Case lube bath?

[garandman]

Case lubing... the suckiest part of reloading bottleneck cases.

I've had bad results / screwed up using "One Shot" before. Coupla stuck cases. And the hand / finger lubing each case exterior and inside the case necks seems hyper tedious to my "SQUIRREL!!!" mind.

Is there some sort of water soluable lube I can dump / immerse 500 + cases into at once to lube the entire case inside mouth and exterior body at once?

Case lubing my bolt guns is tolerable, but for these 223 cases....YUCK !

 

[divingin]

The biggest advantage to One-Shot is that you don't need to clean it off afterward. The drawback (as you discovered) is that technique is pretty crucial to smooth operation.

Any bath type of lubing will involve another step to remove the lube, especially inside the cases (where it can contaminate powder and/or primers.)

 

[Walt Krafft]

I use Dillons lube in a pump bottle. Couple hundred cases in a plastic bread tote, spritz some on, shake them around, repeat, size, tumble in very fine corn cob to remove. Last bunch I tumbled wet with brass juice after sizing and they came out beautiful.

 

[garandman]

The biggest advantage to One-Shot is that you don't need to clean it off afterward. The drawback (as you discovered) is that technique is pretty crucial to smooth operation.

Any bath type of lubing will involve another step to remove the lube, especially inside the cases (where it can contaminate powder and/or primers.)

I wet steel pin tumble twice - once after depriming, then again after re-sizing.

 

[NorCalMikie]

RCBS Case Lube, water soluble.

 

[jpx2rk]

I use the RCBS case lube with their pad, can get up to 20 223 cases on it once you figure out how, ten cases fit fine and can be rolled/lubed and FL sized with decent speed. I just use an old plastic coffee tub filled with hot water & some Dawn soap, swish around good, and change the water a couple times, (the soap suds usually stays in the tub/on the brass), then rinse and dry.

 

[ballisticdaddy]

99% alcohol and lanolin sprayed from a bottle into a plastic bin with a lid and swirl/shake them for a few minutes then let the alcohol evaporate and it's the best case lube I have ever used. Tumble in corn cob medial for an hour or two and you are all set.

 

[10XSHOOTER]

RCBS or Redding water soluble lube. stick on pins in dish washer. Hot water no soap overnight. clean and dry in the morning. My dishwasher holds about 120 cases at a time.

 

[One Eye Pete]

1. You shouldn't have to lube the inside of the necks before sizing. The residual carbon left in the neck from the previous firing should be enough for sizing and bullet seating. My experience is that any kind of liquid lube left inside the necks degrades accuracy.
Bushing dies definitely don't need lube on the inside of the neck and I don't believe dies with a carbide expander ball do either.
2. The two best lubes I have found are Imperial Die Wax and Ballistol. Imperial is the best but with a little ballistol on a paper towel you can clean the carbon off the outside of the neck and lube the case at the same time (no need to tumble unless you want shiny brass). With either of these a little goes a long way.
3. One thing I do with all of my sizing dies is to polish the inside to a mirror finish with a good metal polish such as Flitz. It takes about 45 minutes. The friction difference between a die as it comes from the factory and one highly polished on the inside is like night and day. With a polished die you only need a minimum amount of lube and if you do miss lubing one case chances are you won't stick it in the die especially if there is a slight residual of lube on the die surface from previous cases. Also DON'T OVERSIZE YOUR CASES make sure your sizing die is set up correctly.

For bulk reloading as for 223 on a Dillon I still use a polished sizing die. I tumble the fired cases to clean them (gas guns are dirty) and after tumbling and all I do is briefly handle each case with some lube on my hands. All you need is a very thin film.
When you put less on you have to take less off.

On match loads I wipe the sized cases down with a paper towel while I inspect them. For bulk 223 I throw them in the tumbler with corncob.

This may go without saying but always keep the inside of your sizing dies clean. Almost all die lubes will attract dirt.

 

[Bushranger]

The friction difference between a die as it comes from the factory and one highly polished on the inside is like night and day.

What do you use to polish the die?

 

[bozo699]

I wet steel pin tumble twice - once after depriming, then again after re-sizing.

I’ve been following your thread that’s about 8 pages long now on Hornaday bullets,…. Curious after you clean your cases so thoroughly with pins do you use imperial dry neck lube or something equivalent before seating bullets?
Wayne

 

[garandman]

I’ve been following your thread that’s about 8 pages long now on Hornaday bullets,…. Curious after you clean your cases so thoroughly with pins do you use imperial dry neck lube or something equivalent before seating bullets?
Wayne

I been using One Shot in a large plastic tray and rolling them around. I size then I wet tumble again. This is for my bolt gun stuff. I'm looking for a more mass production method for the semi stuff.

