Pan Lubing?

[dk17hmr]

I havent had much luck with pan lubing. Whats better a soft or hard lube for pan lubing. Just looking for some general tips on the whole process.

[30yrcaster]

Harder lube works better for me. You're able to push/pop the bullets out easily and the lube is only in the grooves. I pour the hot lube in a cake pan with all the bullets stacked upright. I'm able to pop the entire cake out of the pan with the bullets in it then start popping them out one by one.

[Calamity Jake]

I pan lube with felix and 50/50 and use a fired case for the caliber with head cut off for a cookie cutter. Works with the hard lubes too, Rooster Red for instance.

[docone31]

Pan lubing can have its moments for sure!
What I do,
I mix my lube. I preheat my castings, and pan in the oven. I use 200*. I also put some wax paper on the bottom of the pan before I set my castings in it. I pour the lube. I then let it sit in the oven untill it cools. I lube sometimes 500 at a time. Mostly .30cal.
When cool, I remove and place upside down on a table top. The cake eventually falls out in one piece. I take this cake, and push the boolitts from the nose out of the cake, base first.
Any missing lube, I rub on before sizing.
Makes a mess to a point, but I enjoy it.
Smells good also.

[montana_charlie]

Whats better a soft or hard lube for pan lubing.

Never have pan lubed, but have read a lot of posts about it. Because my interest is in BPCR, all of those posts had to do with soft lubes.
From that accumulation of information I am certain that using soft lube is perfectly fine, but your 'technique' will probably be important...no matter what kind of lube you use.

If you are not having success, describe your process.

Those with experience may be able to suggest modifications to your technique that will cure your problem(s).

I would strongly suggest that you always use a double boiler for melting lube...even though others say it's not necessary.

CM

[dk17hmr]

Well I use a pie pan, pour the lube in and used a case to make holes in the lube to put the bullets in. Filled the holes with bullets put it in the oven at 200 degrees until all the lube is melted, shut off the oven open the door, let it cool enough so that the lube is setting up enough that the bullets wont tip over, put it in the fridge to speed up the process. Than pop them out of the "cake". I get about 50% success.

[Kraschenbirn]

My experience has been that the "best" method may depend more upon the lube you're using than anything else. My BP lube is fairly stiff and dropping the entire cake out of the pan and pushing the boolits through from the nose end works just fine. On the other hand, I've been using Junior's beeswax/ATF/lithium grease recipe for 1350-1450 fps 38-55 loads and have found that the cookie cutter method is the way to go with that mix.

Bill

[13Echo]

I pan lube for my Black powder rifles as follows:

The bullets are placed in a flat bottom pie tin or plastic container with about 1/4 to 3/8" between.

The lube is melted in a double boiler.

When the lube is liquid it is poured into the pan till the lube grooves are covered.
(if the bullets are cold I'll warm them up a bit with a hair dryer while the lube is melting)

The lube is allowed to cool till it pulls away from the side of the pan

The pan is then turned upside down over a folded towel and the cake of lube is gently dumped out.

The lube cake is turned over and, with the cake resting on the towel, each bullet is pushed down by the nose to break it free. When all bullets are free in the cake it is picked up and the bullets pushed completely out.

Notes:
Success rate is virtually 100% Using the towel supports the lube cake and helps keep it from cracking before the bullets are pushed free. Lube will stick to some types of pans which are thus not useable with this method. I find aluminum, teflon coated, and plastic containers with sloping sides are best. My favorite lube sticks to stainless. Using a double boiler to melt the lube keeps it from scorching. Overheating lube will destroy its effectiveness.

Jerry Liles

[yondering]

I've found, with some lubes, that cooling it of too much makes it not work well for pan lubing.

I don't remove the lube cake from the pan. I heat up the lube and boolits on the stove top at low heat (sometimes with a blowtorch to gently heat the boolits and lube from the top) then set it on the countertop to cool. When it's cool enough to hold my hand on the bottom side of the pan, but still warm to the touch, is the perfect time to remove the boolits. I use a small pair of needlenose pliers, and pull them out by the nose. Makes a small "pop" noise, and the boolits come out cleanly with no excess lube. I do this with BAC and Carnuba Red lubes. With CR, if I let it cool too much, the lube breaks out of some of the grooves, and I have to re-lube those boolits.

