Very Basic Question about Lube Percentages for Solid and Liquid Components

[Scheyville Shootist]

Hi All,

It is a very long time since I did any Chemistry, and it was never my strongest subject!

I want to try a few different recipes for lubes and I have a question.

When a recipe calls for 'X% x Y% x Z%' if all three are solids I just weight them and melt away. What if one is a liquid? If the recipe says 10% and the other ingredients weight 18 ounces do you use 2 fluid ounces, for example? Or do you melt the two solids and work on volume?

[randyrat]

I can tell you Beeswax is very close between volume and weight. For example; 16 ounces volume = 1 pound= 2 cups= about 28 Cu inches

[Elkins45]

That's a very good question, and one I have wondered about myself.

My first answer would be to ask the person who created the recipe what they did.

[357maximum]

I use WIEGHT on all ingredients...for liquids I just add the liquid to a "tare" dish/bowl or "tare" the cooking container and add the liquids/ first. Volume ia harder to repeat........it is not a very good weigh to way things

I have done alot of playing and have not added a true "liquid" to a lube recipe in a long time....Vaseline/grease/Newtonian fluids are about as close as I come to "liquid" anymore.

[Wingnutt]

OP
Answer to your question is there is not (hardly) any difference between measuring by weight or by volume. By all practical sense concerning ingredients of bullet lubes; the specific gravity is really close to volume. One exception that I can think of is grated Ivory soap, some is dry and some is fresh, but either way weight versus volume will vary and also accordingly by grated size of the soap.

I myself weigh my ingredients. I consider it easier to adjust percentages when needing to add or reduce amounts when modification of a lube recipe is needed and helps to keep more accurate records.

What I'm saying is by all practical purposes, waxes, grease and oils will weigh the same as their liquid volume....

[NileCitySlick]

I have been trying my own lube for my cast .459 bullets and cap & ball 44 cal. It's simple but seems to work without leading the barrels.
My recipe by weight 1:2:2 (ounces, grams, etc.) of Mineral Oil (laxative lubricant, $1.48 @ Walmart), Lard (Armour, $1.49 @ Walmart), and yellow beeswax ($14.95 @ Hobby Lobby). Combined and melted in my pan-in-pan double boiler stirred with a chop stick. I use it to lube the boolits and make "wonder" -ful wool wads for cap & ball. No problems noticed so far. My 45-75 shoots pretty well out to 200 yards, ringing the gongs and punching paper holes.

[shaune509]

I think that Alton Brown of Good Eats would say to always measure by weight.
Shaune509

[RobS]

I measure my lube by melted beeswax to teaspoons/tablespoons of the other ingredients as I don't use ivory or other ingredients as such. One cup of melted beeswax to 5 table spoons of Y & Z for me etc. which is now a combination of two greases that have certain characteristics which work well together for making a lube that is very good for low pressure handgun rounds to upper end magnum and even top side rifle rounds. I've tested things so far in the cold of winter here in Kansas and also up to 95 degrees with great results................just waiting on the 100+ days to be here.

Suggestions of asking how to measure ingredients from the person who come up with a particular lube will be the way to repeat I suppose.

[303Guy]

It's a lot harder to measure by volume. The weight (mass) compared to volume (density) can be as much as 80%. However, I would think that would not really be a biggy when for example we say one third this + one third that + one third the other. Most hydrocarbons have similar densities unless they are dry flaked.