Dip Lubing

[semtav]

Anybody on this board dip lube?

What consistancy is the lube? (real runny/hot or semi cool)
How hot is the lube?
Do you have to dip a couple times to fill the grooves?

[madsenshooter]

I do. I melt the lube in little pot pie pan that's sitting in an old electric skillet. It doesn't take a lot of heat to get the lube liquid. Methodology depends on the bullet. I dip lube a B&M 311169 because with the standard lube/size die, the lube either goes under the base of the bullet, or squishes out over the nose. That bullet I dip cold. Usually twice is sufficient to fill the grooves. After it cools I cut the excess off with a neck cut from a fired case. Another bullet I dip is the Eagan MX3-30G. It's a 1.25 inch long, conical nosed bullet that weighs 190 grs. It has 6 shallow lube grooves, 7 counting the one above the gascheck. That bullet, I sit down in the frying pan to allow it to come to the same temp as the lube. I dip it once, then sit it back in the pan to drain down some before removing it to cool. The Eagan is a tapered design, you can only lube the lower 3 bands with a standard sizing die.

[NickSS]

I dip lube my bullets for my 1863 Sharps rifle after I load the bullet into the paper cartridge. ne dip nose first does it and I do not remove excess lube Just load and shoot the more lube the better.

[longbow]

I have dip lubed but decided it was too finicky for me with small boolits so have gone to pan lubing and cake cutter. That has been working well for me.

I also found that my lube was not sticking to cold boolits well so if you go this route you might want to pre-heat the boolits a bit. Likely depends on lube.

My lube is about the consistency of pancake syrup when melted so one dip gave enough lube.

Longbow

[semtav]

OK
All the lube I've made so far is pretty runny when melted. Can't imagine much sticking on the bullet when dipped. May have to experiment with thicker lubes.

[fredj338]

I've used a dip method when testing lube. I make a small batch & melt it, dip th ebullets in & let them set on wax papper. Then run them through the sizer & shoot. Works, painfully slow, but beats filling my Star w/ lube of dubious quality.

[warf73]

OK
All the lube I've made so far is pretty runny when melted. Can't imagine much sticking on the bullet when dipped. May have to experiment with thicker lubes.

I dip lubed tonight with my new boolit design from NOE.
As long as the boolit is cold the lube is liquid, the lube will stick to the boolit. I dipped my boolits 3x wich at that time filled up the BIG lube grooves. The lube hardens in seconds and you can dip the boolit again, then again if needed.

Your over thinking the process, its just really easy and straight forward.

[mdi]

I guess you're talking about melting a regular (waxy) lube vs dipping in alox or JPW/Alox?

[semtav]

I guess you're talking about melting a regular (waxy) lube vs dipping in alox or JPW/Alox?



yes we are

[runfiverun]

i just melt and dip hold for a sec and set on wax paper, then run through the sizer you get a bunch of lube back this way.
the lube is usually solidified by the time it hits the paper and i keep on remelting the lube as i go.

[semtav]

Just tried it today. Worked good on the small batch I tried.

[iammarkjones]

I dip my 425gr RD boolits for my 45-70 in LLA works great and no LLA on the boolit meplat!

[warf73]

Just tried it today. Worked good on the small batch I tried.

Great to hear, the only down side to dip lubing.... it takes for ever to dip 1000 boolits lol. Its GREAT for small batches and for experamenting with new lubes.

Glad its working for you.

[buck1]

Doesnt the lube get on the base of the boolit?

[warf73]

Doesnt the lube get on the base of the boolit?

Yup it does but.... when you pull the boolit out of the lube just scrape the base on the lip of the pot before you set the boolit on the wax paper.

[buck1]

Well thats simple enugh. Thanks

[tall grass]

semtav

I use drinks' method (a fellow board member here). Here it is:
set a boolet in enough melted lube to come to the bottom of the top lube groove

after the boolit warms up the lube will climb up the side

wipe off the bottom and set on its base

run it through a lee sizer to wipe off the excess lube and fill out the groves

It works pretty fast and you won't be able to keep more than 6 in the melted lube before they are ready to go.

Jim

[Freightman]

I have dip lubed but decided it was too finicky for me with small boolits so have gone to pan lubing and cake cutter. That has been working well for me.

I also found that my lube was not sticking to cold boolits well so if you go this route you might want to pre-heat the boolits a bit. Likely depends on lube.

My lube is about the consistency of pancake syrup when melted so one dip gave enough lube.

Longbow
I sit the boolits up in a Teflon coated pan melt the lube use a baister to put in the pan of boolits. Start Bar-B-Q grill put pan in grill close top and get to 350 and turn off. Wait until cool take out, then aether turn over on old towel and push out of lube block. If you didn't get the lube too deep they will be perfect. Pick up block of lube sit back in pan set up more boolits of similar size in holes and put back in Bar-B-Q grill and repeat as often as you want. I put the pan in a sack and put in old refrigerator for future use. Life is simple!

[warf73]

What you two are talking about is pan lubbing.

[longbow]

Freightman:

That is what I started with ~ plain old pan lubing but I found that the small diameter .30 cal boolits can have a tendency to tip over when the lube is melted especially if more are added after the lube has melted (and you have fat fingers, or the pan isn't exactly level, etc.).

Since I was doing a just few at a time for testing I decided to dip lube which worked fine but it is difficult to hold a 130 gr. .30 cal boolit to dip then stand up so I started fantasizing about a jig to hold the boolits upright and allow pushing out like pan lubing.

Another problem with pan lubing at least with the lube I am currently using is that it isn't real sticky so tends to pull out of the lube grooves when pan lubing. It does work very well as lube though and the cake cutter solves that problem. But then that takes me back to the jig since effectively the cake cutter is one hole in a jig.

I can't see any disadvantage of the jig except the work to make it.

Hah! Look at that, I am multitasking (or losing my mind maybe)... the jig idea is in a different thread:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=87700

Well even though I can't hold a train of thought for long it is nice to know others think the same way.

Just another option.

Longbow

[ghh3rd]

I found dipping to be the easiest lubing method for my RD .432 265gr tumble lube boolits, using Felix lube. Dip the grooves into hot lube for a sec or two, let it drip once and set it down to cool off. Each of the grooves is left with a little ring of lube at the bottom of the groove.

It doesn't look like much lube, but I push them out of my Ruger SBH at full throttle (21.5 gr W296... about 1400 fps) without leading.

[Tom W.]

I dipped my RD boolits after reading RD's website, but wasn't too impressed with my results. I think I had my LLA too thick. I ended up with the painfully slow method of hand lubing the rest of my RD boolits with Lars Carnauba Red and running them through a Lee sizer. I was tired but pleased.

[thx997303]

I dip lube my 350 gr Ranch dog boolits for the 45-70

LLA/JPW mix and not a hint of leading.

I don't know if I could make that rifle lead. [smilie=l: