Tumble Lube

[terryt]

Hi:

What lube works best for tumble lubing as cast (No Sizing) ?

Thanks,

Terry

[Knarley]

I use LEE Alox in a zip lock bag

[Elkins45]

Best? A lot of people like the 45/45/10 mix of Lee liquid Alox/Johnson's paste wax/mineral spirits better than pure liquid alox alone. I'm one of them. There's also the formula that Ben came up with that mixes LLA with a liquid floor wax.

Both of the mixes dry faster and are less sticky than pure LLA.

[NavyVet1959]

I just use alox plus JPW. I figure that the 45/45/10 mix has you evaporating off the mineral spirits that is in the JPW and then adding it back. I just save that step and mix alox directly with JPW.





Wow... My 5000th post... A milestone, I guess...

[rfd]

after messing around with different home brews and commercial mixtures, white label lube works best for me. i use it with lee tl cast bullets for .45acp and .357mag.

[runfiverun]

you can buy the 45/45/10 lube from Ls'Stuff.
just scroll down to the bottom of the page here and click on the link.

if you make it yourself you cook the solvents out of the JPW and add back mineral spirits.
the mineral spirits air dry out of the mixture, the solvents you cook out won't.
that's the trick to making it work.
when I make it I add more than 10% MS, I'm more in the 40% area.
mine dries in about 20 minutes.

[mold maker]

If the solvents in JPW don't evaporate how does it dry on the floors it was made for? MS is not a rapid evaporative solvent.

[waco]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-L-Liquid-Lube
Give this a try. The stuff works great!

[Knarley]

I guess I should re-itterate. I do add some mineral spirits to the Alox. Makes it runny-er, as suggested on the directions. I size the ones that need it, but then I tumble then in a small amount of "Motor Mica" from Ballistic Products. It's a dry lube for shot shell wads. It takes the tackiness away from the alox, and gives another layer of lube. Has worked very well with cowboy shooting for me and the Mrs.

[Hick]

I use Ben's T/L-- works fine

[R. Dupraz]

Liquid Alox

Thinned 50/50 either with mineral spirits or Johnson's liquid floor wax.

Simple and effective. Less is better.

[terryt]

Hi:

Thanks for all of the reply's.

Terryt

[dragon813gt]

Used to use 45/45/10. Still have a bunch of it made up. For the cost I would just order it from White Label if I was still using it. Now I use BLL. Simple and easy to make. But if you don't have the floor wax already you won't be making any.

Regardless of the type of TL if the bullets are sticky you used to much. The advantage to the others over straight Alox is they dry quicker. BLL dries the fastest and hardest for me.

[NavyVet1959]

If you use the Lee bullet resizing dies, you end up with a lot of their alox anyway. I have at least one of those dies for every caliber I reload, so I have enough Lee alox for awhile, especially when you mix it with JPW or straight mineral spirits. One of these days, I'm going to run out of that stuff and then I'll worry about the next alternative.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Hi:
What lube works best for tumble lubing as cast (No Sizing) ?
Thanks,
Terry

The 'magic' to lube without sizing, is having a mold that drops the "best" size boolit for your Gun.
as to Lube, I use both 45-45-10 and BLL...and I like them both, they both have there quirks. Generally I use 45-45-10 and a heatgun to preheat the boolits for application before sizing, then I apply BLL (without heat) after sizing. Of the many Lee molds I have, I only have two that drop boolits that I am comfortable with lubing without sizing. one is the 200gr RF for 44 that drops right at .430 and the other is a 230gr TC for 45 that drops right at .452 Besides being the correct size, both molds align well and are nearly NOT out-of round, most of my Lee molds are usually .001" out-of-round.

[kjohn]

I have mostly used good old Lee Alox. I did try thinning it with mineral spirits. For some of the harder rifle bullets that will get used at higher velocities I also put on a bit of the blue stuff that comes in tubes. (forgot the name, and not at home)

I have fired off lots of WW GC 155 gr Lee over 10ish gr. of Unique and 700X, never had any problems with just Alox.

Straight tumble lube = Lee Alox. Sized and GC = Lee Alox, plus maybe some blue stuff. I put the blue stuff on with my fingers.

[sparky45]

Bens Liquid elixir; cures ALL bullet sizing and lubing problems.