homemade case lube

I have experienced what you described. That usually happens when I used too much case lube and not enough dish detergent in the wash. Try upping your detergent amount.

Bag balm. Easy on your hands, smells great, and your significant other will appreciate it and let you load whenever you want.

9mmepiphany said:

The easiest thing to do is to tumble the cases in corn cob for about 20 mins. I'll even do that with loaded rounds if I want really "pretty" ammo

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This...I use One Shot on rifle brass as it is much easier than mixing stuff up. Pistol brass I use no lube with carbide dies...

I tried the lanolin and 99% alcohol and it made a mess during wet tumbling "cold water"

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I clean the cases and only lube them, right before they are loaded, if tumbled wet with pins. Tumble first, then lube.

Then maybe a post load tumble for 15 min, dry, in corn cob to knock the remaining lube off.

I have never tried wet tumbling brass with a water/lube mix but would expect issues similar to what you are describing. Normal isopropyl alcohol (in your lube mix) is infinitely hygroscopic, this makes water a contaminate.

JO JO said:

it made a mess

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That's generally been my experience with lanolin lubes. It's tough to remove once it dries. I've had success wet tumbling with hot water and strong detergent. I've heard that Woolite works but have never tried it.

I splurge with One-Shot and try to save money in other ways.

I dont think they are using lanolin but a different type of wax that is water soluble. I had the same problem so I swapped to the process jmorris uses. Then I use an old rag to wipe off the round as I do my final inspection. The bonus is nothing ever tarnishes. In the future I plan on trying the wire pulling lube available at Lowes or HD. it is plenty slippery and will mix with alcohol well. It is also easy to wash off. As it is I don't mind some scratches or scuffs on my finished ammo so sometimes I don't even run them through the final polish.

JDeere said:

This...I use One Shot on rifle brass as it is much easier than mixing stuff up. Pistol brass I use no lube with carbide dies...

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One shot ,why anything else. When I spin to trim a dry paper towel to spin them clean. I have plenty of messy stuff for when I run out

JO JO said:

I tried the lanolin and 99% alcohol and it made a mess during wet tumbling "cold water"
my pins and cases were dull and ugly I needed to re clean cases and pins with very hot water twice to get the lanolin off
I mixed 10 to 1 but my question is there a water soluble lanolin I need to be using ?
I have used dillons case lube without an issue wet tumbling with pins and cold water anyone know what type lanolin dillon uses are any recommendations on
a water soluble lanolin

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Good luck finding a solution!

IWAC said:

Ummmm...not wanting to start a fight here, but case lube should not be used for cleaning brass, lest the situations so well described happen. It will gum up the works! I don't have much experience with wet cleaning, except for Citric Acid, warm water and Dawn detergent..."Shaken, not stirred"...which works pretty well, and dry media with a shot of polish has been used with good results for Decades.
Lanolin/alcohol is a good case lube for resizing brass, but Lanolin is a natural oil, and doesn't play well with water. Somebody may have invented water soluble Lanolin, but why?
"Course, there's lots I don't know!
Good luck finding a solution!

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I think he was trying to clean the lube off after sizing but I could be wrong.

JohnMc said:

I think he was trying to clean the lube off after sizing but I could be wrong.

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Oh, I think I may have misunderstood! Thanx for the clarification.!

Frankford Arsenal sells the Lanolin mix case lube. It works great, and goes a long way. Affordable as well.
A $11.49 pump bottle (not aerosol) goes a long way. Probably cheaper and FAR less hassle than trying multiple different homemade formulations trying to get something that works well. Free Shipping on Amazon. No Brainer.

JO JO said:

I tried the lanolin and 99% alcohol and it made a mess during wet tumbling "cold water"
my pins and cases were dull and ugly I needed to re clean cases and pins with very hot water twice to get the lanolin off
I mixed 10 to 1 but my question is there a water soluble lanolin I need to be using ?
I have used dillons case lube without an issue wet tumbling with pins and cold water anyone know what type lanolin dillon uses are any recommendations on
a water soluble lanolin

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Youn didn't mention what ammo you are attempting to "clean"! I don't find it necessary to clean pistol brass or loaded pistol ammo.
My formula is 20:1 used sparingly! Rifle cases get rolled on a pad and wiped off during final inspection!!

