Mineral instead of Olive?

[warf73]

My normal lube recipe is 50/50 bee’s wax/olive oil, this is for my pistols.
I’m thinking about change it to 50/50 bees wax/ mineral oil because of the expense of olive oil.
Think this is a good substitute for my original recipe? Or is there a better reducer for the bee’s wax for pistol lube?

Thanks Warf

[Ricochet]

Try a different vegetable oil like canola. Or whatever's the cheapest cooking oil you run across. May have to reduce the oil in the formula a bit, as olive oil has a higher viscosity than most. (Castor oil's the best stuff as a lubricant, but kinda pricey.)

[The Dust Collector]

Olive oil in my expierience dosen't dry out and become like tar as do many vegetable oils do. I have been using bee's wax and olive oil for a black powder lube for years. I have prelubed patches that are over 15 years old now and they are still nice and supple. Vegetable oil doesn't do the same. Good pharmacy mineral oil should be a good alturnative as it is a non drying oil from what I see in other uses that I have used mineral oil on. Make a small batch of lube up and see what your results are. You can only loose a little time and materials. Heck, you might be on to something!

[Ricochet]

Very true, olive oil is the only truly nondrying vegetable oil. Others will become gummy eventually.

[gcollins]

I have also been looking for a sub for the high priced olive oil! I don't know if there are any close to you, the Good Value grocerie stores are getting rid of the oilive oil soybean oil blend at $1.00 a bottle, i am in the trail and error mode!!
Good luck
Greg

[warf73]

Thanks guys I'll start the experamenting next month and see were it gets me.

Is there a better choice of mineral oil out there other than baby oil?

[357maximum]

Thanks guys I'll start the experamenting next month and see were it gets me.

Is there a better choice of mineral oil out there other than baby oil?

I do not like the smell of baby oil so I use the real stuff....from the pharmacy or the aisle at wally world. It is used to make your innards move more fluently apparently.....I still use some castor oil in my mixes most of the time...it just has something that is real good for the purpose at hand.....jojoba is another good one....but not a neccessity...just makes thing mo' betta for upper end stuff.

[Lloyd Smale]

for smokeless just mix your wax with stp if you want a quick lube that does ok.

[gray wolf]

So let me understand this about the jojoba oil. Are we saying that bees wax and
jojoba oil mixed to a workable consistency is a good lube for 45 acp ??

GW. :drinks: :castmine:

[Ricochet]

Bet it would be, but where are you finding jojoba oil cheaper than olive oil?

Or finding jojoba oil, period, unless ordering it off the Web somewhere and paying shipping?

[gray wolf]

Ricochet
There is a health food/organic food store not to far from me. The last time I was in there they had Jojoba oil for about 6 to 9 bucks a bottle. it was about a 6 Oz.
plastic bottle. Olive oil can be had cheaper--I know.
But my question is --- if I make up a mix of bees wax and Jojoba oil will that be a good lube for my 45 acp without adding anything Else.

GW.

[357maximum]

Ricochet

But my question is --- if I make up a mix of bees wax and Jojoba oil will that be a good lube for my 45 acp without adding anything Else.

GW.

I would not waste $JOJOBA$ oil on 45 acp....beeswax and vaseline is all you need for that application. about 60%Bwax and 40%vaseline will cover anything the 45acp can do.

[warf73]

I've found some mineral oil (1 gal jug) for $20 that should last me quite sometime.

[DonH]

Olive oil too expensive? C'mon guys! Maybe I should ask, just how much lube are you making at a time? I just made a new 4X batch of my modified Emmert's lube and (without looking it up) used less than a cup of olive oil. The oil (extra virgin, no less) came out of the bottle on the counter in the kitchen; bought at WallyWorld for $9+ for 33.8 fl oz. That works out to around $.28 per ounce. If I used a full measuring cup (which I did not) it still only cost me about $2.25 for the oil in my batch of lube. That probably buy one stick of commercial lube. That batch of lube I made weighs 2.5# +/-.

Olive oil DOES cost more than mineral oil but is much easier on the belly!

[warf73]

I make a min. of 16 oz of lube when I make it, normaly I make 32oz at a time.
I've not found olive oil that cheap around here for some reason. The size your talking runs $15~$22 around here unless I'm looking in the wrong places? Local grocey stores have small bottles for crazy money $9 for 8oz bottles, wal mar and Sam's are the cheapest with the prices I showed above. So for $20 a gallon for mineral oil is way cheaper than oliver oil for me which is why I made the post, and was asking for some input on the issue at hand.

Warf

[S.R.Custom]

Local grocey stores have small bottles for crazy money $9 for 8oz bottles...

Dayum! That is crazy money... I thought I was paying too much for store-brand olive oil at 5.99 for the same size...

[carpetman]

The price of olive oil has gone high because most people want virgin olive oil. Now does it really make a difference if olive has been a little promiscious? They have to pay some clod to watch the olives to make sure they are virgin---then all you have is that guys word. Scrounger use to be an olive watcher---you think late nights and nobody watching all those olives he certified as virgin really were? Ever see olives do it? Actually it is a boring job. Now extra virgin olive oil comes from olives that are so ugly they didnt have Scrounger out there watching and really the price should be cheaper. If you pay extra for virgin olive oil and it says certified by Scrounger BEWARE.

