Hey, .357 maximum, lubes

[geargnasher]

You can get it soft enough when re melted that it should pour in no problem. It starts out as a thick goo when it's melted and goes to a somewhat thinner goo, about the consistency of warm corn starch gravy, when you put a little more heat to it.

This is true of Satan's Lube, but not with any of the SL series or TnT due to the much higher soap content.

Gear

[brotherdarrell]

Well, I had to give this a try. This is what it looked like after spooning it out of the pot.



I have to admit not to following the recipe exactly (sorry 357max), but I meant to!!!! When I reached for what I thought was a new jar of vasaline I found out it wasn't. So I ended up with about 2 oz. of vasaline and 4 oz. of FM wax ring.

This is some interesting stuff. When you first handle it it appears kind of dry and crumbly, but as soon as you start working it between your fingers it softens up and gets just slightly tacky and oily. It has a very smooth and silky texture.

I just finished hand loobing about 100 22 cal boolits to try out this week. We will see how it works in the 222 and 223 AR.

Thanks guys.

Darrell

[357maximum]

So how do you get it into the sizer since it sounds like you can't just remelt it and pour it down the tube? Is this one of those lubes you have to cut into pieces and shove down the reservoir? Can it be poured into lube stick molds?

I "melt" it enough to get it to flow like a viscous liquid (latex paint consistency) and pour it in.....do not try to make it into "water" and you are all good. I did take it to the "water" point on one fill and it did not seem to hurt nothing, but in general practice I would not recommend doin what my inattention caused that one time.

[357maximum]

Well, I had to give this a try. This is what it looked like after spooning it out of the pot.



I have to admit not to following the recipe exactly (sorry 357max), but I meant to!!!! When I reached for what I thought was a new jar of vasaline I found out it wasn't. So I ended up with about 2 oz. of vasaline and 4 oz. of FM wax ring.

This is some interesting stuff. When you first handle it it appears kind of dry and crumbly, but as soon as you start working it between your fingers it softens up and gets just slightly tacky and oily. It has a very smooth and silky texture.

I just finished hand loobing about 100 22 cal boolits to try out this week. We will see how it works in the 222 and 223 AR.

Thanks guys.

Darrell

Mine does NOT come out looking like that...mine looks more like warm almost ready to melt beeswax and is rather smooth.....I have not had the no bake cookie look your pic shows.....mine looks and feels about like FWFL or NRA alox 50/50..... it just looks "bleached: as it lacks the brown color. Might try a gentle re-melt/blend...just enough melt to get er to meld into a consistent lube like texture.

[brotherdarrell]

No bake cookie!!! Hah, that is just what I was thinking when I dumped it but didn't think anyone would know what I was meaning.

Actually it was nice and smooth when I started, but not cooled of completely and was still a little grainy when I dumped it. A little work between the fingers and it looks like creamy peanut butter. I ended up with more loob than I thought I would. Hope it works.

[btroj]

[URL=http://s1348.photobucket.com/user/Btroj/media/image_zpsf9db147f.jpg.html][/URL

More like this Mike?

[357maximum]

You nailed it Brad...a picture is worth a thousand words....mine is slightly less yellow, but I made the last batch from some pretty light colored cappings grade beeswax or it could just be the camera/digital effect, but yeah it looks like that almost exactly.

[btroj]

Sort of dry but it holds together well enough to stay on a bullet.

[rhbrink]

So you can't pan lube with this stuff, double boiler route?

RB

[btroj]

Would be tough to pan lube with. Getting it hot enough to flow that well is going to scorch the beeswax. A double boiler might get it to a thick gravy stage but not much more than that.

Heck, give it a go, can't hurt anything. I'm not a pan lube guy so I don't pay attention to stuff like that.

[44man]

Because we can. After all, isn't Satan a tweaked NRA old school formula?

Some of us do it because we can't simply leave well enough alone.