I use 10:1 and it cleans off easily. I do use hot water and plenty of Palmolive (Dawn) in the wet tumbler. For a Rebel 17 / Thumlers B size tumbler, I use about 2 tbsp of dish detergent and 5 lbs of SS pins, plus some Lemishine. I also use a hot rinse. I've never seen any lanolin residue.

I find a hot rinse makes pin separation easier. I recently read one claim that hot water makes the brass darker. That hasn't been my experience, but maybe it's right. I don't know. My brass is awfully bright. I also think hot water helps dissolve grease, oils, and waxes besides the lube, so I've always favored hot water.

The way I lube the cases is I have the 10:1 mix in a squeeze bottle. I put the cases in a zip-lock bag. Then I squirt some of the lube into the bag. I toss the brass around inside the bag and dump the brass out. I don't use so much lube that I have it pouring out of the bag. It might drip or dribble, but not pour. With this method, I'm probably lubing 50 to 100 cases at a time at most (in the bag). If I have a higher volume, I'll just repeat. Because the bag gets coated, I need to use even less on subsequent fillings. For high volumes of handgun brass, I don't use lanolin lube, but I use Hornady One Shot. One Shot is all I need to run the carbide dies smoothly. The lanolin is for resizing rifle brass in steel dies.

The lanolin I use is a tub of Now Solutions brand sold for skin care off Amazon. I paid $11 for 7 oz. which is probably a lifetime supply.

westernrover said:

I use 10:1 and it cleans off easily. I do use hot water and plenty of Palmolive (Dawn) in the wet tumbler. For a Rebel 17 / Thumlers B size tumbler, I use about 2 tbsp of dish detergent and 5 lbs of SS pins, plus some Lemishine. I also use a hot rinse. I've never seen any lanolin residue.

I find a hot rinse makes pin separation easier. I recently read one claim that hot water makes the brass darker. That hasn't been my experience, but maybe it's right. I don't know. My brass is awfully bright. I also think hot water helps dissolve grease, oils, and waxes besides the lube, so I've always favored hot water.

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Yep, just like cleaning a greasy dish or pan; hot water and sufficient soap/detergent.

I tried that lanolin stuff years ago and decided against it, been using Imperial ever since. Sometimes while rubbing down a large qty of cases I think about giving one shot a try, but $20 a can is hard to swallow.

I did hose a batch of 5.56 cases with Fluid Film as an experiment ...once... Can't say I'd recommend it and won't do that again.

Happened to be looking for a new can of CRC 100% silicone for the garage and on a whim, bought a can of PB Blaster Dry Lube instead. Sprayed the plow on my old Gravely L walk behind today and it did a decent job of keeping snow from sticking.

Then it occurred to me ...I wonder... Next time I have a few minutes I'll spray some various cartridges and see how that works. If nothing else it might be good enough to help those big batches of 9mm go smoother, even with with my carbide dies?

In my 60 years of reloading I have used just about all of the case lubes, both commercial and home made. I have never found anything that works better than wax, either Hornady or Imperial. They are definitely different products but both work well.

Still waiting for someone to suggest Mr. Zog’s sex wax.

Anchorite said:

Still waiting for someone to suggest Mr. Zog’s sex wax.

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Isn't that supposed to keep feet from slipping off a board?

JohnMc said:

Isn't that supposed to keep feet from slipping off a board?

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Purportedly it has near mythical properties…..

I started using castor oil year ago, works well and it;s cheap. Easy to get off with a little tumbling.

Show Me said:

One shot ,why anything else. When I spin to trim a dry paper towel to spin them clean. I have plenty of messy stuff for when I run out

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Yep the easy way to lube brass, why fight it?

I use the Lanolin/alcohol mix, I found 10 to 1 to strong and am currently using 12 to 1, I could see where even a thinner mix could work. I decap and clean before lubing, then use the spray in a Ziploc bag method using 2 sprays for the first batch and 1 spray for the subsequent groups, rubbing them around before dumping out on a cardboard tray to dry, after loading I put the loaded round into a vibratory cleaner with corn cob, car polish and dryer sheets while I load the next 50, once you get a rhythm going it goes very well and the rounds sparkle. ALMOST to pretty to shoot.