lubing cases

[Ruffnek]

What about resizing and then cleaning the die after "X" amount of rounds?

 

[Lee S. Forsberg]

There's a joke in here somewhere.

Right the joke is on my poor spelling.

 

[87iroc]

I bought some Hornady 'one shot' as with my new progressive it takes a lot of effort to move it through the stroke as its priming and sizing on the upstroke(Lee Loadmaster). I saw a guy dump some cleaned brass in an old cake pan and gave them a quick spray. I was thinking of doing that to help with the resizing force required.

Never thought about tumbling the loaded rounds. I read it was bad one place so since it was on the internet, it must be true.

 

[billybob44]

Never thought about tumbling the loaded rounds

"Tumble"-NO-Vibratory case cleaner-YES...

Loaded rounds do get cleaned a lot..NO problems at all with case cleaners that "Vibrate"....Bill.

 

[87iroc]

Yah, sorry, wrong term. I have a vibratory case 'tumbler'.

 

[rvb]

first, you HAVE to lube w/ rifle or you will end up with stuck cases (and a tired/sore arm). I use Dillon lube for rifle, OneShot for pistol (spray it on and forget it). I didn't have great luck w/ One Shot for rifle...

I use two toolheads on my 550 for rifle.

first sizes in station 1 and trims in 3 (I can just take the motor off the die for the trimmer if I don't want to bother trimming).

I spray the inside of a 1qt ziplog bag w/ about 4 good squirts, toss in 50-100 cases, roll it around, and start sizing. If I want I can then do other messy steps like chamfer/debur. I then toss it in the tumber w/ some old media to get the lube and brass shavings off.

second tool head I load just like pistol w/ no lube.

I do use a second sizer on the second tool head that's just not set all the way down... decap pin pushes media out of the flash hole and expander ball sets neck size on inside vs the trim die (last step on 1st toolhead) which sizes the neck on the outside. I found that gave me a little better accuracy, I believe from a little more consistent neck tension vs just having a universal decapper in station 1.

I've fully loaded lubed cases before, and it worked ok, but made the dies messier, eventually some got on the expander ball / inside of case necks and powder stuck there, then still tumbled the lube off, etc.. I like the two-pass approach better.

-rvb

 

[rvb]

Eh, just clean first, lube, size, wipe off with paper towels, then continue with the remainder of the process.
No need to deal with fiddling around with tumbling for a second time just to remove case lube.

I want to handle individual cases as few times as possible.... that's why we're talking about a progressive press here, haha! sitting down and wiping off several hundred or even several thousand pieces of brass is boring and tiring vs dropping them in the tumbler and coming back 20 min later to sift it out of the media...

I would hand wipe them down if it were just a few pieces... more than that? no way...

-rvb

 

[craigkim]

I am designing and setting up my process now, so this goes right along with your thread. I think I will: quick wash in the wet tumbler and dry, use a universal decap die, then wet tumble with pins and dry, then I will lube/resize, then trim/chamfer/debur, and finally a tumble in the vibratory tumbler. Seems like a lot, but it goes pretty quickly with a brass dryer and a Giraud.

I went a bit light on lube and have already had 2 stuck rifle cases! It isn't fun. I had one in both 458 and 223. I use Hornady One Shot, but now I am using it a bit more heavily and making sure the cases feel sorta oily before sizing. I have always used lube even for pistol because it makes the press run a lot smoother and it doesn't take a lot. Supposedly the advantage to the One Shot formula is that it doesn't cause other problems, which would be the reason other lubes may need removed prior to loading. Right guys?

 

[rvb]

I am designing and setting up my process now, so this goes right along with your thread. I think I will: quick wash in the wet tumbler and dry, use a universal decap die, then wet tumble with pins and dry, then I will lube/resize, then trim/chamfer/debur, and finally a tumble in the vibratory tumbler. Seems like a lot, but it goes pretty quickly with a brass dryer and a Giraud.

wet tumbling sounds like such a pita... all that drying and stuff. why not use a universal decap and do one clean pass if you're (apparently?) worried about shiny primer pockets? or just clean and then size/deprime? making extra work/steps up front it seems....