[montana_charlie]

I use a small pair of needlenose pliers, and pull them out by the nose.

Surely you only do that on very hard bullets...right?

I filled a plastic 45 Colt ammo box with 100 550-grain .45 cal. bullets...inserted nose up. To my dismay, I found I could not grip them by the nose with enough friction to lift them out with my fingers. The noses were too round, and too smooth.

I cut a short length of rubber tubing and pressed the end onto a bullet. Then, squeezing the body of the tubing closed to form a vacuum...I could lift them out.

No damage to those perfect noses I was so proud of...
CM

[yondering]

Surely you only do that on very hard bullets...right?

CM

Nope, I do that for all of my boolits. I haven't cast any pure lead, so 50/50 pure/ww is as soft as I've tried, but it works fine. When the lube is still a bit warm, it doesn't take much to pull them out. It does leave two small marks on the noses of the soft boolits, but who cares? It doesn't make them shoot any differently, and they are hardly noticeable, if you're worried about them being "pretty".

[RU shooter]

I do the same as Yondering , I leave the cake in the pan and while still a touch warm use forcepts to pull the bullet out I have found that I get best sucess if I leave my lube and boolits in the toaster oven after the lube is melted for approx 15-20 min. I read this on Goatlips website that it works best if the boolits reach the same temp as the lube ,Its been working for me well as pan lubing is all I mainly do

[TAWILDCATT]

I have not pan lubed since WW2 and got my lyman luber.now I use Lee tumble lube.just throw them in plastic container[icecream] squirt som lube on shake put on wax paper and leave over night.

[docone31]

I tried pouring lots of lube on cold bullets.
Pfhaaat!
Now, I set them on the tray, bring the oven up to 175*-200*. Depends on whether I want to set the temp.
I go away for a while, then pour the lube in one corner. When I pan lube, I do 500 at a time.
I watch how high the lube gets. Once it is where I want it, I shut off the oven, put the tray back in, and get it later.
I then set the tray upside down with one corner high over a towel. In a few hours, the lube seperates from the pan. I pop the lube cake out, remove the wax paper, and push the castings through base first. I remove excess lube with the sizing die. I use the Lee Push Thru Sizer. The excess I wipe on the few with missing lube.

[dk17hmr]

I got it figured out...I tried cutting them out with a spent case worked great.

[vanilla_gorilla]

This may be dumb, but wouldn't a spent case pick up the boolit and cause it to stick within the case?

[dk17hmr]

Yes it does.

Pop the primer out, Take a 2" long finish nail stick it through the primer hole and push the bullet out, worked perfectly for me. I was working on 44 bullets so I ran a 44 mag case into a 45-70 die to knock out the primer.

You could just drill out a primer and use a small bolt or dowel.

[Ricochet]

Or you can use a tubing cutter to take the head off of the case. I wait till a neck's split or some such.

[gregg877]

I use 2:1 Beeswax/vasoline lube, which when cool is medium hard. I start by warming up a pie tin under a portable light, while heating the lube up in an old coffee pot in a double boiler. The boolit in question is an ideal 311403, which I line up in the pie tin in rows. Once the lube is fully liquid, I pour it right in to just a little over the last lube groove, and let cool overnight in the fridge. Generally, the whole thing cools down into a cake, shrinks a little, and can be popped out and the boolits individually extricated, however, once in a while a crack forms in the center of the cake and all of the boolits in the cracks path get set aside for another round of lubing. I can generally do around 75-100 if I line em up right.

Gregg

[WARD O]

I have found that if you use one of these newer type baking pans that are soft and flexible it makes for easier extraction of the lube cake with bullets.

I use one such pan sized for a loaf of bread. It will hold about 100 of my BPCR bullets. I set the pan on a small board and then stand all the bullets on their base in the pan. Heat the lube in the double boiler and simply pour the liquid up to the desired height on the bullets. Allow the lube to set for about 15 minutes until somewhat firm and then invert the pan and remove the warm lube cake. Then allow the lube cake to cool a little more with the pan removed and finally pop the bullets through the cake!

If you run a couple of pans you can keep a good rotation going and not lose too much time waiting for things to cool.

Ward