Mike's Magic Lube (MML) at room temp - need heater?

[huntinlever]

Trying to hold off buying more stuff, or otherwise doing another DIY. I used to do all my reloading in an unheated basement so a heater was obviously necessary with my old Lyman. Now, I'm reloading in a room with a steady ambient temp of about 68F. Hopeful I won't need a heater for my LAM, but before mounting everything together I thought I'd ask for your experience, if anyone uses either Mike's Magic Lube (MML) or a similar lube with lithium grease, beeswax, paraffin and microwax. The lube is pretty stiff, and again I've never tried to do it without the heater, but wondering if it will nevertheless fill at room temp. Thanks.

[Dusty Bannister]

At 68, I plan on warming the sizer a bit with a hair drier. Once the flow is going, it requires no more heat. I would suggest that upon lube sizing the bullets, you not just dump them into a deep container to rattle around. I like to let them "cure" overnight because that seems to allow the lube to attach better in the lube grooves and remain in place with further handling. Cover to prevent dust getting in the lube overnight. The hardness of your lube will tell you fairly soon if you need heat or not. If too hard, it will not fill the grooves with the usual pressure.

[huntinlever]

Awesome, thanks Dusty.

[BLAHUT]

I use a hair dryer when needed.

[huntinlever]

Thanks Blahut.

[Uncle Grinch]

I took a coffee cup warming plate and removed the heating unit and screwed it to the aluminum plate that my lubrisizer is bolted to. It gently warms my lubrisizer up so my lube flows smoothly.

[gwpercle]

For decades I have used Lithi-Bee , 1 part lithium / 3 parts beeswax , no parrafin , no micro wax ... without any heater in an unconditioned outbuilding . No heat in winter .
Once or twice I used a shop light or hair dryer on cast iron body when it was cold but I needed some boolits sized and lubed ... we talking 40 - 50 degrees and I usually don't reload when it's that cold .
If you have trouble lubing in 68 degree temperature ... try mixing some MML and leave out some of the Parrafin or Micro waxes . The Lithi-Bee flows well , sans heater and your lube might be too hard .
Portable Work light w/ a 150 watt incandescent bulb or hair dryer will warm up the cast iron body easily .
Gary

[huntinlever]

For decades I have used Lithi-Bee , 1 part lithium / 3 parts beeswax , no parrafin , no micro wax ... without any heater in an unconditioned outbuilding . No heat in winter .
Once or twice I used a shop light or hair dryer on cast iron body when it was cold but I needed some boolits sized and lubed ... we talking 40 - 50 degrees and I usually don't reload when it's that cold .
If you have trouble lubing in 68 degree temperature ... try mixing some MML and leave out some of the Parrafin or Micro waxes . The Lithi-Bee flows well , sans heater and your lube might be too hard .
Portable Work light w/ a 150 watt incandescent bulb or hair dryer will warm up the cast iron body easily .
Gary

Thanks Gary. I think we're pretty close. I just ran a few test draws of my old 425 grain boolits (pretty beat up - inertia-pulled and dropped into a bag, will re-smelt) (the base isn't off, the bullet is on top of a tilted surface). This is from my LAM, unheated, and not set up for the new boolits (Tom's/Accurate's 46-405VG is on its way).



I did have to do multiple passes for full coverage, but I suspect maybe just a touch of heat would cure that. More a PITA, as member Larry Gibson indicated it would be, is that now that I've lapped out the 0.458 die to 0.461, I'm needing to do quite a bit of cleanup on the boolit afterwards, most especially the base as the lube is splooging out.

I suspect I'll just have eat it and drop some dough on Buffalo Bore's 0.460 custom die. Wish I'd remembered them before lapping out this current one, but them's the breaks.