Whats A Good Way To Remove Lee Liquid Alox From Your Loaded Ammo

[80viking]

My guns work fine with the LLA all over my ammo, but it gets messy. It gets in your magazines and if you drop any mags or ammo on the ground they are unuseable untill they are thorougly cleaned.

It has its draw backs but tumble lube bullets and LLA is the easiest way to make large quantities of handgun ammo in the least ammount of time.

I was thinking of using a very large rotary tumbler that I have with some sort of treated media. Any Ideas?

Thanks, John

[Super Sneaky Steve]

I"m moving away from the LLA, but what I do now is after I load the bullet I just use a paper towell to wipe off the exposed tip.

It always comes off easy and they can be put in your pocket without any mess.

[jmortimer]

Are you cutting it with mineral spirits? That might help. Here is a link to Ranch Dog Outdoors on how he does it:
http://www.ranchdogoutdoors.com/Tips/Alox/

[80viking]

Thanks
Ranch Dog has a good system but that would add a lot more labor handling every bullet again. WD40 before sizing in the Lee sizer would save me several hours of work. I just cast about 3000 TL45's over the weekend, inspected every one in small hand fulls at a time, then very lightly lubed them with LLA and spread them out to dry, then sized them, then lubed them all again, and spread them out to dry on waxed paper again.

Would mineral spirits in the media work, or would it just contaminate the powder or primer?

I'm feeding two 45's and two 9mm's. My son and I are shooting steel every weekend, thats about 300rds per caliber, with some bigger matches (two this year) that use about 300 rounds per gun (1200rds). He's almost to ready start providing his own ammo (high school senior this year). The kid beats me almost every time we get paired up.

[zxcvbob]

I cut the Alox with melted paste wax; most people use Johnsons but I use Minwax because had a can of it already. It dries hard and not-sticky that way, and it's cheaper to use than straight LLA.

[jmortimer]

Here is more information - way more information
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=67654

[Mike / Tx]

I can HIGHLY suggest the Recluse lube method. Make up a small batch and compare it to the straight, and I would almost bet ya a pot of alloy you will throw rocks at your straight LLA from now on.

[Goatwhiskers]

After you have TL your bullets, let them dry. Take an old towel, t-shirt, etc. and sprinkle corn starch on it, then roll the bullets around on it. Presto, no sticky. GW

[snuffy]

The tumbler would result in some real funky looking ammo. The boolits would look like they have a fungus growing on them! Ask me how I know!

Mineral spirits on a paper towel, a wipe on each boolit nose, and no more lube.

The kid beats me almost every time we get paired up.

A credit to who trained him! I assume it was you?

My proudest moment was when my son beat me at a 600 yard fun shoot. He was afraid I'd be mad, I hugged him and said I was very proud of him. And no, I didn't loose on purpose!

45-45-10 is what I use for tumble lube. It's 45 LLA, 45 JPW,(Johnsons Paste Wax), 105 mineral spirits. The solvent in the JPW has to be evaporated off, then the LLA,(Lee Liquid Alox), is stirred in, then the mineral spirits. It should be solid at room temp, a warming before lubing is required. It drys hard and non-sticky, and works great.

[res45]

I can HIGHLY suggest the Recluse lube method. Make up a small batch and compare it to the straight, and I would almost bet ya a pot of alloy you will throw rocks at your straight LLA from now on.

+1 I've been using that mix for over a year now,no more tacky bullets and the Carnauba wax leaves my bore nice and shiny,I ranch dip with it standard grease groove bullets now instead of pan lubing.

[Beagle333]

After you have TL your bullets, let them dry. Take an old towel, t-shirt, etc. and sprinkle corn starch on it, then roll the bullets around on it. Presto, no sticky. GW

I was using baby powder.

[armoredman]

What's the Recluse method again?
I use straight LLA quite a bit, might have to try the mineral spirits/paper towel method. I don't shoot steel or any other matches, (none out here. ), so I don't have any of the same difficulties.

[jimkim]

The 45/45/10 Recluse recipe and method can be found here.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=67654

[chris in va]

Skip the LLA, that stuff is nasty. Get a can of Johnson's Paste Wax and melt some in a small container with 10% mineral spirits. You'll have to melt it under hot water before pouring on your boolits, but after drying under a fan overnight they won't goop everything up like LLA.