 

[David Christian]

@garandman, I have found that Oneshot works great for me if I properly clean my die before use. Many, many reloaders I know have complained about Oneshot and the common error was having other residual wax/lube inside their dies that did not react well to Oneshot. I use a liberal amount of Oneshot on clean dies and the stuck cases went away. I dump a box of 100 cases into a 1 gallon ziplock freezer bag, spray Oneshot for 8-10 seconds and then shake it around for a consistent lube.

 

[One Eye Pete]

What do you use to polish the die?

I usually polish the inside of the die by hand. I wrap a paper towel around a wood dowel and coat it with Flitz metal polish. I try to rotate the die with the dowel inserted and hold the dowel with the paper towel stationary. The paper towel will turn black from the minute amount of metal being removed. I start with the blue colored Flitz polish that comes in a tube. When the die surface starts to really shine I switch to the green Flitz liquid that is sold to add to a vibratory tumbler to polish brass cases. This is a finer grade of polish and will leave a mirror like shine on the inside of the die. When doing it Intry to force the paper towel inta the die so that it fills up the whole inside of the die. When finished I wash the die with a soapy paper towel to remove any residual polish an then immediately spray it with WD 40.

 

[Chiquita]

Oneshot, if used properly will work great for case sizing & neck sizing and it cleans up nicely in corn cobb media.

 

[SSL]

Looks like my process may be a bit more labor intensive than most, but I only shoot bolt and single shot rifles - no autos. I recently switched to Imperial. I clean my rifle brass first (old Lyman vibrator tub with treated ground corn cob) followed by a trip through an RCBS case/media separator so I'm not introducing grit from firing into my dies. A small dab of lube on my fingers takes care of lubing each case. Since I clean primer pockets with each loading, I also use that opportunity to give each case a wipe with a paper shop towel moistened with alcohol. About the most I load at a session is maybe 100, so it really isn't too bad. Doing that and hand-priming gives me ample opportunity to inspect cases for faults or failures. Since handgun loading may well be up to 500 at a time (I load big batches and don't start over until most of my brass empty), thank God for carbide!

 

[jpx2rk]

I usually polish the inside of the die by hand. I wrap a paper towel around a wood dowel and coat it with Flitz metal polish. I try to rotate the die with the dowel inserted and hold the dowel with the paper towel stationary. The paper towel will turn black from the minute amount of metal being removed. I start with the blue colored Flitz polish that comes in a tube. When the die surface starts to really shine I switch to the green Flitz liquid that is sold to add to a vibratory tumbler to polish brass cases. This is a finer grade of polish and will leave a mirror like shine on the inside of the die. When doing it Intry to force the paper towel inta the die so that it fills up the whole inside of the die. When finished I wash the die with a soapy paper towel to remove any residual polish an then immediately spray it with WD 40.

What size wooden dowel, one that almost fits into the die base to compress the paper towel or smaller????

 

[garandman]

@garandman, I have found that Oneshot works great for me if I properly clean my die before use. Many, many reloaders I know have complained about Oneshot and the common error was having other residual wax/lube inside their dies that did not react well to Oneshot. I use a liberal amount of Oneshot on clean dies and the stuck cases went away. I dump a box of 100 cases into a 1 gallon ziplock freezer bag, spray Oneshot for 8-10 seconds and then shake it around for a consistent lube.

Whatta ya recommend for cleaning sizing dies? Disassemble? What cleaning methods?

 

[One Eye Pete]

What size wooden dowel, one that almost fits into the die base to compress the paper towel or smaller????

It doesn't really matter, you can even just use a paper towel and force it in tight then turn it. You need to get pressure against the walls of the die to get the Flitz to do the job.

 

[divingin]

@garandman, I have found that Oneshot works great for me if I properly clean my die before use.

Whatta ya recommend for cleaning sizing dies? Disassemble? What cleaning methods?

I use a cotton bore mop on an electric drill and spray it down with Berryman's carb cleaner. Stuff it in and give it a spin (sorry, I know this is a family-esque forum. Innuendo not intended.) The decapping assembly get removed and wiped down with a rag. The only other thing that's picky is to clear any vent hole that the sizing die may have.

Gotta say, though, that I don't do this all that often.