ok after I let it dry it seems to be a nice coating kinda coffee looking I think itll be ok I guees I have heard your supposed to let the boolits sit 24-48 hours to dry anyway, so I am not gonna complain lol
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ok after I let it dry it seems to be a nice coating kinda coffee looking I think itll be ok I guees I have heard your supposed to let the boolits sit 24-48 hours to dry anyway, so I am not gonna complain lol
enough that it colors the boolits a brown tint, maybe im putting it on a little to thick?
Probably so, but if you're new to tumble-lubing, then that's always the first mistake everyone makes--without fail. It just doesn't feel right that you should be able to use so little lube and not have problems. . . but that's how it works. :)
No harm in putting it on too thick except that it will take longer to dry, will smoke more, and you might start having a bit of buildup in your (boolit) seating die. The JPW negates the tackiness which is the culprit for the buildup in the seating die, so I'm not really sure what will happen.
Again, no big deal--but you'll find as you tumble-lube more that you can get away with less and less lube. I'm to the point now that I actually have to grab a boolit or two during the process just to convince myself that I do have lube on them.
:coffee:
Yup, I think we all did! "There is just no way a thin, transparent layer of lube is gonna do anything!" When I first started with Alox, I had it on so thick my boolits stuck together in the tumbling bowl dripping with thick syrup. I'd stand 'em up, and have a puddle at the base of each. And holy-hell, they would smoke like I was shooting BP loads---almost anyway. I almost regretted ever letting my 450 take a rest until I started cutting alox amounts waaaaay back, and realized more is anything BUT good. Now my 450 collects more dust than anything. I hold onto it, but don't remember when I used it last. Everything gets a light TL with great success now.Quote:
I too use too much alox when I started tumble lubing, and yep it smoked, and seemed to never dry.
okay ,I also could have toasted marshmallows tonight oh boy!!!!! .Flames 3ft high thinking its because the temp got up to 375 ? was realy cookin .Glad i had a cover handy .
OK, made my first batch of LLA JPW. I saw the question asked but didn't read all the responses to see if it ever got answered, the 4oz bottle of LLA is about 1/2 cup. So I added 1/2 cup of the evaporated JPW and let it cool then added 0.8oz (by volume) of mineral spirits. Then of course I just had to tumble lube some boolits. Yep! I probably added too much. LOL. I'm not going to size these boolits so I'll let it go at one coat instead of compounding the error by adding a second coat. I'm going out of town for a few days tomorrow so when I get back I'll load them up and see how they do.
Never again will I use straight Alox
Look at them...they are like beautiful little sugar coated jewels waiting to be fed to...
never mind,
Ok, I obviously did something wrong. My lube is a solid at room temp. I swear I could pan lube with it. Recluse you use the word viscal and viscous to describe the melted JPW but I never made it to viscous. It was still a thin liquid when I added the LLA and let it cool.
I melted a tin of JPW down to 8 fl oz. The temp never went over 300 deg. Once reduced, I added 2 bottles of LLA and then let it cool down to about 125 deg and then added 2 oz of mineral spirits. It is sitting on my desk in the bottles and is solid. I have to melt it in the microwave just to get it to flow out of the bottle.
What did I do wrong?
thats the way mine came out, its perfect. Just microwave for one minute and it liquifies,
draw an S on your bullets and tumble. They will dry to a nice lite finish and not sticky. I do a light coat then size and then a second coat. Thanks to Recluse and everyone else for your comments, I am happy with mine
Perfect!
Heat it up to where it's still warm to the touch in the bottle (it will revert to a liquid form), then apply sparingly to your (pre-warmed) boolits and tumble. Let dry. Size, if you need to or prefer to (I size everything I cast). Lube again. Let dry. Load. Shoot. Enjoy.
:coffee:
Ok, so I tried melting the lube in the microwave tonight. Heated it up and took the top off. It was plugged with a thick paste but I could hear liquid sloshing around in the bottle. Took a toothpick and pushed the paste "plug" down in the bottle and then ran the toothpick through the nozzle. Works like a charm.
Just lubed about 150 boolits and they are drying as we speak. Just like you said Recluse, I had to touch them to actually tell there was lube on the boolits.
Sorry to jump the gun on the post above. All is well now.
ETA: Now we just need to get Mihec to make us some TL molds. :mrgreen:
I have to take a toothpick and clear that nozzle every single time I heat the bottle up. I've just factored it in as part of the process.
Also, you don't need microband boolits in order to tumble lube. I use this mix on several boolits that have traditional lube grooves--and with outstanding results.
:coffee:
There are several custom mould makers that offer tumble-lube designs if you so desire, but like Recluse said they aren't necessary at all for using that kind of lube.
Gear
I take a 2-qt heavy duty Ziplock freezer bag with the gripper zipper, dump in 5# of boolits, spew some alox on them like putting ketchup on french fries, then seal it up and roll the bag around ,squooshing the boolits around inside. If you can just see the alox in the grooves it's fine. I sue the same bag over and over again. Fresh alox loosens up the semi-hard crust in the bag. Dump them on a sheet pan and leave an old hair dryer on low blowing on it for a half hour or so, they are dry to the touch and ready to load.
Going to hit up the local Ziebart shop and try to buy a gallon of their ALOX liquid for cash money. Paying Lee $128 a gallon is silly!
Just had to update and add......best.....lube......ever!!!!
10 minutes worth of work pictured below.
Recluse :drinks:
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...200grlubed.jpg
OK,, what do ya do when you can't find any JPW????? I've searched high and low for weeks.Will sraight carnuba work??
Going to hit up the local Ziebart shop and try to buy a gallon of their ALOX liquid for cash money. Paying Lee $128 a gallon is silly![/
lar45 is a vendor here, and has XLOX,,same stuff I hear just had to change the name. $10.50 per/qt. seems very reasonable to me.
Here's his site,,,,,,
http://www.lsstuff.com/lube/