Removing lube

[zacharoo]

Got some old cast bullets with lube almost off. Don't cast but can pan lube. How is the best way to remove old black lube off of cast .454 dia bullets?
Zacharoo

[Richard P]

If you can do it outside, you might try boiling the bullets and skim off the lube when the water cools.

[Anduril]

yup, boiling water will clean them real nice.
..

[BCB]

If its lube in the lube grooves, boiling will probably remove it...

If it's Liquid Alox--I ain't sure about boiling.  I have used mineral spirits to remove Alox...

If you do the boil method, put them in plenty of water.  Boil for a bit (several minutes at least--more probably is better) and then just let the water cool over night.  Or, set the pan out-of-doors in this winter weather and the lube will setup on top of the water and can be easily removed and the boolits dumped out...

I then place the boolits on a towel in an old oven I have and set it to 225 or so and let them in there for 10 minutes of so and then turn the oven off.  Let cool...

Lots of work any way you do it.  Better yet, just melt them and recast if you make your own boolits...

Good-luck...BCB

[zacharoo]

Would soaking in unleaded gasoline work. Can it hurt the bullets. To me boiling them would change the hardness of the bullets and if you have to do a lot of batches will the bullets all be different hardness es?
Zacharoo

[rescue_171]

I would say since you are pan lubing them and you say the old lube is mostly gone just put them in the pan and melt the new lube and pour like you normally would and stick the in a 200 degree oven for a few min and the new and old wax will melt together and the bullets will be lubed and would be much eaiser than boiling or scrubbing the old wax off. Just my .02 cents worth

[hornady]

Boiling bullets in no way will harden them; Heat-treating bullets is not understood by many. The only bullet alloy that I have ever found to harden from heat-treating are those cast from Wheel weights, and this is because of trace amounts of Arsenic in them, most commercial cast bullets do not contain Arsenic and will not harden from heat treating.
 Heat-treating with WW is done by placing the bullets in an oven at about 400 degrees for about an hour, and dropped in cold water immediately after coming out of the oven.
 I have had minimal success with dropping the bullets directly from the mold into cold water. But the oven method is much more reliable.
As to removing the old lube, I think I would try the boiling water first. Splashing bullets around in a pan of gas just is not something I would want to do.

[zacharoo]

The bullets I have are cast from pure WW and the lube is black. They are not loaded rounds.
Zacharoo

[hornady]

I realize they are not loader rounds, but in heat treating WW bullets the hardness is only effected once the bullets have been immediately dropped in cold water, and even then if the bullets are sized after heat treating you will loose what you have gained, Heat treated bullets should be sized before the heat treatment, and then lubed only with a size larger sizing die than initially use. An example would be. If sized to say .310, before heat-treating they should be lubed with a .311 die.
So to get back to the beginning, even bullets cast from W/W will not harden from boiling them. Just me and in my younger days I did clean auto parts in Gasoline, But it just seems too many things can go wrong with all the Gas fumes.

[zacharoo]

Solved my problem. Put on some latex gloves this afternoon . Found some mineral spirits in the shed. Put some on a rag wiped rite off. Dropped them on a old towel in the sun . Cleaned 100 in about 15 minutes. PROBLEM SOLVED!!!! GOOD OLD CAJUN INGENUITY!! Now all I have to do is pan lube them.

Zacharoo