Hey, .357 maximum, lubes

[Eutectic]

Most test loads I make have the lube applied with my fingers then run through a Lee to remove excess and seat any GC's. That is a problem with a hard lube for me, CR gave me a blister! I hate the lube sizer. Main reason I went to the original Felix recipe, softer in the cold.
It takes me forever to prepare boolits, clean the bases and remove any lube from crimp grooves, the Lee dies sure get lube all over.

I don't know how many boolits I have 'hand lubed' over the last couple of years.... but it's a bunch! You get pretty good at it and even kind of fast....
I had to laugh about Mike's comment about lubing small boolits with sausage fingers! I'm laughing with him not at him! That little Hornet boolit I'm testing now is not only small; it is short! No matter how careful you are one will 'squirt' from your fingers to the basement floor! Oh well.... I get plenty of foulers!
I consider "Mikey's Ivory" (6,6,6,1) just right in hardness.... semi-soft I guess I would call it.... Hard lubes may be convenient but accuracy always suffers for me. I won't modify Mike's formula until it fails me. My Polybutene Felix has 3% carnauba in it and doesn't like below zero too well.

I have a cut off case for every caliber in existence I think! After hand lubing I push the bullet through the proper one and then through the Lee (or one I've made) sizer. The sizing die remains clean and I 're-cycle' the lube ring from around the 'cookie cutter'..

Eutectic

[44man]

Sure does work though. I will not load boxes of rounds if something is not right, hate to waste the time and boolits just to get rid of them. Takes very little to find something, then I go ahead and load a lot.
No way I will keep changing lubes in the lube sizer when fat fingers work.
I dare not drop a lubed boolit, my little hairball dog is always under my seat and I never seen boolits grow hair like mine do. Even one hair stuck to my finger drives me nuts, just can't get rid of it.

[Jailer]

You guys are killin me. I've been prefectly content to stick with what I have for lubes. Now I got to try another new one.

[geargnasher]

You guys are killin me. I've been prefectly content to stick with what I have for lubes. Now I got to try another new one.

All I can say to you about that, in the most sympathetic tone, is WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!



Gear

[btroj]

Content. Isn't that an Ancient Greek word for lacks desire to learn?

[357maximum]

You guys are killin me. I've been prefectly content to stick with what I have for lubes. Now I got to try another new one.

I would not get too worked up over that...theres plenty of it sitting not 20 minutes from your doorstep. It is not all that different from what you are currently having success with anyway....just a a slightly different and cheaper alternative to the same basic end.

[Jailer]

You have no idea how bad my compulsiveness is.

I HAVE to make some and try it......

Besides I got this couple year old bar of ivory that's so dried out it's just begging to be made into lube.

[BABore]

Mikey,

Thoughts on substituting a portion of the vaseline with Assemblee Goo. Just for an added tweak to make up for the current, modern vaseline's lacking. Maybe to just keep you up a few more nights.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I have lot's of partially used Candles, from picking them up at garage sales (I have other uses for them). Are they close enough to use for 666+1 as store bought Canning Parafin wax ?

[geargnasher]

Jon, candles can be pretty diverse in composition. Different melt point paraffins, polymer hardening additives (for taper candles), opacity additives (for solid colors), lower melt-point, non-shrinking wax for container candles, etc. etc. That all said, melt together a batch of various stuff and give it a go, it will probably be just fine and might even be an improvement. We're starting to see a trend in multi-component waxes that looks positive.

Gear

[fecmech]

That all said, melt together a batch of various stuff and give it a go, it will probably be just fine and might even be an improvement. We're starting to see a trend in multi-component waxes that looks positive.

Yeah wouldn't it be great if he mixed up all those garage sale candles and came up with the Satans Extreme lube?

[Jailer]

Ok so I had an interesting experiment tonight. I ended up scortching my vaseline/soap mixture and ended up with a few floaties from it. So once I was done with the lube and poured it out to cool I figured I'd re melt it and see if it would homoginze a bit better. I melted it and instead of going from solid to liquid I got a gel. So I added a bit more heat and ended up with a thin gel. I got a little nervous that I was going to scortch my beeswax so I pulled it off the heat and poured it back into the mold. Never did make it back to a liquid.

Is this normal for a soap lube? This is my fist time messing around with one so I have no idea what to expect. I was also thinking if this is normal it might explain why a soap lube works better than traditional beezwax lubes as it has a bit of a long gel phase before it goes liquid.