[DonH]

My point is that one uses so little oil in abatch of lube that the cost of it isn't going to break anyone. Add to that, the rest of the bottle of olive oil can be used in the kitchen and is healthy. You gonna put the rest of that gallon of mineral oil down the hatch?

Extra virgin olive oil is the oil from the first pressing of the olive and is the purest. After the first press they start to use other methods to get all possible oil from the olives.

If you were Olive Oil and the best lookin dude around was Popeye, wouldn't you stay a virgin too?

[MT Gianni]

Olive oil is like one of Carpetman's posts. The lighter the better. Gianni

[warf73]

carpetman thats to funny I'll check the last bottle of olive oil and see if Scrounger was on duty :)


You gonna put the rest of that gallon of mineral oil down the hatch?

Hell NO have you ever drank that stuff? It's NASTY
We cook with olive oil but the wifey said I can't use her cooking oil anymore, and was shown the reason why on the last few trips to Sam's and the grocey store.

I should have the mineral oil in a week or so and see were it gets me.

[MT Gianni]

One thing for cooks is to use extra virgin olive oil fresh and cook with the cheaper grades. Most chefs agree that oil breaks down enough when heated that the taste difference is inconsequential. We use Olive oil in salads, dips and dressings but cook with canola. Gianni

[windrider919]

Actually, like Lloyd Smale said: use a couple oz of STP and the bees wax from a toilet bowel ring and it makes a great lube. I have even thinned it with solvent and used it as a tumble lube. Drying the bullets in a well ventilated place, of course. The cost is the least of any lube I have tried and the performance is just as good as the comercial lubes or home recipies I have tried.

[GabbyM]

Toilet bowl rings are not bees wax anymore.
That's not to say it won't still work. Don't know when they switched.

[DonH]

One thing for cooks is to use extra virgin olive oil fresh and cook with the cheaper grades. Most chefs agree that oil breaks down enough when heated that the taste difference is inconsequential. We use Olive oil in salads, dips and dressings but cook with canola. Gianni

Actually, the cheaper grades of olive oil are probably better for for use in lubes as in cooking as the extra virgin variety is said to have a lower smoke point. We keep the latter variety on hand for both purposes but only for lower temp cooking. Another oil is used for high temp stuff but not canola (don't ever put my eggs in canola!). Since the olive oil is already there and I both cook with it and help pay for it, I don't ask if I can use it.
Again, I don't use large quantities of oil; the oil in my lube being more to temper the hardness of the lube. Proportions are on the order of 1 cup beeswax, 1 1/2 cup fat (sheep) and 1/4 cup of oil. I add one tbsp anhydrous lanolin to that. A double batch uses only 1/2 cup of oil, which why i said the cost of the oil is of no consequence. I will pan lube thousands of bullets out of that 2 1/2 to 2 1/2 lbs of lube. This is mainly a BP lube but I have used it to 1800 + fps with non gas checked bullets without leading.

Some time ago on the MSN BPCR forum much testing was done on materials used as ingredients for bullet lube. Various oils were tested for both reaction to heat and for temp required to cause them to smoke ( indicating breakdown). Among the highest rated on both points and readily available as well as being fairly inexpensive was peanut oil. A search of that site for "Lube torture Test" will find info from those tests.

[windrider919]

As per GabbyM: Bowl rings are not bees wax? Are you sure? The ones I have been buying from the hardware store in Alvin Tx say bees wax on the box. Not the ones with the plastic sleeve, the plain ones. Of course these are all dusty and look as if they were a decade old. Like you said, they could have changed and I am buying old stock. In that case I am going out today and buy all they have.

FYI: I also use the same wax for 'lost wax casting' in my home foundry for making precision moulds mixed with 30% parifin wax.

[357maximum]

ALL "modern" bowl waxes are one form or another of "slack wax" basically the gunk that mineral oil/petrolatum/parraffin/microcrystalline is eventually distilled from.


I would clean out their inventory if the price was right.

[felix]

Yes, peanut oil is fine for lube that will be used quickly. The bugs love to eat lube with that oil, unless denatured somewhat with parabens and/or phenols. If not protected, the lube will become rancid and THAT smells bad, even though accuracy does not suffer all that much. ... felix

[felix]

Extra virgin means cold pressed; virgin means hot pressed; no virgin means chemicals were used to extract the last bit of oil (or whatever being sought) and then the juice is stripped of the chemicals leaving the "pure" objective product. Castor oil, for example, is seldom cold or hot pressed, but chemicals are used for extraction. It just so happens that about 99.9 percent of the chemical solvent/catalyst used for making castor oil is stripped out of the product used. ... felix

[windrider919]

I went to the store today and checked. Yes, it claims to be and I bee-lieve it is, bees wax on the box. The store manager said that he had been inventorying them for at least 15 years and that nobody bought anything but the type with the plastic inner form in years. So I offered to buy all of the old beeswax ones for $1.12 ea., the old price on one of the boxes (new ones are about $5.00). He was glad to get rid of them and told me I could have them all for $10.00, so now I have 19 beeswax rings. Yah!! A life time supply!!!! Very glad I caught this thread or I would have missed this deal. Thanks to you guys, the right place at the right time.

[warf73]

Grats on the find