2 cycle synthetic and beeswax

[Bullshop Junior]

Having never used either method, is it safe to assume the lubrisizer method is faster than TL? If I wanted to get a Lubrisizer one step up in cost over the Lee sizer TL method, what machine do you suggest?

RCBS lubamatic

[Bullshop Junior]

Maybe he just switched beeswax straight up for carnoba. I dont remember for sure, but i know it had carnaba in it

[wantoutofca]

I thought it was +2oz of carnauba.

[Bullshop Junior]

Thats what i thought as well

[seagiant]

What is the general consensus of the lube recipe from Glen Fryxell's book From Ingot to Target?

"Personally, my favorite is my homemade Moly lube, made from equal parts by weight of beeswax (either yellow or white, color doesn't matter) mixed with Sta-Lube Extreme Pressure Moly-Graph Multi-Purpose Grease. This grease, like Alox 2138F, is also a lithium-based grease, so this lube is basically just a variant of the old NRA formula for Alox lube, with a little molybdenum disulfide and graphite thrown in."

It seems simple enough.

David

Hi,
I've used Glen's recipe for years now and it is a winner,although like most soft lubes will smoke when shot! No problem at an outdoor range! Ive used it for pistol and rifle and have had no leading!

[dsbock]

Hi,
I've used Glen's recipe for years now and it is a winner,although like most soft lubes will smoke when shot! No problem at an outdoor range! Ive used it for pistol and rifle and have had no leading!

I shoot at an outdoor range so I'm not concerned with the lube generating some smoke. With your rifle loads, to what speed have you pushed this lube? Are they gas-checked on non gas-checked loads?

Thanks for the reply.

David

[fredj338]

I have pretty much given up on traditional metal soaps as thickening/oil control agents for boolit lube. They work fine up to a point, but above a certain amount of heat and pressure, they just can't hold up. One reason Speed Green works well under high heat and pressure is the clean burn. The wax and two-cycle oil cook off fairly cleanly, leaving little residue in the bore to muck up the next shot. The problem with it, for me, is that in the heat groups open up unless more wax is added. It also has a fairly low melt point and won't tolerate being exposed to direct sun in the Texas heat for long. Adding a bit of sodium soap to it, like Edd is doing right now, may fix this and we might end up with the "perfect" lube. I have something else up my sleeve right now to help control the "runaway slickey" problem it has with too much heat. We'll see.

Gear

Would adding a bit of carnuba stiffen it for warmer days w/o changing things much?

[Springfield]

I shoot mostly BP and my wife mostly shoots low power Cowboy loads, so my bw/2-stroke oil/soft parrafin lube works well. As to the sizer question, my simple answer is(owning 3 Stars, 1 Lyman 45 and an RCBS) is if you load on a progressive press you will probably want a Star. If you use a single stage press a Lyman/RCBS should prove plenty fast enough. Especially if cost is any sort of issue. Tumble lubing is practically free but much slower.

[runfiverun]

carnuba is what you want for hotter day's.
if you shoot in temps over 50-f and up, carnuba is a great addition.
once you go below 50 the carnuba wax itself needs to be modified to work properly.

if I were shooting over 300 rounds a week every week I'd do like I do now and use a combination of processes I tumble lube with a modified 45/45/10 lube then run them through the star sizer.
I then tumble lube again.
5-600 on a Saturday or sunday is a breeze to get done, and leaves me time to get them loaded on the same day.

[smokesahoy]

I made a batch with amsoil dominator, 1:5 with beeswax. I melted wax, added oil and started pan lubing.
I was a bit disappointed by how soft it was so I put some talc on my bullets and decided to try em out before deciding. Anyhow I had a lot of time to myself over the holiday and I ran many batches thru the pan. Each time melting the lube and repouring it, letting it set up etc. I don't know how many remelts were in there. Long story short I was down there putzing around with the stuff and noticed how much harder the lube had become.

Its pretty cold here so I figured it might just be the temp, so i opened the box of extra that I had put aside and it is still much softer. I guess the repeated melts have allowed the oil to get bound up better in the wax or something, it is now much firmer and the bullets much less tacky. with the next batch I will give it a nice long melt time and see if I can finish it like my current batch is in the first process.

Just a note to help me remember later, but if anyone else is heading down the same road, try remelting the too tacky lube for a bit to help the oil into the wax better.

[utk]

I went to Amsoil's web page and had a look att Amsoil Dominator. It doesn't seem to be an oil, they call it an Octane Booster. And the MSDS says it contains 60-100% kerosene.
My guess is that much of the kerosene cooked off during the numerous remelt and thus your lube became thicker.

Some of the two-stroke oils mentioned in this thread also contain different solvents which may make the lube stiffer over time when the solvents evaporate.

Many moons ago, I melted beeswax with LEE liquid Lube (Alox 606-55) into a suitably soft lube. A couple of months later the lube had hardened into a useless clump. Because the solvents in the LLA had evaporated.

[altheating]

I made a mistake two years ago and purchased Amsoil's Interceptor oil to make speed green, well it works great, but you can't call it speed green, its yellow, or honey colored synthetic oil. So I call "Speed Yellow" 2500-2600 fps out of the 22 cal stuff, no leading with superior accuracy. Add 1.5 to 2 oz of carnauba wax to get it less tacky. Makes what acts like the Lotak lube. I'm not changing a thing, it does not get any easier than mixing synthetic oil, beeswax and carnauba.

[dikman]

I looked up the MSDS for Interceptor oil, out of curiosity, and it's not a true synthetic, it's petroleum-based (look up CAS 64742-47-8 / 64742-88-7). In fact, it's basically the same stuff that's in WD-40.
64742-47-8 is also referred to as jet fuel by some = kerosene.

[runfiverun]

smokesahoy you could also take the oil up in temp [350-f] and hold it there for a bit, this will remove the solvents from the 2 stroke.
it will leave the other stuff behind.
if its a poe base instead of a poa base oil this will help the carbon chains and esters bind with the b-wax better too.

[btroj]

I like to always let a lube sit overnight before I decide if it needs to be harder or softer. It is amazing how much a lube changes just sitting over night. In general I find that they firm up with 12 hours of sitting.

[wantoutofca]

When I whipped up my batch of lube I cooked all of the solvents out before adding the beeswax. This was nearly a year ago and the lube that is left seems identical to the way it was when first made. I thought that bull plate was Amsoil 2 stroke marine oil with the solvents cooked out. Not sure where I got that idea though.

[Socal147]

I use a 50/50 - BW /Crisco mix with a touch of carnuba and paraffin to help reduce stickiness and make it harder. I do shoot low velocity big lead 44 and 500 rounds. No leading at all, anywhere. I do wish I could generate some more smoke. Just for show of course.

[runfiverun]

alox smokes just fine especially when the humidity is up.
quite often adding paraffin to a lube can make it smoke more too.

[Socal147]

alox smokes just fine especially when the humidity is up.
quite often adding paraffin to a lube can make it smoke more too.

Thanks, I will give it a shot. I was wondering about using both lube methods (size/lube and TL on the same bullet as you mentioned earlier. I got some feedback stating this was bad. I tried it as a precursor to some hotter loads and it seemed to work fine.

[btroj]

I have tumble lubed a bullet already sized and lubed in a traditional sizer. No problems at all. I actually find that sometimes that light coat of tumble lube stops a load that leads lightly from leading at all.