Lube wad cutter

[Buckshot]

.............I enjoy shooting both a P-H Whitworth and a Rigby clone long range muzzle loaders, and have been dinking around for quite some time with various means of making consistent lube discs.



I'd made a lube extruder earlier using a front shock strut from an '87 Chevy Celebrity. It was a bunch of compromises, and while it worked it made my eyes bleed just simply looking at it. I finally broke down and made up a real one, above. The first cap made a .456" OD rod of lube which I'd cut using a razor blade. Not consistent enough, and as the lube is pretty soft even the razor blade would cause it to stick and get messed up to one degree or another. So I made the ribbon extruder top.

I'd extrude a piece 4" long onto a previously cut strip of parchment paper. I tried cutting them out with a common type wad punch, cutting through the paper and lube. Had to chill the lube for 30 minutes or so in the fridge for it to work. I say 'work' as it DID produce round wads but even hardened via the time in the fridge the paper would still push down the perimeter due to the wad punch before it'd cut the paper. Last week the wife and I were going to go visit my folks in Sierra Vista, AZ. They have a beautiful big range there, about 8 miles outside of town and a 600 yard bay normally used for Silhuette matches.

I figured I'd be able to spend a day there and REALLY wanted to excersize the Rigby. I'd had an idea spring into my noggin for a simple lube wad cutter that might work. The first one I made was in a really big hurry as I was supposed to be helping Donna getting some stuff ready to go and NOT out fooling around in the shop I cranked it out from a picture idea in my head, without any measurements using some handy steel scrap in about 30 minutes. I would have worked, but the range was closed on Monday and that was the only day nothing else was planned. As it turned out it was also the only day the wind wasn't blowing or it wasn't snowing



I figured brass would be better anyway so the day after getting home I made a better thought out wad cutter design. LEFT: The wadcutter body with the piston retracted. RIGHT: The piston fully extended. Retracted the piston face is about 1/4" inside the bore.



Works like a champ! The way I load the Rigby is after loading the charge, I run a lubed 1/8" felt wad down to the charge. Then wipe the bore. Instead of mucking around with trying to thumb stuck together odd shaped messed up lube wads into the muzzle, I can place a cardwad into the lubewad cutter then press the cutter down into the lube strip, place it over the muzzle and press them down. Since they're both slightly larger then the bore, the cutter can't push them both INTO the barrel. The lube wad will be in the bore but the cardwad will still have to be thumbed in, then both run home with the range rod.

I'm hoping that once done shooting I don't have to go home with lube on my pants, shirt, and in my hair & etc!

..............Buckshot

[plmitch]

Buckshot, nice job done on that!

[sureroof]

Buckshot
You do nice work. I am impressed.
Pete

[smoked turkey]

+1 on the nice work and another +1 for the good design.

[jdgabbard]

Necessity is the mother of invention! Good job, sir!!!

[Ben]

Excellent Rick,

I would not expect any less of you.

Ben

[Buckshot]

..............Thanks guys. It was also my first attempt at traversing the carriage while knurling. Actually I'd just (a week previously) gotten a set of knurl wheels FOR traverse knurling (making long runs). Doing steel will probably make the QC box growl Now all I have to do is make it to the range to see how the lube disc cutter works in real life.

.................Buckshot

[451 Pete]

Rick,
That looks VERY nice. I sure hope that you will let us know how it works out for you at the range.
Just a thought . Could you lube your felt wad material ( kind of pan lube a small piece ) and then pre cut the wads from the pre lubed felt material with that? MIght be another way to keep the mess in the shop and off of your shirt.

Take care .... Pete

[Buckshot]

Rick,
That looks VERY nice. I sure hope that you will let us know how it works out for you at the range.
Just a thought . Could you lube your felt wad material ( kind of pan lube a small piece ) and then pre cut the wads from the pre lubed felt material with that? MIght be another way to keep the mess in the shop and off of your shirt.

Take care .... Pete

................Pete, thanks for the kind reply. I made a side eject wadcutter out of steel, then hardened it for cutting felt and card wads. Brass isn't going to work long term for that. I cut the felt wads out and have a double boiler which I use for melting lube. I toss in a batch of the felt wads and let them soak for 30 minutes or so. I made a wood framed sieve using 1/4" hardware cloth, and pour the lube and wads though it (naturally catching the liquid lube in a container. I stir the wads around with an old wooden spoon for a bit and then dump them out onto a sheet of that freezer paper that's "Plastisized' on one side? They get poured onto the plastic side.

They're still warm and the lube is also quite soft, so I use the spoon to spread them out as well as can be. They're like little magnets and want to clump up. Once completely cooled and hardened, the wooden spoon gets used again to scrape them up off the paper and they go into one of the large Midway blue plastic snap lid boxes (UB series I think they are). The felt wads were never a problem. It was the lube wads. I keep them in the same Midway UB plastic boxes, only they go in the shallow boxes. Still, them being loose in the box and it up in a cabinet over the reloading bench in the shop allows them to soften and slump together. THAT was the issue. Trying to get them apart was a loseing battle. With the lube in ribbons bewteen the parchment paper they can't stick together. All I have to do is punch the cutter down into the lube, slide it sideways and set it over the muzzle and press down. Shazaam!

................Buckshot

[451 Pete]

Rick,
Thanks for explaining that. I did not know that you had the felt wads lubricated also from your original post. A great idea and a nice job making something to make it work.

Take care .... Pete