Just a thought from an un educated apprentice lube alchemist.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

...snip

WAYNE ---here is the recipe for Satans Lube...basically the OLD PRE ALOX NRA FORMULA with some soap added, nothing ground breaking...does not need to be..... damn good boolit lube is simple when you remove the "tinker factor" and emotion from it.

Melt the vaseline and add the ivory soap flakes into it til fully dissolved, then add the paraffin, remove from heat and then add the beeswax last after the mix has cooled a bit to prevent the dreaded beeswax "scorch". You wanna do all this in a pot a bit bigger than you think you need...the soap makes stuff foam up a bit.

6oz vaseline
6oz paraffin
6oz beeswax
1 oz dried ivory flakes (foodprocessor) (you can double this if you live in a hot area or will be shooting in a hot area)

OK, another question...probably a dumb question, What do you mean by "Dry" ivory flakes ?

also, when chopped or shaved, is finer better or is there a desired texture ?

Here is a photo of a Bar of Ivory soap that's been on my laundry tub for about a decade, it sure has dried out. I hope that isn't what you mean.

[btroj]

Yep. That jel tells me you had it close to melted, takes 450 plus degrees to do that.

How did you scorch it? Did you get brown stuff on the sides of the pot? That is normal too.

I would add soap and Vaseline to pot and heat, heat, heat it. It will foam up pretty good then foams goes away. Keep stirring until soap is entirely melted. It is gonna smoke. Once it is all melted remove heat and keep stirring. Add paraffin and stir as it gels. Once the gel has formed good and it cools some add the beeswax. Residual heat will melt the beeswax. Keep stirring until it is mixed well. Set aside to cool and you are done.

Don't splash on you when heating, it will burn you bad.

[btroj]

OK, another question...probably a dumb question, What do you mean by "Dry" ivory flakes ?

also, when chopped or shaved, is finer better or is there a desired texture ?

Here is a photo of a Bar of Ivory soap that's been on my laundry tub for about a decade, it sure has dried out. I hope that isn't what you mean.

I don think he meant that dry!

You could shave some soap into slivers and let it sit out for a few weeks. That would make it plenty dry.

If you use wetter soap it just leads to more foaming as the soap melts, this is because the water is being burned off. And it will foam a bunch. Use a bigger pot than you think you need.

[Jailer]

Yep. That jel tells me you had it close to melted, takes 450 plus degrees to do that.

How did you scorch it? Did you get brown stuff on the sides of the pot? That is normal too.

I would add soap and Vaseline to pot and heat, heat, heat it. It will foam up pretty good then foams goes away. Keep stirring until soap is entirely melted. It is gonna smoke. Once it is all melted remove heat and keep stirring. Add paraffin and stir as it gels. Once the gel has formed good and it cools some add the beeswax. Residual heat will melt the beeswax. Keep stirring until it is mixed well. Set aside to cool and you are done.

Don't splash on you when heating, it will burn you bad.

Yup, this is what I did. Scorched floaties came from the bottom of the pan while stirring the vaseline/soap mix. I had some soap flakes that weren't melting so I upped the heat to melt them. It was smoking and eventually the soap flakes melted but I think I put too much heat to it too quick and scorched what was on the bottom. It was liquid in the initial melt, but was a gel when I tried re melting and never when back to liquid. It was real thin but not liquid.

The re heated lube has taken on a darker color now too. Looks a lot like MML now and kinda smells like it too. Smells more like grease than it does beeswax.

[btroj]

You made a sodium stearate/Vaseline grease.

[fryboy]

OK, another question...probably a dumb question, What do you mean by "Dry" ivory flakes ?

also, when chopped or shaved, is finer better or is there a desired texture ?

Here is a photo of a Bar of Ivory soap that's been on my laundry tub for about a decade, it sure has dried out. I hope that isn't what you mean.

jon , i've not made this lube yet ( that's all i currently dont need - another lube project lolz ) but every time i've added ivory soap ( dry or fresh ) to a mix it works best for me ...erm perhaps i should state it blends in quicker and/or melts easier if it's in smaller flakes/shavings/etc , i dried out a whole pack of bars and grated one much akin to parmesan cheese , my first try back when was with slivers , i oft wondered if those would ever blend in lolz

[Jailer]

Don't splash on you when heating, it will burn you bad.

Too late, already found that out last night. Good thing it was a small splash.

[btroj]

I have a small scar and men was last summer. 450 degrees is hot. And that stuff sticks too.