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What Case Lube Recipe Are YOU Making & Using for YOUR cases


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As the title states... like to hear from others that make their own case lubes. I`ve been using 99% alcohol  and Lanolin (liquid)  8:1 ratio for many years with good success.

 

Ok, now i`m just going to throw this out there at everyone just to see what responses become of it...

What do you think, or what is your opinion of, using Denatured Alcohol instead of just ordinary Alcohol and the Lanolin (liquid). (???)

Reason i`m asking about the Denatured alcohol is, is that it dries far quicker than regular alcohol. But i dont know if it would hurt anything (primers/powders)

 

 

I have also been recently testing the Hornady "UNIQUE" case lube and mixing it to my 8:1 ratio, and seems to work identical to the lanolin/99% alcohol case lube.

Being that Lanolin (liquid) is so hard to find without having to order it on line, the Hornady "UNIQUE" is available most anywhere in most gun stores with reloading supplies. (and its alot cheaper than lanolin)

 

One other lube recipe i`ve been playing around with, is Castor oil and 99% alcohol. I`ve noticed the Castor oil stays mixed very well. And Castor oil is very easy to find, and cheaply.

 

Image result for Hornady Case Lube

Image result for Denatued alcohol

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The DENATURED alcohol that is available locally takes a lot (hours)to evaporate. 

We use the red bottle of ISO HEET . Depending on temp and humidity it will evaporate very fast.

 

Edited by AHI
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1 hour ago, AHI said:

The DENATURED alcohol that is available locally takes a lot (hours)to evaporate. 

We use the red bottle of ISO HEET . Depending on temp and humidity it will evaporate very fast.

 

 

Yes, the red HEET is what i usually use.

 

Yeah i dunno, i haven`t tried the denatured alcohol yet. I was just asking if anyone here had tried it, or what they thought about it.

I`m wondering about acetone too... that evaporates super fast. I might look into trying it and see what happens.

 

My worry with the acetone is that it will eat up the internal parts of the spray bottles real quick.

Its one of those scenarios where, "Oh, the acetone works way better, but now i`m buying 10 times more spray bottles now"...lol 

Edited by vince
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I simply went on amazon and ordered several bottles of 99% alcohol and a bottle of liquid lanolin. Should make several years worth of lube.

 Or if you have a supply already of DILLON lube just buy some 99% alcohol and cut it half. 

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1 hour ago, Sarge said:

I simply went on amazon and ordered several bottles of 99% alcohol and a bottle of liquid lanolin. Should make several years worth of lube.

 Or if you have a supply already of DILLON lube just buy some 99% alcohol and cut it half. 

Yeah i`ve got a few bottles of liquid lanolin off from amazon, but i was looking for cheaper alternatives and availability. I cant stand buying on amazon... their prices are ridiculous, and being i`m a cheapskate, i wont pay for the "prime" membership to get the faster shipping. But waiting 2 weeks for something to come from amazon is BS in my opinion. The hornady UNIQUE mixed with 99% (HEET) seems to be as good, or maybe even better than anything else i`ve tried. I`ve been buying the red HEET at walmart for awhile. No, i dont have any dillon case lube. I likely wont be buying any either. By the time i buy it from dillon, and then pay sales tax on it now, and then the cost shipping, its just not any way worth it to me.

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13 hours ago, vince said:

I`m wondering about acetone too.

can pretty much guarantee acetone to "eat" the pump of any spray bottle.

The bottle may survive but not the pump. Some will not hold up to alcohol. 

We purchase lanolin by the gallon from medical supply vendor.

Edited by AHI
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58 minutes ago, AHI said:

can pretty much guarantee acetone to "eat" the pump of any spray bottle.

The bottle may survive but not the pump. Some will not hold up to alcohol. 

We purchase lanolin by the gallon from medical supply vendor.

Come to think of it, and you`re right...

my last place of employment, we went thru alot of plastic spray bottle`s when we were using denatured alcohol to rinse the dye-kem off from the parts after inspection.

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  • 2 weeks later...
20 hours ago, igolfat8 said:

I use the red HEET and lanolin at a 12:1 ratio.

Yeah, that seems to be the one alot of people use. I`m still using it myself, until this last batch i made is gone. 

I did mix up some hornadys "Unique" case lube 12:1 with HEET. It stays mixed very well, no separation after sitting that i could see. 

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4 hours ago, cool said:

I use lanolin at 3 or 6% for 9mm 38/357/40/45/223 with isopropyl alcohol

Seems like alot of lanolin to me. Are you using carbide sizing dies? How are you removing the lube before reloading.