Oh and spread the boolits on wax paper.

[80viking]

Thanks all.
Thats a ton of info.

For the bullets I have lubed and ready to load, I will try some corn starch or baby powder. Then I will try the 45/45/10 mix on the next batch.

The Johnsons Wax added to get rid of sticky reminds me of using laminating resin for fiberglass boat building or repairing. Laminating resin remains sticky long after it is cured so that it will accept another layer. On the last layer of resin you add some shavings from a block of paraffin and no more sticky, it cures hard and shiny.

John

[Mike / Tx]

One thing with the 45/45/10, well maybe more than one, anyway. If it comes out a bit thick after it cools, don't sweaty it, and don't worry about adding in more mineral spirits. It will be fine. Mine has ended up being about the consistency of old cake icing. I use a popsicle stick with about as mcu on the end as it is wide, for a couple hundred bullets. I use an old hair drier to warm up my bullets, toss them gently into a gallon sized vacuum seal bag I made up. Some use a bowl or tub, I like my bag personally. I can then roll them around gently and coat them really well before dumping them out onto a piece of wax paper. They take about 5-10 minutes before being completely dry and ready to size or load after a second coat. Nice thing with the bag is there is usually enough left on the sides to do plenty more bullets. I just add them in and use the hair drier to warm up both the bullets and the bag. When I can feel the bullets are warm I just hold the top closed and start rolling them. I usually only do 50 - 100 at a time this way and have never had any issues. I did however find out that the vacuum seal bags work MUCH better than the zip top type. I think the solvents work on them much harder than the vacuum ones. Plus the vacuum ones were also designed to be warmed up with food in them so they take the heat a bit better.

Just a couple more tips

[80viking]

Problem solved.

I loaded up 700 45's with my tumble lubed bullets this weekend. I tried the corn starch method, all it took was a light coating to make them not sticky any more. I didn't have to wipe my fingers off once and all the cases stay clean on the loaded ammo.

A tremendous thanks!
John

[SidewinderAIM9M]

I had fairly good luck removing Lee Allox from bullets (not ammo) with a strong solution of hydrogen peroxide, which can be made by adding sodium percarbonate to boiling or near boiling water. The stuff from brewing supply stores works best because it has no detergent but Dollar General sells 3lbs for $4.35 as generic OxyClean. Careful adding the DG OxyClean to hot water as the sodium percarbonate will produce a lot of oxygen bubbles which can cause it to boil over the side of the pan. I added vinegar to mine when I did it but I am not sure how much it helped.

I heated the bullets first with hot water then removed the water and added the hot peroxide solution then heated vinegar and poured that in and let it sit for 3 or 4 hours. Sodium perocarbonate breaks down into hydrogen peroxide and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) so adding vinegar to a detergent solution is essentially how a child's science volcano works so I did it outside. I didn't add a lot of vinegar because it will produce some lead acetate (which the Romans used to drink in wine) which is a solution containing lead that then gets poured out wherever, so I probably would try it without vinegar next time to see if it works. Hydrogen peroxide breaks down into water, so all that is left is baking soda and water, which is a lot better than mineral spirits or toluene or a bunch of boiled vegetable oil although which works best I don't know. I did try petroleum based products but they didn't work without scrubbing or wiping.

[gwpercle]

Dust them in something called Motor Mica , its a fine white powdered graphite .
Sorta the same principle as dusting them in corn starch but it not only makes them non-sticky but the powdered graphite is a dry lube to boot .

I gave the Lee Tumble Lube lube a good try and the alox mess over everything caused me to run right out and buy a Lyman 450 lube-sizer ...the best thing I ever spent money on . 1 cycle of the handle = 1 sized , lubed and gas check seated bullet ready to load...it don't get any faster than that brother ...I don't care what you say !
Gary

[armoredman]

Zombie thread!

[Unclenick]

I'm with Gwpercle on motor mica. I've been coating LLA bullets with it for years. After the lube is on, I let the coating dry to the tacky stage, put them in a tub and tumble them while sprinkling the mica dust on them with a perforated lid salt shaker.

I've also shot a lot of the TL .38 Wadcutters as-cast with no sizing at all and found them exceptionally accurate when used that way.