Pan Lubing with Tumble Lube Molds

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  • Last Post 09 May 2010
LubeckTech posted this 01 May 2010

I am just about to start casting and am starting to aquire molds. If I were to get a lee six cavity mold which produces a bullet designed to be tumble lubed could I still pan lube it successfully or are the smaller grooves not suitable for proper pan lubing?

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DAMRON G posted this 01 May 2010

I have pan lubed the  Lee .30 caliber “Harris” bullet succesfully,but  using their liquid alox is faster and works fine even with non microband bullets.

George

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DAMRON G posted this 01 May 2010

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Vassal posted this 01 May 2010

I don't think it will work, but I have NOT tried it. I do not have good luck with pan lubing of any sort, others do, so I might be the odd-ball. I do all my lubing by hand and then use a Lee push through sizer die to “clean it up.”

I do use traditional lub in this way on TL bullets and have had no leading, and reasonable results in 38SP. I also use this method for 40SW BUT I am not certain enough about my guns in 40SW to comment on the effectiveness. NO leading though and my PC4 - 40 carbine - shoots them pretty fast!  :hunt:

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giorgio de galleani posted this 01 May 2010

When I was young and foolish ,and not a Cast Bullets association member,I used to believe the fairey tales written on  magazines and reloading manuals I wont mention anymore.

One of them was the pan lube business.

 I tried and risked a house fire  messed all the kitchen with sticking and smelling lube. My mother was thinking of abandoning me,a normal wife could have got immediate divorce and a big monthly check.

It's a masochistic option for bachelor AND orphan mountain man,living on mount Athos and in an age before the invention of lubrisizers  and Liquid Alox,not to mention Rooster's Red.

 

PS Being an unrepentant sinner,last spring I had a 43 Spanish mould,and while I was waiting for the G&H Lyman die, in the incoming  mail,I pan lubed 50 bullets,but I swear Just 50 bullets,and for the hungry greed of firing the rolling block.

And that because lubing the bullets using your fingers is even worse than pan lubing.

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Ranch Dog posted this 01 May 2010

I store then heat my liquid alox in a crock pot. I dip my bullets and set them on a cookie sheet. Once dried, I scrape the excess lube off the sheet and put it back in the crock pot. I maintain my alox at a consistency that aids this dip process. Very neat, no wax on the bullet nose. When I'm done, I place a sheet of wax paper on the across the top of the pot and then place the lid on the pot. As it cools it really sucks the wax paper tight and seals it up pretty good. I cook and store the wax on a bench in my garage as I don't want the vapors or odor in my reloading room.

Here is a post I wrote on MarlinOwners some time past, I wasn't using the crock pot but it helps visualize my method.

http://www.marlinowners.coms/index.php/topic,27079.msg254943.html#msg254943>Dipping Alox

I actually dip everything now from 25 to 45 caliber and soon 22  caliber. For the small bullets, I pick them up with a very small set of channel locks. It is very, very quick once you get the hang of it.

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giorgio de galleani posted this 02 May 2010

That is a clever technique,for to keep the bullet nose clean ,avoiding accumulation of Alox in the seating die and avoiding cartridge lenght variation.

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offhand35 posted this 02 May 2010

I have tumble lubed with LLA for 38spl, 40S&W, and 41mag(lite) with very good results. But my LBT .412's yield better groups with LBT soft lube. I had tried pan lubing rifle bullets and some handgun bullets using LBT Blue Soft, with heating it up in a double boiler. My problem was getting the bullet out of the flat pan without taking a large chunk of lube with it. Some calibers I was able to make a “cookie cutter” from a larger cartridge. It was still pretty messy. I was thinking of the “dip” method, but the double boiler opening is kind of narrow, then I would have to use 2 flat pans, one for dipping, one for cooling the bullets. Ranch Dog, the crock pot idea sounds great! Even the small ones have a wide opening, and could soften the lube enough to reach in to make “finger lubing” or dipping easier! I know what's going into my little squirrel crockpot this afternoon!

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Reg posted this 04 May 2010

The smaller groves might not contain enough lube to prevent leading using a standard lube as compared to the Lee Tumble Lube, especially at the higher velocities. Worth a try, you never know and thats what is fun with this game is trying different things. Have tried the tumble lube process and had good luck. Also have pan lubed for many years, and again, had excellent luck.
For the pan lubing I use two pans, a eight inch square pan and a ten inch square pan. Both can be found at yard sales, etc. The idea is to get a double boiler effect by setting the eight inch pan in the larger pan with water in between. Prevents overheating the lube. Sounds like a mess but with any care it works out very well and so far have yet to set the house on fire or even stink it up badly. Another reason for the double pan business is that I actually have several of these set up ( again, yard sales are a cheap source ) for several different dias. The first time thru you fill the smaller pan to the correct level with the first batch of bullets in place, let set. Pop the whole cake out and push the bullets through from the nose . Set the cake back in the pan, put new bullets in the holes, warm up ( in the double boiler effect) the whole thing and again, let set till cool. Have yet to try this with factory lubes as I have always made my own but do not see why they would not work. Want to go to smaller pans for the smaller calibers but am still looking for the pans , might have to get off my dead rear end and just bend up a couple. None of this is by any means new. All of this is SOP to the Schutzen Clan and has been in standard practice for at least one hundred years. You wind up with a bullet not effected in any way by any sizing machine but you must select your mold. It should cast the dia you want without sizing, then to really get things right, use a straight lie bullet seater to control concentricity. If I am not mistaken, most of the Lee Tumble Lube molds are designed to be used as cast and usually require very little sizing if any.

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CB posted this 08 May 2010

Since learning of Ranch Dogs methods, I have done that for all of my Tumble lube bullets and for many of my other types of lubing bullets. It does work well for me.

I do have a Lee pan lube kit that a person who is getting out of casting due to extreme old age gave me, it is interesting. My 50 caliber mini ball bullets, I pan lube them and use a piece of 1/2 copper water pipe to cut them out of the lube.

Jerry

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Dale53 posted this 09 May 2010

I shot black powder cartridge rifle silhouette for about fifteen years. I pan lubed ALL of my bullets. If you learn how, you can do it easily and successfully. I use 9” pie pans and lube several hundred at a time. It is not particularly messy and will give you another “tool for your arsenal” of reloading tools.

I have not tried to pan lube Lee Tumble Lube bullets. However, I am relatively sure it could be done.

I have never used a “Kake Kutter” to remove the bullets from the lube cake. If you will watch the temperature as the pan cools, you can pop the cake (with bullets) out of the pan and push the bullets right through the lube cake getting PERFECT results.

Different lubes sometimes require different methods. I use Emmert's home mix lube for most of my pan lubing. If you are trying to pan lube with a lube that doesn't shrink when cooling, then you will find a silicone bake pan to be very useful as it allows you to peel the pan off the lube cake before you start pushing the bullets from the cake.

FWIW Dale53

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