I went a bit light on lube and have already had 2 stuck rifle cases! It isn't fun. I had one in both 458 and 223. I use Hornady One Shot, but now I am using it a bit more heavily and making sure the cases feel sorta oily before sizing. I have always used lube even for pistol because it makes the press run a lot smoother and it doesn't take a lot. Supposedly the advantage to the One Shot formula is that it doesn't cause other problems, which would be the reason other lubes may need removed prior to loading. Right guys?

that's why I don't like one shot for rifle... if it has to "feel oily" then that means you can't give it too long to dry. why I went w/ the Dillon for rifle use. easier to use a better suited lube and tumble off, imo. One Shot only for pistol for me.

-rvb

 

[17 squirrel]

I am designing and setting up my process now, so this goes right along with your thread. I think I will: quick wash in the wet tumbler and dry, use a universal decap die, then wet tumble with pins and dry, then I will lube/resize, then trim/chamfer/debur, and finally a tumble in the vibratory tumbler. Seems like a lot, but it goes pretty quickly with a brass dryer and a Giraud.

I went a bit light on lube and have already had 2 stuck rifle cases! It isn't fun. I had one in both 458 and 223. I use Hornady One Shot, but now I am using it a bit more heavily and making sure the cases feel sorta oily before sizing. I have always used lube even for pistol because it makes the press run a lot smoother and it doesn't take a lot. Supposedly the advantage to the One Shot formula is that it doesn't cause other problems, which would be the reason other lubes may need removed prior to loading. Right guys?

Three times in the tumbler ?? Why spend all that time cleaning brass ?
What is the reason for 2 wet tumbles and one dry ??

I don't believe there is any case lube sold by a reloading company that needs to be removed after loading. Loaders remove it because it messy / sticky and most guys like pretty shiney brass.
Over the counter case lubes don't migrant and cause problems with powder or primers.

 

[craigkim]

NOT to hijack the thread! BUT, it's not hard at all! I'm doing a minimum of 1000 cases at a time. I just dump all of the cases and the grass and mud, etc straight from the range into the tumbler with dawn and cold water. NO PINS. Run it for an hour, then pour off the water rinse a few times, shake it a little and then dump it in the case dryer for 45 mins. Probably less than 5 mins of effort total. After that, the advantage is that it is much cleaner, you don't end up with your hands and your work space coated in all of the combustion residues as you later sort the cases and then decap them. Sure, they aren't spotless, but they are MUCH cleaner. Very little effort.

After decap, you can wet tumble with pins and that IS more work. It cleans the primer pockets pretty well and gets the case pretty spotless. It is a fair amount of work to get the pins out. We all know that.

Third, we also all know how easy it is to throw cases in a vibratory tumbler. I thought I would do that as a simple way to remove the One Shot. ???? It also seems to smooth the finish a little better than pins. May skip it pending how the process seems to be working as I get further into it.

I am going to try the Dillon Spray Lube.

 

[rvb]

Third, we also all know how easy it is to throw cases in a vibratory tumbler. I thought I would do that as a simple way to remove the One Shot. ????

I've never removed One Shot from my pistol rounds. But it doesn't stay wet or get tacky like others. I do tumble off the Dillon lube from my rifle brass or it leaves a residue on everything it touches...

-rvb

 

[Josh Ward]

I hit my 223/5.56 brass with one shot after tumbling. Dump them into the case feeder on the 1050 and let it eat.

 

[Ruffnek]

I think I have a plan:

Have a spare tool head for the 550 that holds only decapping/resizing dies, switching the die that I want to use to station 1

Lube

Deprime/resize(cleaning the dies when necessary)

Trim when necessary

Wet tumble

Dry in dehydrator

Load in progressive mode with an empty slot in station 1(this station will still be responsible for priming)



Basically the gist is to put lots of care and attention in case prep and then "load the bases" on the 550B and crank away.

 

[17 squirrel]

Now your cooking with propane,,

 

[ljk]

I bought a pair of milled tool heads from ebay, they are Niiiiiiiice.

2 Dillon Precision 550 Style Billet Aluminum Toolheads 2 Toolhead Tool Head | eBay

 

[Ruffnek]

What's so great about them?

 

[ljk]

machined billet aluminum vs. cast.

 

[17 squirrel]

Which is better ????

 

[ljk]

they fit on mine very nicely snug, I like it better than the Dillon factory, either will work.