Post by Bill on May 7, 2010 9:25:36 GMT -5
For the last month I have been trying to resize an ammo can of .308 LC Machine gun brass. That stuff is huge. I have destroyed more reloading equipment than you would believe trying to do this. Used every kind of lube I could buy. I can now remove a stuck case in under 4 minutes. I have destroyed over 130 cases of the original 680. Yesterday I was off and decided to see if I could get it all resized and at least salvage half of it.
So I very carefully lube up a case and drop the lever until I can just start to feel the case stick and then pull back up and re lube the case and start again. I had found that If I took it slow and careful I could resize a case in 6 strokes. Kind of a mindless task. Stroke and Lube, Stroke and Lube. Well while I'm doing this I start thinking of the a post of someone mentioning Mink Oil. Well I have done about 10 cases and getting tired of this process and after so long I loose it and drop the lever too hard and stick another case. So I thought what the heck, I haven't tried it yet and remember I had seen a tub of Mink Oil someplace I went to look for it. Well I finally found it and headed for the bench. Opened up the tub and thought OH Crap. This was a tub of patch lube I had made up for lubing the patches for my ML. It contained Mink Oil, Bee's Wax and a few other things that I had added to raise the flash point so it did not burn my patch's with heavy loads.
Well it was the only thing close to Mink Oil I had and it was at least 1/3 Mink oil. so what the heck I might as well give it a try.
I lubed up the first case by getting some on my fingers and then rubbing it on the case. Put the case in the press and slowly pressed down on the lever and What the Heck?? the case went smoothly into the die and resized the complete case with one stroke non stop. I thought that can't be! I looked at the case to make sure I hadn't grabbed one of the commercial cases by mistake and Nope, its a LC case. I then thought well maybe its one of the cases I had already done and I grabbed it by mistake. So I take another case and lube it up. Again the lever goes down smoothly and no sticking. I take another case and inspect it closely to make sure it had not been resized and nope it hadn't. I lube it up and again it goes in smoothly and completely re sizes the case with very little effort as compared to what it had been taking by a bunch. It even was less than what I get when I do commercial cases. I then start inspecting case that I had resized with this stuff and found no oil dents or anything else I have found with some of the other concoctions I have tried like Vaseline, STP, and some commercial lubes. There was none.
Up to this time I had been resizing with the decaping stem out as I had tried it once and destroyed the capping stem when it stuck in the case and the case stuck in the die. I had to buy another set of dies and bought a cheap Lee die. I put the decaping pin in and adjusted it correctly and also put some lube on it just to make sure. I lubed up another case and gritted my teeth and lowered the lever. Danged if it didn't just resize and DE-cap the case slick as a whistle and easier than a commercial case usually does. In the next hour and a half I resized and de-caped 350 cases without a single problem other than having to dump out the primers from the primer catcher which really sucks on my RCBS press.
Out of the original 680 LC cases I now have 550 cases that are all resized and IF I had used this from the beginning I would of had 680 and spent a lot less money. I called up my buddy to tell him about it and he said good. I have more and won't throw it away and will split it with you. Seems he had a lot more cases and he had given up on it and thought maybe I could figure it out. Well I did and now he is getting me more brass and is going to try to mix up some of this patch lube and try it and see how it works for him.
I'm not sure exactly what makes this lube work and I have to find my original recipe for it to do some research but its my guess its the bee's wax mixed with mink oil that's doing it. And if any of you are resizing LC Machine gun brass find some bee's wax and mix it about half and half with mink oil and give it a go. This stuff is slick.
Now if I could just remember what all went into this stuff as I will never buy any commercial lube again if I can.
So I very carefully lube up a case and drop the lever until I can just start to feel the case stick and then pull back up and re lube the case and start again. I had found that If I took it slow and careful I could resize a case in 6 strokes. Kind of a mindless task. Stroke and Lube, Stroke and Lube. Well while I'm doing this I start thinking of the a post of someone mentioning Mink Oil. Well I have done about 10 cases and getting tired of this process and after so long I loose it and drop the lever too hard and stick another case. So I thought what the heck, I haven't tried it yet and remember I had seen a tub of Mink Oil someplace I went to look for it. Well I finally found it and headed for the bench. Opened up the tub and thought OH Crap. This was a tub of patch lube I had made up for lubing the patches for my ML. It contained Mink Oil, Bee's Wax and a few other things that I had added to raise the flash point so it did not burn my patch's with heavy loads.
Well it was the only thing close to Mink Oil I had and it was at least 1/3 Mink oil. so what the heck I might as well give it a try.
I lubed up the first case by getting some on my fingers and then rubbing it on the case. Put the case in the press and slowly pressed down on the lever and What the Heck?? the case went smoothly into the die and resized the complete case with one stroke non stop. I thought that can't be! I looked at the case to make sure I hadn't grabbed one of the commercial cases by mistake and Nope, its a LC case. I then thought well maybe its one of the cases I had already done and I grabbed it by mistake. So I take another case and lube it up. Again the lever goes down smoothly and no sticking. I take another case and inspect it closely to make sure it had not been resized and nope it hadn't. I lube it up and again it goes in smoothly and completely re sizes the case with very little effort as compared to what it had been taking by a bunch. It even was less than what I get when I do commercial cases. I then start inspecting case that I had resized with this stuff and found no oil dents or anything else I have found with some of the other concoctions I have tried like Vaseline, STP, and some commercial lubes. There was none.
Up to this time I had been resizing with the decaping stem out as I had tried it once and destroyed the capping stem when it stuck in the case and the case stuck in the die. I had to buy another set of dies and bought a cheap Lee die. I put the decaping pin in and adjusted it correctly and also put some lube on it just to make sure. I lubed up another case and gritted my teeth and lowered the lever. Danged if it didn't just resize and DE-cap the case slick as a whistle and easier than a commercial case usually does. In the next hour and a half I resized and de-caped 350 cases without a single problem other than having to dump out the primers from the primer catcher which really sucks on my RCBS press.
Out of the original 680 LC cases I now have 550 cases that are all resized and IF I had used this from the beginning I would of had 680 and spent a lot less money. I called up my buddy to tell him about it and he said good. I have more and won't throw it away and will split it with you. Seems he had a lot more cases and he had given up on it and thought maybe I could figure it out. Well I did and now he is getting me more brass and is going to try to mix up some of this patch lube and try it and see how it works for him.
I'm not sure exactly what makes this lube work and I have to find my original recipe for it to do some research but its my guess its the bee's wax mixed with mink oil that's doing it. And if any of you are resizing LC Machine gun brass find some bee's wax and mix it about half and half with mink oil and give it a go. This stuff is slick.
Now if I could just remember what all went into this stuff as I will never buy any commercial lube again if I can.
Another Lee die and found that the decapping rod worked in my good die. LEE collet die. I have bent, broke and destroyed more reloading stuff and tools and equipment than you can imagine. 
But I hung in there and kept trying different things till it worked. 
Tried another one and the same thing happened. So I took the die apart and looked at the decapping rod and the machining on the expander was so bad that it had left a small lip going all the way around right before the transition from expand to size on the rod. So I chucked it up in the drill and took a fine tooth file and dressed up the rod and then took some 0000 steel wool and polished it up. I then before I put it back in the die lubed it up with some of my concoction and put it back together. Worked like a dream. One stroke of about 10 lbs down and up with no chatter of the neck coming back up and no lifting of the bench when I come back up. Just a very smooth stroke down and up and Walla.
