Nifty!!  I might try that.   I've found the round thin tins to separate easier but I might have to look for a square tin just to try that.

I reuse my cake, and just slip bullets back in the hole and put in a toaster oven, watching it closely so I can pull it as soon as the cake melts.   Stir around the edges a bit.   So far I have had no issues doing that but I have learned you can overcook your cake and ruin the pan altogether.   

I like it J Louis, great idea!

I do like J Louis does except I line the lube pan with wax paper. It works well for getting the lube cake out of the pan. Of course you have to be using a pan that is small enough for a sheet of wax paper.

These are a couple of pans I made for lubing bullets. Both pans are shown empty with no wax paper or bullets. One with a foam bullet tray just to show the size. Ignore the red paws. I can't do anything without my "helper". 

JerryH

A thick piece of leather between your thumb and the bullet will help if they have a point.

JerryH

Using two pans similar to Jerry's (one slightly larger than the other) I use the bottom pan to hold an inch or so of water. The top pan holds a "lube cake" from which bullets have been removed. Heat the water pan on a single burner. Put new unlubed bullets into the cake. Put the top pan with the cake and the bullets into the bottom pan containing near boiling water. (Sort of like a double boiler.) Reduce the heat to below boiling temp. The wax cake melts around the bullets. Turn off heat. Wait. The cake will firm just enough to hold the bullets from moving. Remove the top pan with now warm lube and bullets. Put it into the freezer until solid. The cake will have contracted to the point where it will just fall loose from the pan. Allow it to warm to room temp. To remove the bullets, I place the cake on a (approx. 12" sq.  x 5/8" thick) plywood board in  which I have cut a "slot" (approx., 5/8"W. x 10"L). (The board has a base around the edges of 1 x 2 furring strips to hold it off the table.) Set the cake of freshly lubed bullets with 1 row over the slot. Gently, but firmly press the bullets through the slot with a piece of furring strip against the tip of the bullets. Each row will fall free through the board. Neat, clean & painless. If you are careful, as cast order can be maintained. It can be done in less time than it takes to describe.

JLouis wrote on Jul 28^th, 2016 at 10:51pm:


I can appreciate that, having learned it the hard way.   Kind of like slicing pizza with a stuck crust. Not very pretty in the end and your hands are about as messy.    

I keep a cake for every caliber I cast for.   Little stack of Pioneer pies in the corner of my reloading room.   Double boil and make one each time I add a new caliber, or try too.  I HAVE robbed Peter to pay Paul before.

My concern and what I watch for is for the cake to start getting a dry feel to it.   I have added an ingredient I thought was diminishing before but that was just a guess.  I put a timer on the toaster that alerts me just as the melt is complete  I've taken to wrapping my honeycombed cakes in saran wrap till needed again.   

Usually lube while loading, melt takes between 10 and 20 minutes pending the caliber, move the pan to the bench once firm enough to move.  While I'm working I watch the edge for a thin 'air' line to appear between tin and wax.  Soon as it does I flip the pan and start punching bullets.  If I catch it as soon as the pan releases the wax the cake is still warm, there is very little force needed to break the bullet free with my thumb.   

I like that flow because I can lube a lot of bullets with very little down time.   

Full disclosure though,  I have noticed one issue I think is related to my reuse and/or use of a toaster rather than double boiling for pouring each pan.     If I lube and store bullets, if left say more than 6 months, they get what looks like a talcum powder film on them.   And they feel a little rough to the finger tip.   I quit lubing out in front of myself when I discovered that and now lube as I use.

I'm suspecting the Vaseline and thought to replace it with Olive oil.  Was reading the Lube formula thread the other day with that in mind.  Could just be the tradeoff of my toaster and 'cake reuse' practice.    I've become more particular about how the cake feels, viscosity wise.

John, 

I basically pan lube the way you describe but you gave me some good ideas for improvements.   

Where I live at almost 6000 ft the boiling point of water is only 202 F.  I have a very hard time getting Javalina or Dell 59c lube to fully melt even in a proper double boiler.  I now use a PID temperature controller on a $2 thrift store toaster oven and set the temp at 215 F.  I melt the lube in a small tray, pour it around the bullets and the put the bullets and lube back in the oven for a few minutes.  This seems to get the groves well filled.  I sometimes use the old cake with holes to hold the next batch of bullets before putting this back in the oven.  One can't be impatient.  I will put a temperature probe next to the melt-pan interface to see what the real lube temp is.   

BTW- I ruined a batch of Lube when my attempts to melt it in a Revereware double boiler boiled over a let some water get into the lube.  That made a real gooey mess.   

It seems to work fine but I may have a different story after Raton.   

Dave

I lube comparatively small batches of bullets most of the time. So, a while back, Cat Whisperer mentioned dipping the bullets into melted lube. So, I got a smaller, heavy bottomed glass container- a big highball glass- and filled it halfway with my lube and put it into a pan of simmering water to melt. Meanwhile I got my wife's hair dryer to warm up the bullets and a stamp collector tweezer to pick 'em up with. Work sweet for smallish bunches.
I use the regular method when I do big groups of bullets, but I've always used a cartridge case to cut them out- never succeded in pushing them out without breaking the cake. My method may improve using the photos John posted.
And, as told elsewhere- maybe everything I do concerning lube is suspect these days.