That piece of soap all dried out looks like what my mother scrubbed out my mouth with when I said a bad word!
Brings to mind the old Fels Naptha soap, whatever happened to it? I used to tan deer hides with it and it might work in lubes.
I melt my beeswax in a pot within a pot with boiling water, then add the oils, it works great for Felix so I wonder about Satan's. Going to be a while until I make any, I have too much lube on hand.
I pan lube now and then when I have more to lube then I want to by hand. I use the double boiler only, never direct heat. Any lube that will not melt that way will be put on by hand. It takes me a long time to get boolits ready but I am retired. I shoot far less then anyone here. SS ya know! But if I put 5 rounds in a revolver I will shoot 5 deer and nothing else is more important to me.
Other then testing stuff, I only shoot more when friends come over. Sometimes I just go down and shoot 5 or 10 shots when testing a load, it is usually enough to see if it works. Testing lubes takes many more shots to make sure but not as many as most feel is needed. I am 100% against the idea you must season or condition a bore for each lube, changes seem to be instant. I got that thinking trying to preserve powder and primers to find it works so I move from one to the other and never wipe a bore.
Anyway, the bottom line! Do groups change? Did all the tweaking get you a tiny group? My answer is NO!
Felix is my baseline and a lube MUST match it. But see how many thousands of pages are out there with recipes to change it.
Satan's matches it and I am happy as all get out. Very, very few lubes will come close.
You will want to change it so why not do it and show groups at each stage, nothing lost but maybe a huge gain.
With the millions of lubes I will only use 4.
Why am I the only one to show changes from lube to lube? A picture is worth a thousand words. My distance is 50 yards for revolvers, never less because things show up FAST. Rifles at 100.
Lube is SO important for accuracy, forget just stopping leading. I don't know why and need help too. I do not understand a "relax" point either.

[44man]

You nailed it Brad...a picture is worth a thousand words

What I say, show how the lube shoots. Nothing else matters. Please post targets with every change.

[Eutectic]

Brings to mind the old Fels Naptha soap

Those were my thoughts exactly! That ol' bar had seen it's days! Ivory and Vasoline are CHEAP! One of the biggest benefits of "Mikey's Ivory" is cheap and easy stuff to get and a fairly simple method to put them together! I agree totally with pictures of results... and chronological pictures of 'tweak' changes... We all need this record as the lube is pretty good already...

My mix is slightly less yellow than Brad's..

Eutectic

[rhbrink]

Well I pan lubed with it. I'm not a big fan of pan lubing anything but when trying out a new lube I like to do 30 to 50 boolits and pan lubing works well enough for that. I have done a lot like 44man does but this stuff seems tough and would be hard to do. It did melt OK but not real runny with a double boiler and would be OK to melt and pour into a sizer if needed I think anyway. I did cheat a little I warmed up the boolits before I poured the lube over them as that seems to help get a complete fill out. After they cooled they didn't want to release form the ceramic pan that I had them is so I set them outside in the global warming trend that we are now having about 6* for a while and the whole thing popped right out. I was able to push the boolits out of the cold lube just fine. The lube was still flexible and tough not at all hard or brittle I'm impressed so far now to get to shoot some that's the real test.

RB

[geargnasher]

This lube "finger lubes" just great at room temperature. One of the things I like most about it, not too sticky, but very plastic and easy to pack in there before running the boolit through a sizer.

You will like how it shoots.

Gear

[glockky]

Here's a dumb question are you all going by weight or volume on these ingredients? And if by weight what are you weighing them with?

[glockky]

Does it flow through a lubrasizer well?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

What is the reason for Ivory soap as opposed to other soaps ? in this recipe and other recipes ?
I have a large box full of Homemade Soap (I got at an auction), it looks pretty old, but not mummified like my old bar of Ivory. Is that a potential ingredient ?
If this is such a crazy Question that it deserves some sarcasm...I can handle the purple print

[btroj]

Here's a dumb question are you all going by weight or volume on these ingredients? And if by weight what are you weighing them with?

I go by weight and use a kitchen scale that measures in ounces or grams. I use grams as I can get a more precise measurement that way.

[btroj]

What is the reason for Ivory soap as opposed to other soaps ? in this recipe and other recipes ?
I have a large box full of Homemade Soap (I got at an auction), it looks pretty old, but not mummified like my old bar of Ivory. Is that a potential ingredient ?
If this is such a crazy Question that it deserves some sarcasm...I can handle the purple print

Not crazy at all.

I use Ivory because I don't have homemade soap around and Ivory is universally available and uniform in all locations.

Key on recipes like this is using things people can easily get and that are repeatable.