects with which you're unfamiliar. We'll be glad to help with questions, but as to the basic process you should do a little homework on your own.

Gear

Best just to comb the boards. Since Lyman announced the 4th edition of their book and it's not yet out, no one has any 3rd editions for sale. (Midway, Brownells, Amazon). In short - no Lyman CB books for a while...

GsT

[ghh3rd]

Go to the Goodwill store and buy an old golf club -- they have tapered shanks. Find the correct place to cut the shank where the resulting hole will just fit over your boolit. Leave it long enough to collect 10-20 boolits inside as you punch out your boolits from the lube.

One shank may make several cutters for various calibers.

[Doby45]

Did you call him a skank? :bigsmyl2:

[Racingsnake]

Ben thank you for the helpful link and thank you for all the other replies - I will pick up a copy of the Lyman manual...I have seen a copy at a used book shop.

Is Liquid Alox as effective as conventional lubricating at higher velocity?

[Doby45]

*shrugs* I know it is smokey as all get out. You will look like your shooting BP. :)

[geargnasher]

Ben thank you for the helpful link and thank you for all the other replies - I will pick up a copy of the Lyman manual...I have seen a copy at a used book shop.

Is Liquid Alox as effective as conventional lubricating at higher velocity?

I think Doby exaggerates, but it can be pretty smokey. You can apply his sig line to liquid lubes though!!

The effectiveness of Liquid Alox (LLA from Lee or Xlox from White Label Lube) is dependent on many things being just right such as boolit fit, alloy, and bore condition. Some folks say they push it to 2k fps and beyond in 30-caliber, some as much as 1500 fps in revolvers, I've never asked more than 45 ACP velocities from it and it does ok in some guns.

For a good read, since you are probably looking for the least confusing and most inexpensive lube/size method, check out the sticky here on the lube forum called Tumble lubing, easy and mess-free, where one of our members gives a superior recipe for "tumble lube" and tells in great detail and many pics just exactly how to use it. I've been doing something similar for years, and it WORKS, simple, cheap, and effective for anything low-to-medium velocity. You are well-advised to modify the liquid Alox, since it tends to be very sticky and a real PITA without modification. If I were to start over with nothing the first thing I would buy would be a Lee two-cavity mould, 20 lb bottom pour, and a push-through sizer kit.

Tumble lube has its limitations compared to conventional solid lubes that fill the grease grooves on the boolits, but it is so subjective that it's really difficult to say what YOUR experience will be versus what works or doesn't at MY house or someone else's.

Keep checkin' in,

Gear

[Racingsnake]

Gear, I'll look it up. At this stage the Lee options looks like a good way to get started.

Thanks so much, Racingsnake

[Recluse]

Gear 'bout covered it all.

There are some boolits that I won't do anything BUT tumble-lube for, and one of them is my beloved Lee TL358SWC. In fact, this was the boolit that actually inspired me to do the write up sticky that is in this forum.

Another boolit is the Lee TL230RN. I've got other .358 and .452 boolit molds, but those two are my favorites in those respective calibers.

The mix I use causes me no leading, no fouling and gives me a nice, clean, shiny bore--and very little smoke. Straight LLA does tend to smoke. Worse yet, if you're new to lubing, I'll guarantee you that you will put on at least twice as much LLA as you really need, and nobody is surprised when you apply three or even four times as much as you need.

Then you start smoking so much you look like a natural disaster.

Tumble-lubing is a tool, just like pan-lubing and using a lubesizer. Once you become more and more familiar with the relationship between your boolits, your reloading components, your firearms, how you like to shoot, why you shoot (target, CAP, hunting, competition, etc), those are all factors that will help you determine which methods for creating and finishing which boolits will work best for you.

Each stage of shooting has its own basic coursework, college-level work and then graduate level work. Shooting, reloading, casting, competition, benchrest. . . you name it.

Casting has a lot of coursework, most of which is learned through pure experience.

:coffee:

[Elkins45]

I can say with certainty that I can drive the 240 tumble lube SWC to the loadbook maximum in a 44 magnum revolver with no leading and into one ragged hole at 25 yards. That's a bullet straight from the mold and tumble lubed with Lee liquid alox and no sizing. Why would I want to add complexity to that process if it wasn't needed?

Start with a tumble lube mold and the liquid alox. It may be that you need to add a Lee push through sizer to the mix, or buy a conventional lube groove bullet and pan lube. Or you may not. In my mind its better to start at the minimum and work up if needed.

I've been reloading since 1980 and casting my own boolits since 1988. I used a lubrisizer for the first time in March of this year. In the 22 years between I did some damned fine shooting with my homemade projectiles. Mostly I went to the lubrisizer because I'm older and can now afford more toys, and also so I could start experimenting with homemade lubes. I didn't NEED to start using one.