Great results with Johnson Paste Wax

[kellyj00]

Can I use JPW on my Lee tumble-lube 45acp bullets? They have many smaller lube grooves designed to be tumble lubed with LLA, which I don't really want to pay for.

Sorry if this is a silly question, I have yet to start casting and I'm very very cheap.

[Ricochet]

Yes, it can work well that way.

[jhalcott]

another silly ?. How are you getting the JPW??

[PatMarlin]

Home Repo or Lowes. In the paste wax can. In the wood finish section.

It doesn't just grow on trees don'tchaknow..

[flhroy]

jhalcott, I found it in a Safeway store. It was by the rest of the floor care stuff. You have to look for it though, it was on the bottom shelf.


Roy

[kellyj00]

I found it at walmart in Newton KS for $5.38 per can. Not sure of the size of the can, it's metal, painted yellow and red... not sure if that's what you all are using. It's right next to the glass-top stove cleaner, on the bottom shelf and my wife actually found it before I did. You've almost gotta search for the stuff at that walmart. They also only had one can.

Thank you for your help Ricochet.
...another few questions about lubing as a new caster
1) is JPW better than liquid alox in preventing leading?
2) I'm also curious as to if there's a *best* method to applying JPW to a tumble-lube bullet. I'm thinking that heating the bullets and jpw then pan lubing them is a good bet.
3) What about for run of the mill lube-grooved bullets, should I just take a gob of the paste wax and fill the groove by hand?

thanks again, this is a Great discussion for those of us who are just starting out and doing it on a budget. (I don't mind a $2.50 bottle of LLA, but $6 for shipping when that all I really need?)

[Ricochet]

I don't know if JPW is more effective than LLA for preventing leading. I've had good results with both. The biggest concerns I've had with JPW are that it's about 80% mineral spirits and shrinks a great deal when it dries, so you aren't really putting as much on as you think, its melting point changes drastically as the solvent evaporates so that it liquefies when barely warm when it's fresh but takes rather high heat to melt when dried out, and after it's fully dry it's quite stiff and brittle. I've had the wax all flake off the sides of the boolit and lift the wax out of the grooves with it when the boolit was pushed down into the case neck. Doesn't happen if you load the boolits before the wax is fully dried. But it's never strongly adherent to the metal, as you'll note if you leave the exposed noses of the boolits coated with it. However, it can work quite well as I said, and it's worth trying.

The originally suggested way of using it was to put the boolits in a glass jar, plonk in a spoonful of fresh wax, let it sit in the sun to liquefy the wax, slosh 'em around till they're coated, and pour 'em out to dry.

I do pretty much the same when I use it by gently warming the boolits in a coffee can on a hotplate. Don't get 'em too hot. I think it works better for tumble lubing if the wax isn't fully melted to a watery liquid, but is still a bit viscous.

I treat the ones with conventional lube grooves the same as the ones with the Lee tumble lube microbands.

[Bob Jones]

There's a fellow who sells bulk Alox for about $10 per quart, that's probably cheaper than JPW. I see it on Ebay, he may be a member here.

I tried using carnuba wax when I ended up with a quart of high grade "bowling alley wax" at a garage sale and it worked well for handgun bullets.

[Limey]

I have been successfully using Johnson paste ''Living Wood'' furniture wax for case lubing my 45/70 brass.

Simply stroke your forefinger across the top of the wax, the wax is solid but soft at normal room temperature and then apply to your brass between your finger and thumb.....works a treat and polish's off easy when you do your final round cleaning after seating and crimping in your bullet.......

....the current tin is Lavender scented.....smell's real nice!...it's very cost effective since you use so little and easily found at a supermarket.....plus not had any case denting at all

Safe shooting

Limey

[Lee]

Limey, excellent tip/suggestion. Thanks............Lee

[BAGTIC]

Not so strange. In the conventionally lube bullets, when fired, the bullet compresses a bit and forces lube out of the groove. And the instructions with the Lee tumble lubed sizer tell you to lube, size, and lube again.

Yep! The bullet compresses a bit and forces some of the lube out of the grooves but only for the first couple inches of travel and that ejected lube if going to leave a trail behind the bullet which is rapidly moving forward.

I can not prove it but I still suspect much of the success is due to 'plating' the bore with a thin layer of wax that prevents leading from adhering and preps the barrel for succeeding shots.

[shotman]

have any of you added moly to the lube? it seems to work good for me in that i change from jacket to cast and dont clean between the two dont seem to get the leading that i did before rick

[Lee]

So perhaps the secret to a cheap non drying lube would/might be to take the JPW and add a little STP or 5-30Shell or Lanolin or...something else mentioned thru all these threads that will work in a lube, but WHICH DOES NOT EVAPORATE and dry out???
I see the mineral spirits in JPW as just being the vehicle to get the "stuff" on the article being coated, then evaporate and leave a dry wax residue. If so, then some "non-drying" additive might assist adhesion, as well as prevent drying/flaking???
Just thinking out loud, I'm sure others must have the same thoughts??..............Lee

[pjh421]

How 'bout a little baby oil?

Paul

[jcwit]

I noticed that car wax would be harmfull. You've got to be kidding if it workes on a $60,000 Corvette clear coat there's no way it'll harm a steel barrel. I'd be more worried about contaminates in the lead melt, or dust/dirt picked up when loading. Just my 2 cents.

[Lee]

I also forgot to mention beeswax, which "should" be sticky, perhaps counteract the drying out that occurs when the spirits evaporate. I'll do some experimenting this summer. I'd like to find the cheapest, simplest 3-component lube I could make....ala JPW/ingredientX/ingredientY, and that assumes that the mineral spirits WILL evaporate out, leaving all the rest behind...........
(I could also suggest maiden oil, but that will take the thread in a different direction).............................Lee

[DLCTEX]

White Label lube is the one selling 32 oz. liquid Alox for 9.50. I wonder if a mix if alox and JPW would make it cling to the boolit and have attributes of both? DALE

[jcwit]

I might be wrong but I seem to remember that adding Ivory soap which contains stearic acid helps the lube adhear to the bullet.

[bcp477]

CAR wax COULD be harmful - because it contains fine abrasives. Acrylic clear coat finishes on cars are designed to respond well to this. Under heat and pressure, in a gun bore, perhaps it would tend to be more destructive than might seem reasonable. On the other hand, perhaps it would only help to "lap" the bore. I think that I am not brave enough to try it, though.

Products like JPW (Minwax paste "finishing wax" is another very similar product), if designed for fine furniture, do not contain abrasives...only solvents for cleaning, in addition to the carnauba wax.

[HABCAN]

According to a Google search I just did, S.C. Johnson Co. (Canada) no longer manufactures the old yellow paste wax I grew up with, so I guess that's why I have been unable to find it on any dealers' shelves and store clerks don't know what it is. Their online ads are so PC I suspect they discontinued it 'to save the children'. Looks like we'uns up here are stuck with Minwax, LOL! I'll try summa dat, eh? CDN$10.00/lb.