Minie Ball Lubing - Pure Drudgery

[manbat]

I reload everything I shoot and pour all my bullets and balls but I've always been on the quest to make the process as painless and fast as possible. Less bench work, more shooting. I just pored a batch of about 175 Minies and it's now time for lubing. Pure drudgery - at least for me. I've solved the problem with a heated luber/sizer for all my BP (45.70 and 45 Colt) and unmentionable cartridges, but not for MBs. I've hand-lubed, pan-lubed, and dipped so I'm familiar with those methods - slow, messy drudgery.

Does anyone have other novel or creative ideas on lubing MBs? Any novel products you are aware of that can be used?

 

[oldramrod]

I use a mixture of 20% bees wax 80% lard, and just roll the mini's around in a pan 1/2 full of the mixture, then wrap in a cotton cloth roll until ready to use.

 

[kyron4]

For my R.E.A.L. bullets I pan lube with 60% bees wax 40 % olive oil , but I'm still experiment with other options.

 

[HSmithTX]

Seems like you could use your lubrisizer, just get the right size die that won't size them and make a punch that fits the bullet well so you don't get any distortion? Lee makes a push through sizer also, you could pan lube and then just push them through the die and catch them in the cup to remove excess lube. It would be made to order I am sure but they don't cost much.

 

[manbat]

Seems like you could use your lubrisizer, just get the right size die that won't size them and make a punch that fits the bullet well so you don't get any distortion? Lee makes a push through sizer also, you could pan lube and then just push them through the die and catch them in the cup to remove excess lube. It would be made to order I am sure but they don't cost much.

Hmmm. Definitely would be nice to resize and lube, but if I focus just on lubing your suggestion makes me wonder if I can 3D print a die and punch that can fit in the lubrisizer. Lubrisizer does not get hot enough to melt a plastic die and punch so the printed die would not melt and may be strong enough to maintain the tolerance needed to handle the lube pressure - which is not very high. Might be worth a test.

 

[HSmithTX]

That is interesting.... If you had a reamer, to clean and smooth the inside of the 3D printed piece, I think it would work fine. You could even rig up the old Polish reamer with a split dowel and emery cloth in a drill motor and clean and size the ID of the 3D printed die. The punch would be the easy part I think. Good luck!!

 

[Stantheman86]

I just hot dip them in the lube melted by a candle wax melter, then push them through a Push-Thru sizer with a Harbor Freight arbor press

Honestly I'm getting lazier and it's just easier to dry size them and hand lube 4 or 5 at a time at the range. I only hot lube if I'm rolling cartridges

 

[Brokenbear]

I pan dip Bees wax and Olive oil ..I use this from hobby Lobby to handle the dipping which will absolutely lock onto the nose a minnie ball ;

https://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-Hobbies/Model-Kits/Paint-Brushes/Reverse-Action-Tweezers/p/1224
Then take a 4" square piece of 3/8" plywood and drill a caliber appropriate hole in the center and then I take a half inch wide strip of thin brass stock (0.010) 2" long and snip 1/8" deep 1/8" apart cuts along one length with the cut towards the narrow side
Roll the above length of brass stock around an appropriate diameter dowel rod or any other suitable cylinder that is caliber appropriate ..(Hint: roll the brass stock on a diameter 25% larger than bullet diameter so it will have tension when you roll it to insert into your bored hole in the plywood square

Inset the now coiled brass stock into the bore hole in the block smooth edge first and push in until you get to the 1/8" serrations ..individually at 12/ 3/ 6 and 9 to hold the brass liner square in the bore hole then individually until you have completed circle

Take a junker Minnie and try the lined bore hole ..trial and error will establish whether you remove and shorten the liner or make a new on longer

Once you are properly set up you can use a dowel rod to push through Minnie's nose first through this wiper block at a rate of 50 in 10 minuets ..when done simply putty knife off the surplus lube off the wiper block and drop it back into the pan/pot for the next batch

https://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-H...ing/Tools-Blades/Brass-Sheet---0.010"/p/21621
Bear

 

[tenngun]

I reload everything I shoot and pour all my bullets and balls but I've always been on the quest to make the process as painless and fast as possible. Less bench work, more shooting. I just pored a batch of about 175 Minies and it's now time for lubing. Pure drudgery - at least for me. I've solved the problem with a heated luber/sizer for all my BP (45.70 and 45 Colt) and unmentionable cartridges, but not for MBs. I've hand-lubed, pan-lubed, and dipped so I'm familiar with those methods - slow, messy drudgery.

Does anyone have other novel or creative ideas on lubing MBs? Any novel products you are aware of that can be used?

You get you real short Minnie’s. Just as long as they are wide and with solid round bottoms. They look like little grey cherries
Then you wrap them in a roll of cloth. You can spit on this cloth, or grease it up with olive oil at some animal fat.
A tad bit slower, but works real well