I'm a lanolin case lube convert!

[USSR]

Mg,

Yes, mineral spirits/paint thinner is made from petroleum distillates. However, one of it's uses is to remove waxy substances from surfaces. It's a solvent - there is nothing to clean off after use.

Don

[Metal god]

The reason I ask is I was/am-ish a professional painter . When cleaning our oil based brushes we would do the first rinse with lacquer thinner and the next or last rinse with paint thinner . You never do the final rinse in lacquer thinner because it drys out the bristles of the brush . Your final rinse is always something like paint thinner because it leaves an oily residue behind keeping the bristles hydrated and does not allow them to dry out over time in there sleeves . They will dry out eventually but it’s not uncommon to pull out a brush months later and it still has the paint thinner residue still on it . It’s my understanding the reason that is , is because paint thinner has oils in it that don’t evaporate as quickly unlike lacquer thinner or other products that do not and evaporate quickly.

[USSR]

Mg,

You're putting about a shot (1 oz) in a dry tumbler full of crushed walnut shell. I was processing 1,000's of brass a month commercially for a guy with a Type 6 FFL for several years. It helps remove the lanolin and there is no down side to it.

Don

[Metal god]

Oh . I thought i was tumbling the cases in it straight lol .

[pete2]

I have used some Dillon lanolin lube on .223 and it worked. Not much experience with it up to now.

[cdoc42]

MetalGod, sorry for the delay; I'm just catching up. Personally, I wouldn't spent $13 for the Castor Oil. I just used a bottle I picked up at a local Pharmacy, generally used as a laxative.

I had previously made a mixture from pure Lanolin and 91% alcohol, but it is poorly soluble and needs to be shaken each time. When not used for a while, the lanolin drops out and solidifies at the bottom. This did not happen with the Castor Oil- it stays in solution, remains clear, and does not feel "heavy" when applied to the cases. I use a RCBS lube pad, 5-10 cases,a single spray and roll the cases. I have not had a stuck, or even difficult, case when resizing.

[USSR]

cdoc42,

See my post #14. You have to use the 99% isopropyl alcohol such as found in the red bottle HEET or you will get the solution separation as you found.

Don

[jetinteriorguy]

My current bottle using Red HEET is going on it’s second year and has never separated. Another thing about lanolin, it has to be anhydrous lanolin.

[tangolima]

Does lanolin contaminate powder charge if left inside the brass?

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[USSR]

tangolima,

You're spraying the outside of the brass. What little that may get inside a case is removed when tumbling. Never had a cartridge not go off when doing this.

Don

[zxcvbob]

I would be more worried about solvent used to remove the lanolin getting into the primers and contaminating them.

[USSR]

I will repeat,

Never had a cartridge not go off when doing this.

Don

[Metal god]

I get the lube all up inside my cases . Like I said I size in large batches and spray the lube on all areas of the cases . Not by choice but because I have no other choice based on how I lube my cases .

I toss the full batch into a plastic tub then spray a couple squirts , shake tub well and spray a couple more squirts then shake tub and swirl cases with gloved hand . When I shake the tub the heavier end of the cases naturally move to the bottom resulting in the case mouths pointing up . It's virtually impossible for me to NOT get case lube inside my cases . In fact I like it because the expander glides through so easy compared to not having the lube in there .

These 1400-ish cases are once fired LC-17 and have been deprimed , wet tumbled and primer crimp removed in that order . They are now ready to be lubed and FL small base sized .


So what I do after sizing is rinse the cases off in a bucket of pretty hot soapy water drain and rinse with hot water . I then spread them out on a towel outside and let dry . After they are dry I trim and final dry tumble in corncob media . This method gets all the lube off and results in bright and shinny cases outside AND inside .

As far as contaminating the powder , I don't know but can say for sure if the insides of the cases/necks still have lube on them . The powder will stick to the lube , especially small ball powders like H-335 or W748 . Not sure I'd want to be seating bullets with a case neck full of stuck on powder . You'll likely need to clean/tumble the lube out of the insides of the cases regardless if it contaminates the powder or not , at least I would .