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On 3/19/2020 at 5:32 PM, vince said:

Life causes cancer ;)

Great answer

 

 

I use a bottle of 91% alcohol from Walmart and 2 oz of pure lanolin makes you great Lube, dries fast. you don't have to worry about it build up on the case to deform the case when you resizing next cases.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/22/2020 at 10:50 AM, usmc1974 said:

Great answer

 

 

I use a bottle of 91% alcohol from Walmart and 2 oz of pure lanolin makes you great Lube, dries fast. you don't have to worry about it build up on the case to deform the case when you resizing next cases.

usmc, do you use your Alc/Lan lube inside the necks of your rifle brass...? I`ve been just dipping the necks of my rifle brass in a tub of that Hornady UNIQUE case lube. If i dont, the expander stretches my OAL to where it fails the case gauge test because the shoulders move alot if not lubed good inside the case necks.

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On 3/22/2020 at 10:58 AM, ExStreetWalker said:

For handgun brass I use Hornady One Shot.

 

Rifle brass ISO Heet and lanolin.  10:1

If you`re buying that hornady OneShot, you are throwing a ton of money away. Get you some Liquid Wrench RV Dry Lube. Its the same stuff thats in the hornady cans that you are wasting money on for it to just say Hornady Case Lube. You can find the LW RV dry lube most anywhere for 3 to 4 bucks a can, and the LW can is a hell of alot bigger than the hornady oneshot is. There is no silicone in the LW RV dry lube. Most other dry lubes have some sort of silicone in them. Silicone will destroy your powder and primer.

 

Liquid Wrench RV Dry Lubricant - Walmart.com - Walmart.com

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14 hours ago, vince said:

usmc, do you use your Alc/Lan lube inside the necks of your rifle brass...? I`ve been just dipping the necks of my rifle brass in a tub of that Hornady UNIQUE case lube. If i dont, the expander stretches my OAL to where it fails the case gauge test because the shoulders move alot if not lubed good inside the case necks.

I do not Lube the inside of the neck but I have a soft wire brush  I put in my drill and clean the inside of the neck really well. You might try backing your sizing die off about a quarter turn. This should stop your shoulders from changing dimension.

Edited by usmc1974
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2 hours ago, usmc1974 said:

I do not Lube the inside of the neck but I have a soft wire brush  I put in my drill and clean the inside of the neck really well. You might try backing your sizing die off about a quarter turn. This should stop your shoulders from changing dimension.

I`ve tried that, it didnt fix the problem, but lubing the (inside of the) necks worked. What brand resize die are you using (?)

Edited by vince
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1 hour ago, vince said:

I`ve tried that, it didnt fix the problem, but lubing the (inside of the) necks worked. What brand resize die are you using (?)

To reload my Handgun Ammunition is all Dillon dies and I use the Square Deal B.

 

    To reload my rifles, I have RCBS for my 308 223 30 06 and 6.5 Creedmoor, I have Hornady custom dies from my 6.5 Grendel the Layman died my 457

 

    What kind of dies are you using? And have you used a mic, on your neck expander? because there's no way you should be putting that much pressure on the case to push back the shoulders.

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21 minutes ago, usmc1974 said:

To reload my Handgun Ammunition is all Dillon dies and I use the Square Deal B.

 

    To reload my rifles, I have RCBS for my 308 223 30 06 and 6.5 Creedmoor, I have Hornady custom dies from my 6.5 Grendel the Layman died my 457

 

    What kind of dies are you using? And have you used a mic, on your neck expander? because there's no way you should be putting that much pressure on the case to push back the shoulders.

I have RCBS and Hornady and Redding dies. I do like Hornady`s elliptic expander, that seems to work smoothly. But my high-end Redding dies are the best of the bunch that i have. I noticed a long time ago, the cleaned (wet tumbled) brass was usually the most troublesome. Clean brass can stick real quick if not lubed well. Unclean brass was usually ok due to the carbon inside the necks allowed the expander to move more freely, a lubricant if you will.

 

I`m a machinist, tool & die maker, surely have lots of mics & calipers. I do have a rather large machine shop. Reloading is not new to me, many many decades of it under my belt. I`ve actually worked with a large reloading die maker doing engineering & designing a few years back, so i`m pretty knowledgeable for an old guy...lol, but i`m always open to hear others suggestions, thoughts, ideas.

 

As for reloading pistol. Never a problem there... straight cases are, well, pretty simplistic. I have many single stage, turret, and progressive presses as well.

 

As for your term pressure, and putting pressure on the cases, there isnt a problem going up into the die that is the problem, its when the case is coming back down out of the die is where the problems are. All cases will have some stretch as they come off the expander. Its the nature of the beast. Some cases are just more sensitive to it than others. Measure your case length before you resize it, then measure it again after resizing it. You`ll find that most will be longer after resizing, and more so if not lubed. Thats what i`m see/finding anyway.

Edited by vince
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