How to lube a boolit

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I've got some wheel weights, and all the stuff I need to melt them down. I will be getting a mould pretty soon. The only thing (I think) that I am not understanding is how you get the lube on the boolit. I know you can use stuff like Alox to coat the whole thing or pan lube but that looks like it is time consuming. So there is a special die or something and it has some type on lube in it? I was going to put this in the lube section but I thought it was just for recipes.

[Lavid2002]

Alox isnt time consuming in the least. I am very new to casting, I have tried pan lubing and it didnt work out very well. Even if it did...THAT is time consuming. For aloz, I toss the boolits in a bucket, alox em, toss them around, and pour onto a pan overnight. Thats it....


I personally size my boolits so it goes like this
Alox-Size-Alox

There is a lyman lubrisizer that lubes and sizes the boolits in one stroke of the machine.

Do some youtube video searching on the name....Alox too...

-Dave

[RobS]

If you are not planning on using a tumble lube such as the Alox or pan lubing then the next option is to get yourself a lubricator also called lube/sizer such as a Lyman, Saeco, RCBS or Magma Star. There is a forth option and it is simply smearing the lube on with your fingers..........although this is really not an option as it is too cumbersome and messy, but can be used from time to time if a person doesn't want to fill an entire lubricator full of a lube that they are not for sure they want to use.

[RobS]

There is a lyman lubrisizer that lubes and sizes the boolits in one stroke of the machine.

-Dave

There is not a Lyman lubrisizer that I am aware of that sizes bullets in one stroke. A Lyman lubrisizer will push the bullet down into the die to lube and size it and then an ejector rod pushes the bullet back up on the handles up stroke. The only lubrisizers that is one stroke are the Magma Star and the Ballisti-Cast machines.

[wallenba]

I know you can use stuff like Alox to coat the whole thing or pan lube but that looks like it is time consuming. So there is a special die or something and it has some type on lube in it? I was going to put this in the lube section but I thought it was just for recipes.

Charlie,Tumble lubing with LLA (Lee Liquid Alox) is easy and takes only a few seconds to coat a batch in a margarine tub or the likes. It does require drying overnight and some testing to get the thinning right. You will want to thin it with mineral spirits to keep it from getting too thick, or it will be gooey and not dry fully.
Overly thick gooey alox will create a lot of smoke when fired but won't hurt anything. A lubrisizer will size the boolit and lube it at the same time. They have a reservoir cylinder filled with lube sticks that are semi-solid wax/grease based, either commercially available or homemade. If you are just starting out I would recommend you visit this website http://www.midwayusa.com/ browse the products under 'reloading' . There you can also find the book "Modern Reloading" by Richard Lee. This book will answer 90% of you questions, and we are here for those it can't. Welcome.

[Lavid2002]

There is not a Lyman lubrisizer that I am aware of that sizes bullets in one stroke. A Lyman lubrisizer will push the bullet down into the die to lube and size it and then an ejector rod pushes the bullet back up on the handles up stroke. The only lubrisizers that is one stroke are the Magma Star and the Ballisti-Cast machines.

I stand corrected

[wallenba]

I stand corrected

Well....your sorta both right. If I preload my reservoir piston with enough turns It can lube and size, 4 sometimes 5 boolits, (depending on the size of the boolit and groove) before I have to crank on it again. It will usually depend on the lube itself, soft or hard, heated or not heated. I consider up and down as one stroke.

[walker77]

If you get a lubrisizer, make sure to get a heater of some kind.

[MtGun44]

A heater is only necessary with some hard lubes. I never use a heater because I choose to use
soft lubes the flow just fine a room temps. I greatly prefer soft lubes, altho others do not like
them.

Be aware that the Lee TL system has the benefit of not requiring the new caster to buy an
expensive lubrisizer or to the somewhat tedious cake cutter pan lube system. However, TL is a
fairly marginal lube system and while some have good results, others have very poor
results. I would suggest that conventional lube designs are more certain of success
than TL designs. Study up on cake cutting and pan lubing before you settle on the TL
designs.

Bill

[ghh3rd]

Some folks have been known to get down and dirty and rub the lube into the grooves by hand, size the boolit in a Lee sizer to remove excess lube, and then clean the base off before loading. Slow, but not bad for 50 rounds here, 100 rounds there.....

[MtGun44]

I have hand smeared lube but not for more than about 10 boolits.

Pretty easy to move up to a home made cake cutter if you can make or find a small shallow
metal pan for the lube (melt on the stove or hotplate, stand up the boolits on their bases
adjusting the number of boolits and amount of lube to get it the right height on the boolits).
The cake cutter is often just a bottleneck case of something the same caliber or just a tad
larger with the head cut off and sharpened on the OUTSIDE of the neck with a case mouth chamfering
tool. Push down over the boolits in the just hardened lube, twist and lift. Repeat. The
lubed boolits come up out of the case one at a time and you either use unsized or run thru
the cheap Lee sizer die.

[DLCTEX]

Even the Star and Ballisticast machines are technically two stroke machines as you have to return the lever to get the next boolit in.

[cajun shooter]

You can pan lube about 400 bullets at one session if you work a little. When I do my large 45-70 bullets I pan lube rather than machine lube them. I have about 4 large cake pans with two being made of silicone . If your mold drops at 458 then have Buckshot make you a Kate Cutter around 461. He has made two for me and they have knurled handles and a look of being CCH. Best cutter I ever used. Very quick and easy.

[mdi]

I suggest you get Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook. Casting, lubing, sizing, and shooting all covered in there...

[res45]

I use this method http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=67654 works fine with both TL and non TL bullets. If I think I need more lube on the non TL designs I ranch dip them the second time after applying the GC ,let dry overnight and run them back through the Lee push through sizer.


bullet looks a bit rough,I carried it around in my pocket all day with my other junk before I took the pic.