[tangolima]

I don't load a lot. No more than 50 rounds rifle or 100 rounds pistol at a time. I will stay with imperial wax. Thank you guys.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[Metal god]

IMHO my method is best with large quantities at once . One squirt from a spray bottle will do 300 cases if applied right . Meaning if you squirt a coupe sprays on 200 cases you’re really just wasting product IMO . This method does go a long way for sure if done right . Todate I’ve sized no less then 6k 308 and 223 cases since I started using the lanolin method . I’ve only used 2oz of the lanolin so far and still have enough in the bottle from the second oz to do the 1400 cases above . So that means 2oz of lanolin and 20oz of alcohol will have done maybe 8k rifle cases . I still have 22oz of lanolin and 1.5 gal of alcohol . So I should be gtg for another 150k .

[Big Wes]

Another tip: I put a couple marbles in my spray bottle to aid in mixing. works great!

[HiBC]

MG,
I see how you get the brass standing case mouths up.Yes,you could get more lube inside than desirable.

You can fix that by cutting down on the batch size you are spraying.Put less than one inch or so depth of cases in your tub. They will lay more on their side.

Spray them,shake them,then dump them in another tub.

[7.62 man]

I have use lanolin for years. I use an alcohol wash to get it off the cases after sizing, works great. I just checked the price of 100% lanolin & can't believe how much the price has gone up. I bought a 4 pack a few years ago for $6.47 ea. and I just saw it was as high as $17.95 at some places now for the same 4oz bottle. WOW!

[Shadow9mm]

I deprime then clean my brass prior to resizing. After, I just toss them in the wet tumbler with some dawn for about 10min. gets all the case lube off.

[USSR]

As HiBC said, spraying smaller batch sizes will allow your brass to lay on it's side and prevent a lot of lube going inside the brass.

Don

[Metal god]

As HiBC said, spraying smaller batch sizes will allow your brass to lay on it's side and prevent a lot of lube going inside the brass.

Yes and no depending on how you do it and size of tub . Mine's something like 16"W x 12"D x 7"T . I've not done any testing but I'd think based on observations when lubing cases anything more then 200 would likely not sit flat if you're shaking and tossing them around . Between 500 and 800 pieces and shaking them in that size tube results in just about 70% of them will sitting head down mouth up after each shake/toss . The less space they have to lay flat the more they seem to keep them selves upright . Over 1k in that tub and they start sitting on top of each other resulting in less standing on end but still getting a large portion to do so . As I said before I don't have an issue with getting lube in them but I don't load on a progressive where the inside needs to be dry while the outside is lubed .The fact I work in such large batches . I size and prime all my cases ahead of time . That way I'm gtg for usually a couple years at a time . Like right now I'm just finishing up ( meaning a couple more weeks of an hour here or a couple hours there ) prepping out about 3K cases . Once done those cases will last me awhile and then I start all over again I'm only doing it because I had just realized I only had about 300 prepped cases and everything else had been fired and was dirty .

I've been doing this for a few years now and as shadow has pointed out . Rinsing them in hot soapy water gets most of the lube off , enough to do other stuff like trim them with out stuff sticking to them . For the first few thousand I did a few years ago I put them (fully lubed) straight into the dry tumbler . That seemed to work just fine on removing the lube but the media got what appeared to be really dirty fast . It was then I decided to rinse first only because I figured at some point the media was going to have to much lanolin in it and need replacing sooner then normal .

[USSR]

...anything more then 200 would likely not sit flat if you're shaking and tossing them around .

Mg,

A couple of things. First, you don't have to spray them while you're shaking them. Spray them while they're laying flat and then shake them. And, you can spray a little in the container just prior to placing your shells in there. It helps to distribute more lube to your cases.

Don

[Metal god]

No no I don’t spray when shaking them . Shake , spray , shake , spray then swirl with hand a few times as they dry . One reason I use the tub is not needing to handle the cases by hand . Meaning I have little interest on making sure they all lay flat . I never liked laying out my cases nice and uniform or lubing one at a time with the waxes . The more I can do in the least amount of time is my goal ;-)

[zxcvbob]

Originally Posted by Metal god

No no I don’t spray when shaking them . Shake , spray , shake , spray then swirl with hand a few times as they dry . One reason I use the tub is not needing to handle the cases by hand . Meaning I have little interest on making sure they all lay flat . I never liked laying out my cases nice and uniform or lubing one at a time with the waxes . The more I can do in the least amount of time is my goal ;-)

Maybe try only filling the tub halfway or even a third. Spray, shake, dump them in another tub and do the next batch.

[USSR]

Geez, this ain't rocket science.

Don