My modest bullet casting operation.

I would like to cast and size a quanity of bullets WITHOUT lubrication in the grooves.

I want to preserve the lube grooves until later so as to have a bullet that has NOT been messed with regarding hardness/diameter, until I choose to lube and load it!

I tried one "hand-lubed" with vasoline through my Lee bullet sizer die and got the results that I wanted.

That technique is not going to be very "cost effective"!

Does anyone know of a better way to do this?

Cheezywan

You could try a light dusting of baby powder. That stuff is very finly ground mica dust, and is used as a lubricant in many applications. It should give enough lube for the sizing operation. Or try a light spray of furniture wax (Pledge) or cheaper ones, I give my brass a light spray just before going to the carbide sizer die, makes the brass slide in and out with almost no effort.

Thanks jaguarxk120. I apreciate the reply.

I know that I can push them through "dry " with my particular sizing die. To do so, distorts the lube grooves though. I would like to find an economical method to avoid that.

Vasoline worked. Too expencive and messy!
Wire pulling lube or a press submerged in oil are where my thought are now.

Cheezywan

You could try the wire pulling lube, but it will add a extra step, as the lube is water soluble and will have to be washed off, and the drying of the bullets. I think some have used the wire pulling lube a case lube, haven't tryed that yet.
I won't go to the press under oil (depends on what kind of oil).

Use Lee case sizing lube. It washes off with hot water.

Anything that washes off creates a extra step in processing and extra work.
Using a dry lube or spray that will support later lubing operations is the best way to go.
Polishing the sizing die with Flintz or Semichrome should reduce friction in the sizing die. Either material will polish without changing die diameter.

I don't know if you are water quenching or not? In another thread someone advised that if you do all the sizing as quickly after casting as possible, you've changed the surface before the alloy has reached its full hardness, which is usually a week or two for quench-hardened bullets. If you lube later, you definitely initiate surface softening. I haven't experimented with this myself, to verify it, and I don't know if it applies only to quenched bullets or to all cast bullets?

For sizing without lubing, use deodorized mineral spirits as your temporary lube. It will get you through a Lee sizing die, and it just dries off in a day. That said, I've seen a lot of un-lubed bullets develop surface oxidized patches in storage. You might do better from the storage standpoint to use WD-40 to lube and protect. Then dip in mineral spirits before applying the final lube. If you find you can use Lee Liquid Alox (or White Label Xlox) as the lube, it has enough mineral spirits in it that you can probably leave the WD-40 in place.

The bullet I’m working with is the Lee C359-158-SWC cast from air-cooled wheel weight metal. The as-cast diameter is near 0.362”.

I took a Lee hand press and worked it in a bucket of soap-water today. I got the results I was looking for in about fifty sized bullets.

They came at a cost though. Too much work! That little hand-press is just NOT the right tool for bullet sizing.

I would like to be able to size them right after casting. Then decide on what lube to use as I load. Need to get my bullet inventory built up for winter when it is too cold to cast around here. Thanks for your thoughts folks.

Cheezywan

A lot of revolvers like a bullet a couple thousandths over groove diameter, but four over seems like a lot. I have a couple batches of the 300 grain bullet in my avatar that I cast two years ago. It's a tumble lube design with no sizing needed. The ones I coated with Lee Liquid Alox at the time are fine, but the others are getting dark gray patches. I should have lubed them all, but thought to try out paper patching them for the .45-70, and wanted to leave them plain at least until I got the patches on. Then I somehow didn't get around to it in that period. So, I figure I should have hosed them with WD-40, then dipped it off of them in mineral spirits and let them dry when I was ready to use them.

They have shot well in as-cast condition from my revolvers unclenick. Every-once-in a-while, a particular case won't allow one to chamber easy though. Wouldn't bother with sizing otherwise. Would prefer to let the firearm do that if I could.

I was looking at a new bullet mold this afternoon with that thought in my mind.

Just to let everyone know, I did dry and lube my tools after the "bath" they got today. It has been some years now since I fell off of the turnip wagon. Know for sure it wasn't yesturday:).

Thank all,

Cheezywan

You've also got me thinking that since Lee case lube is water soluble and can be diluted and pump sprayed onto cases, that perhaps that diluted form might also be a good bullet sizing lube? People have, for years, used dishwashing liquid as a sizing lube, letting it dry on cases, but I've always been concerned it might be hygroscopic enough to initiate corrosion if left too long? But what I'm thinking here is maybe you dilute the Lee case lube in a gallon of distilled water from the store and add just one drop or two of the dishwashing liquid to serve as a wetting agent so it stays on a surface you spray it on. Then you size the bullets and just let them dry. It might turn out to be an OK dry bullet lube or at least an assistant bullet lube? It can't hurt. Just add whatever other lube you want over top of it after it's dry.

BTW, I assume it is obvious you can size, then oven heat-treat, in that order, to ensure you eliminate surface softening initiated by the sizing action's corruption of the crystal structure at the surface of the bullet?

One more idea: Hit the bullets with any spray-on case lube, then put them in your vibratory tumbler with plain corncob to clean it off ofter sizing. STP diluted with denatured alcohol and sprayed on outdoors and allowed to sit until the alcohol is gone should work in that same vein. So should a dip in a high tack oil like bar chain oil.

You offer up some good thoughts unclenick. I was hoping to avoid heat-treat but I will not avoid it if I need to make a bullet behave like I want it to.

I was looking forward to "playing" with lubes over the winter.

STP! I used that stuff in my 66 to reduce oil consumtion. Also was good for assembly of re-built engines. (I still remember the sumo wreasler that could not hold the screwdriver).

Chainsaw bar oil is also a good idea. Clean-up?

Cheezywan

STP and chainsaw bar oil are both very high film strength lubes. Getting them off after sizing may be a problem.

How about a veggy based lube like bore butter or veggy shorting used in cooking. Both will dislove in Dawn dish soap.

Tried one bullet with bar oil. Worked fine. Too messy though. Knew it would be.

A few winters ago I had trouble with squirrels tearing up our pole mounted bird feeder. Temperature was near 0 degrees F.

I put some bar oil on a paper towel and "greased" the pole with it. It adheared to that cold pole good.

It was good fun to watch squirrels shinny up that pole and do a "slow slide" back down. We had hair on the pole all winter from one aplication.

Cheezywan

I figured the dip in mineral spirits would be the way to go. If you own a part washer, that is even easier; just put the bullets in a basket and stream the solvent over it. That or the corncob and tumbler should remove it well enough, but as to being messy to handle, that's not going away.

It seems from the replies so far that there is not a common good way to do what I want. An as-cast bullet of the correct diameter is as good as it gets.

Wish my mold was smaller. Could make it bigger with what I have. Don't know how the other way.
Thanks.

Cheezywan

Wish my mold was smaller. Could make it bigger with what I have. Don't know how the other way.
Thanks.

Cheezywan
Fill it 1/2 full. ;)


Michael Grace

Green medical soap would probably work. Mix it up 3 parts water one part soap. Dip the bullets and let them dry. Probably the best way to do what you want is to size normally after casting. Then reheat treat when you want to use them using the oven. You would have to relube using a .001 oversize die as the lube will run off in the oven. You can also vary the lead mixture to get close to the diameter you want right out of the mould.

You can also vary the lead mixture to get close to the diameter you want right out of the mould.

I've been thinking some on that idea ironhead. At least for this one particular handgun bullet.

I'm using "straight from the tire" wheelweight metal now. I do have some "near pure" lead and some solder in my inventory. Not enough lead to do the quanity that I have in mind though.

Next casting session I will try a few from my "near pure" stash, and measure them. Thanks!

Cheezywan