Case lube alternatives???

[DrEvil]

Negative on the pistol brass. I am de-capping 223 only at this point.

I did just order parts so I can do pistol brass. Although no word from Lee and their phone has been busy all day. I guess the shortage goes in every direction!

Sidebar... P1K sucks with .223. Too top heavy and the cases don't like to stay upright when loaded on the shellplate. Seems like its a turret more than a progressive. I just cant justify an upgrade at this point in my life.

 

[ochmude]

Negative on the pistol brass. I am de-capping 223 only at this point.

I did just order parts so I can do pistol brass. Although no word from Lee and their phone has been busy all day. I guess the shortage goes in every direction!

Sidebar... P1K sucks with .223. Too top heavy and the cases don't like to stay upright when loaded on the shellplate. Seems like its a turret more than a progressive. I just cant justify an upgrade at this point in my life.

So downgrade. Get a Lee single stage. I bought a Dillon 550B over a year ago, and recently got a Lee singe stage. It rocks. Yes, it's slower, but it get's the job done and is a lot faster than messing with a shellplate and spilled powder.

 

[DrEvil]

I have a classic turret already. I want a progressive for large batches.

 

[ochmude]

Roger that. Well, um, I'm fresh out of ideas. Best of luck!

 

[DukeInFlorida]

I agreee that the Pro 1000 isn't worth it for progressive reloading 223/5.56.... EXCEPT..... as previously noted elsewhere..... it's the best and fastest way to install primers in that round. Bar none!

I do all of the other steps, especially the powder install, off the press, and do the manual resizing and bullet seating steps in an RCBS manual press.

Negative on the pistol brass. I am de-capping 223 only at this point.


Sidebar... P1K sucks with .223. Too top heavy and the cases don't like to stay upright when loaded on the shellplate. Seems like its a turret more than a progressive. I just cant justify an upgrade at this point in my life.

 

[DrEvil]

I found that the alcohol in the mix was distorting the case feed tubes on my P1K. So I started to modify the press a bit....

I bought some 1/2" pex @ Home Depot. Ground the ends down to fit the collator and the case feed turret. This gave me enough room to do almost 80 rounds in one bank of 4 tubes vs. the previous 46.

After that I made a shroud that covers the entire right side of the press. This allows the primers to bounce off and go into the hole that is there for them. Hopefully this will keep them under the bench in the bucket vs. all over the shop!

Last and best mod... I had a very hard time with cases staying in the exit ramp. I tried to lube it, go hard on the press, anything to make it not happen, and had no luck. I took some of the same flashing and built a ramp of my own on top of the cast one and now it spits out the shells like a dream come true! No more hitting the case mouth on the top of the press and ruining it!!!!

I'll try to get a new post up with pictures.

As far as the alcohol/Lanolin mix... be careful of plastic parts. Hopefully this PEX is a bit more sturdy. If not it will only cost me $3.50 to rebuild it.

Good Luck!

 

[Timberwolf]

I've been using Lee Case Lube for well over 30 years but have tried others, but kept going back.

I apply it with my fingers, wearing surgical gloves, and either resize or leave them for later. After resizing you can continue to reload but I'm now tumbling them for 30 or so minutes.