I've exclusively used imperial sizing wax for about 2 years now since I started seriously reloading for precision.
I bought a bunch of premade 8:1 and 16:1 IPA/lanolin mix a few years back and never ended up trying it.
While sizing a batch of 223 last night I was becoming impatient rather quickly with applying each individual case with imperial wax.
I decided to finally break out the lanolin mix and see how it did. After some time the lanolin and alcohol separates in the solution and the lanolin settles at the bottom. In my case, the lanolin has probably been settled at the bottom for about 3 years. But after some vigorous shaking for about a minute or two I was able to get most of it off the bottom.
I put the remaining 90 223 cases into a ziplock bag and screwed my sprayer onto the lanolin mixture. I probably pumped about 10 sprays into the bag, closed it and started mixing them around to try and distribute the mix evenly.
I then dumped the contents into an akro bin and let it sit for about 5 minutes for the alcohol to flash off. It still seemed a little wet so i gave it about 10 more minutes. This time they seemed pretty dry and the cases seemed to have a decent film on them so I started sizing with them.
All the cases sized just as easily as the imperial wax, maybe even a little bit easier. As I got closer to the bottom of the akro bin there seemed to be a little pooling of the solution, seemed to be a bit of the alcohol that didn't flash off, and some of the cases were soaked at the bottom. So I had to dab it out with a paper towel.
Also noted that after mixing the cases in the ziplock bag, that the inside of the cases were wet with the solution as well. But after I finished sizing I put all of the cases in a rotary tumbler with rice for 3 hours, when I woke up this morning to see the results, all the lanolin came off inside and out and seemed squeaky clean, so not a big deal.
All in all I was pretty happy with the results and time savings. There definitely seems to be a little bit of a learning curve with how much you spray in the bag to prevent excess. I suppose you could set them up in a loading block and apply it like hornady one shot, but I will continue to opt for the ziplock method. 16:1 seemed to be adequate for the 223 brass, not sure it the 8:1 would prove better on larger cases like a 300 rum. I plan on reporting back after much use with a more perfected method.
I bought a bunch of premade 8:1 and 16:1 IPA/lanolin mix a few years back and never ended up trying it.
While sizing a batch of 223 last night I was becoming impatient rather quickly with applying each individual case with imperial wax.
I decided to finally break out the lanolin mix and see how it did. After some time the lanolin and alcohol separates in the solution and the lanolin settles at the bottom. In my case, the lanolin has probably been settled at the bottom for about 3 years. But after some vigorous shaking for about a minute or two I was able to get most of it off the bottom.
I put the remaining 90 223 cases into a ziplock bag and screwed my sprayer onto the lanolin mixture. I probably pumped about 10 sprays into the bag, closed it and started mixing them around to try and distribute the mix evenly.
I then dumped the contents into an akro bin and let it sit for about 5 minutes for the alcohol to flash off. It still seemed a little wet so i gave it about 10 more minutes. This time they seemed pretty dry and the cases seemed to have a decent film on them so I started sizing with them.
All the cases sized just as easily as the imperial wax, maybe even a little bit easier. As I got closer to the bottom of the akro bin there seemed to be a little pooling of the solution, seemed to be a bit of the alcohol that didn't flash off, and some of the cases were soaked at the bottom. So I had to dab it out with a paper towel.
Also noted that after mixing the cases in the ziplock bag, that the inside of the cases were wet with the solution as well. But after I finished sizing I put all of the cases in a rotary tumbler with rice for 3 hours, when I woke up this morning to see the results, all the lanolin came off inside and out and seemed squeaky clean, so not a big deal.
All in all I was pretty happy with the results and time savings. There definitely seems to be a little bit of a learning curve with how much you spray in the bag to prevent excess. I suppose you could set them up in a loading block and apply it like hornady one shot, but I will continue to opt for the ziplock method. 16:1 seemed to be adequate for the 223 brass, not sure it the 8:1 would prove better on larger cases like a 300 rum. I plan on reporting back after much use with a more perfected method.