Lanolin hydrous?

[wonderwolf]

My dad is a pharmacist and can get either Anhydrous or hydrous lanolin for me at about $2 a tube I understand hydrous has water in it. is that why you guys use the anhydrous instead or does the anhydrous have better lube qualities over the hydrous?

[garandsrus]

Wonderwolf,

The lack of water is why we use anhydrous lanolin. The stuff I purchased came in a bottle, not a tube. It is a thick liquid.

Anhydrous lanolin mixed with 99% rubbing alcohol makes a great case lube and is the same as what you would get from Dillon. The 90% alcohol has too much water and the solution doesn't stay mixed.

John

[wonderwolf]

Figured as much, I didn't really see the problem with the water but I guess if you didn't clean up after every session and oil the dies it could be a problem.

[elk hunter]

Wonderwolf,

The lack of water is why we use anhydrous lanolin. The stuff I purchased came in a bottle, not a tube. It is a thick liquid.

Anhydrous lanolin mixed with 99% rubbing alcohol makes a great case lube and is the same as what you would get from Dillon. The 90% alcohol has too much water and the solution doesn't stay mixed.

John

I use anhydrous thinned with mineral oil as lube for swaging jacketed bullets and forming cases.

[wonderwolf]

Got a 1lb tub on the way....it was the smallest amount I could have my dad order.

[Houndog]

Got a 1lb tub on the way....it was the smallest amount I could have my dad order.

you'll need to order some more in 2210, MAYBE!!!!! A little goes a LOOOOONG way!

[wonderwolf]

1lb tub- $10 after discount

[jimkim]

I asked where I could find anhydrous lanolin, and Ed Harris said to use Bag Balm if I couldn't find it in my area. So that's what I use. It was $8.00 for ten ounces. It was in the pet section at Walmart.

[r6487]

for anhydrous lanolin take a look at

www.thesage.com

they have it

[wonderwolf]

Whats the best way to mix this stuff?...what all do you guys use. 99% alcohol is hard to find. How well does the mineral oil work? I'm curious would mineral spirits work?

[imashooter2]

I've got a 4 ounces of anhydrous lanolin sitting on my bench. The stuff I have is a paste texture, not liquid. I couldn't get it to dissolve in acetone, lacquer thinner or methanol. A touch on the fingers lubes cases very nicely though.

[cohutt]

go to soapgoods.com or the chemistrystore.com for all your lube raw materials. I think I've seen liquid lanolin there in addition to the goo type I have.


isoheet in the gas treatment shelves of wally world auto section is as pure a base for lanolin based case lube as you will find. It works much better than any % of rubbing alcohol from the pharm section.


re: bagbalm
it is good stuff for road rash and badly chapped skin. I think you could do better for lube as it is at least 2/3 petroleum jelly. You can easily separate the lanolin though by heating to a liquid state and letting it cool again. The lanolin will be the bottom level (I left a can in a hot car once. oops)

(I have made my own balms and lotions using mixtures of lanolin, beeswax, shea butter and castor/almond/olive oils with water & emulsifiers. winter air is hell on my skin even down here in relatively humid N GA)

[ph4570]

I get 99% alcohol at the local super market (Safeway).

[SierraWhiskeyMC]

Isopropyl alcohol 99% or better is kind of hard to find. "Rubbing alcohol" is a generic name for isopropyl alcohol with water and/or other things added.

Some well-stocked hardware stores sometimes carry it.

The 99%+ stuff is hard on your skin, because it will pull the moisture right out, leaving your skin looking white, chalky-looking and feeling chapped. It absorbs moisture from the atmosphere, so keep it covered at all times.

Isopropyl alcohol burns with a nearly invisible blue flame. Since it's highly flammable, I don't keep it anywhere near the reloading bench, powder or primers.

TheSage has the lowest prices for 1lb containers of anhydrous lanolin that I've seen; someone else on here posted a link to it in another thread.
http://www.thesage.com/catalog/products/Lanolin.html

I just pat the surface of the lanolin with fingers of one hand, and roll a case between my fingers before sticking it in the press. Being a single-stage reloader, I have to handle each case before sizing anyway; so spraying a batch of cases with isopropyl/lanolin mist wouldn't really save me time. Eliminating the isopropyl alcohol also eliminates a potential fire hazard.

[deltaenterprizes]

I have some hydrous lanolin, how can I remove the water? There is a thick film on top that is anhydrous.

[SierraWhiskeyMC]

It's probably not worth the trouble to try to get the water out of hydrous lanolin.

However, you might try putting a tablespoon of it in a Pyrex measuring cup, and put it in a pre-heated oven set to 250°F for a couple of hours. The heat will cause the water to boil out of it. I have never tried this, and don't know what the lanolin will do when heated. It may expand a lot in volume while the moisture is boiling out of it, so better have a cake or pie tin under the measuring cup in case there is a mess.

A tablespoon of anhydrous lanolin should get you through several thousand rounds worth of reloading, if all you're doing is lubing cases with it.

[cohutt]

Isopropyl alcohol 99% or better is kind of hard to find. "Rubbing alcohol" is a generic name for isopropyl alcohol with water and/or other things added.

Some well-stocked hardware stores sometimes carry it.

iso heet referenced above is in walmart and auto parts stores, cheap too

99% isopropanol

http://www.imperialinc.com/msds0055120.shtml

[mikesdad]

interesting topic. lanolin is is naturally occuring in sheep wool. my mother would keep a stash of unwashed wool and used it to cure athletes foot. just a couple of strands between the affected toes and a week later it was gone. never figured that one out. handling unwashed wool also keeps your hands soft. doesn't always smell great, but they were soft. sometimes smelled like the paper broke.

[Houndog]

Mix anhydrous lanolin in equal parts with Vaseline for bullet swaging! Just put them together in a small glass container, heat in the microwave untill it liquifys and then stir. I pour mine into hyperdermic syringes from the local farm supply. It makes it easy to dispense in exact amounts when you need it. Most of the benchrest bullet makers use this lube. I use 6GR per 500 jackets and tumble them in a plastic jar with a single paddle glued in it on a Thumblers tumbler.

[Lloyd Smale]

the first batch of felix lube i ever made i mistakenly bought hyrous lanolin. Within a year all the bullets i sized had the lube dry up and fall off.