any uses for parafffin wax in loading/casting?

[s1120]

I ended up with a few boxes of paraffin wax that was being tossed out. I grabbed them because ...well you know how it is... "Ill use it for something" :D Any use for this in the casting/reloading world??

[sandman228]

I also ran across a few lb of free paraffin wax a little while back . there is a bullet lube that is 1lb paraffin wax,1 lb petroleum jelly, and 1 tsp stp oil treatment then a crayon for color, melt it down and mix all together . I use it for my pan lube bullets. also I dunno if this is right or not but I use very small chunks of it to flux when im smelting wheel weights .

[weasel 21]

Ive used paraffin when fluxing ww.

[SteveM]

I've got a bunch of it. It works great for fluxing.

[jaysouth]

When I can get free sealing wax or old candle stubs, I use it for fluxing. Candles that have dye or scent in them act strangely sometimes but work well.

[plainsman456]

I used some when melting ww down.

It works but smokey.

[bhn22]

I've used dabs of it to stiffen bullet lubes, but if you get too much, the resulting lube gets "mealy" and doesn't stick well.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Yep, I use it for fluxing, in fact use about all the partly used candles I get ahold of.

Some folk say that it won't properly flux an alloy, but personal experience seems to disprove this at least for my eyes and needs.

Have also used it in various lube recipes, but with places like White Label Lube and the quality/price of their lubes, making home brew isn't worth the effort.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[Pigboat]

As strange as it may sound, I used to load with it.

My daughter wanted to learn to shoot when she was very young and the only handgun I had at the time was a .38 snubbie. I took a few rounds of brass and drilled out the primer hole to 1/8 inch, then pushed the case down through the paraffin and loaded it with a magnum primer. It was pretty accurate up to about 15-20 ft. It worked out great for a young kid.

Before anyone says something about it...yes, I did mark the brass so it stood out from the others.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Some folks use it successfully for loading wax bullets for indoor practice. No powder necessary, but don't forget to enlarge the flash holes for the cases first. An ordinary cardboard box can be used for a backstop/collector of projectiles which can be remelted and used again. LLS

[s1120]

Thanks for the tips. I thought I remember some uses for it, but could not remember. Ill stash it with my supply, and try to remember its there. :)

[Larry Gibson]

Fluxing and paraffin also is great for a quick easy chamber cast for chamber neck length and throat length.

Larry Gibson

[longbow]

Strange as it may sound, and I guess I am in the minority, but I use it as the main "stiffener/filler" in my home made lube recipe. I would have used beeswax but didn't have any at the time and was impatient so tried Paraffin and it worked so I am still using it. Very basic recipe and nothing special but it works for me ~ Paraffin, Lucas Red 'N Tacky grease, Ivory soap, Bardahl oil treatment.

Longbow

[sandman228]

Strange as it may sound, and I guess I am in the minority, but I use it as the main "stiffener/filler" in my home made lube recipe. I would have used beeswax but didn't have any at the time and was impatient so tried Paraffin and it worked so I am still using it. Very basic recipe and nothing special but it works for me ~ Paraffin, Lucas Red 'N Tacky grease, Ivory soap, Bardahl oil treatment.

Longbow hmm sounds interesting, care to share the recipe ? ive never heard of bardahl oil treatment would stp or lucas work ? like I mentioned in earlier post ive been using 1 lb paraffin 1 lb petroleum jelly 1 tsp stp oil treatment for my pan lube bullets, im not real crazy about this lube though its kinda soft and messy .

[bangerjim]

Used to use it a lot to make cast wax boolits.
4oz wax
2oz petro jelly
1 oz non-Li grease

Makes a perfect lubed cast waxlit boolit. Straight wax tends to stick in the casing and barrel since there is no "real" lube in there.

Paraffin does (sorta) works for reducing tin back in your melt but beeswax works 300% better. And really sells good!

banger

[frkelly74]

before you use the paraffin to flux you can use it in primer powered pistol practice loads as bullets. Size and prime a case and push it through the paraffin sheet and presto, you have a practice round. then you can collect the bullets to use as flux.

or you could make up a batch of preserves and seal the tops with paraffin, and then use it as flux after enjoying the fruits of your labor.


Old news by now it looks like.

[longbow]

My recipe such as it is:

Original:

4 parts by volume Lucas Red 'N Tacky Grease
1 part by volume Ivory soap
paraffin wax ~ approx. 3X as much by volume of the first two

Melt the paraffin then mix grease in. this is a bit tedious because the grease does not want to thin out easily. Once it is more or less homogeneous, add Ivory soap. Again, this is a bit tedious to get everything mixed and dissolved.

This came out pink, a bit hard but SLICK. Also, I should say that my intent was for pan lubing. Since it was a bit hard I used a cookie cutter while the lube was warm.

Being a bit hard and waxy it did not stay in the lube grooves well if handled roughly but did work for me with .303 and .44 rifle loads ~ no leading.

I decided I needed to make it stickier so added a small amount of Bardahl No Smoke engine oil treatment. Basically I added enough to soften the lube to the consistency I wanted when it cooled down. I do not have an exact amount. I am still using up that batch so will have to make a small batch of original then gradually add Bardahl oil treatment until I have what I want when it is hard ~ then write it down.

I doubt it would make any difference using STP or any other oil treatment as long as it is thick and gooey. I didn't have any lanolin and wanted sticky so...

Currently I use this lube to "hot tumble lube" by melting a small amount in a cast iron frying pan then add boolits, let them warm, roll them around, remove and put on aluminum foil to cool. Likely if I had used lanolin and beeswax in it I would not get the remeltability I get now for hot tumble lubing.

I have not used it in a sizer/luber.

I actually started out with the intention of making Felix lube but didn't have what I needed and got impatient so winged it and came up with this. it works well enough for me and I am happy with it so far.

I make no claims of any kind of superior performance. I not plan to enter my recipe in "The Extreme Boolit Lube Quest" thread. I am sure it would not make the grade. I can make it from readily available "stuff" and it is working for me so that is all I care about.

FWIW

Longbow