Homemade Lube, Geargnasher's SL68 recipe

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Gear posted about SL67 in post 2786 of the extreme Lube thread.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?148746-quot-Extreme-quot-boolit-lube-The-Quest&p=2712126&viewfull=1#post2712126

SL68 seems to be the same ingredients, but tweaked a bit?
I would post the recipe, but Gear hasn't been online for some time, and I'll wait for his permission before doing so.

ANYWAY, today was the next step in my shooting 243win cast boolits at high velocity experiment. It was LUBE making day.

Gear's SL-68 was fairly easy and straight forward to make, I added a couple of blue crayon pieces for color, that was a mistake !

I am posting a bunch of photo's so you can see how the cooking progresses. When Soap is added, it foams up to about 3x volume and is like stirring seafoam. Then cooks down to a COW texture. Then clears up to a nice amber.

When I reached the prescribed temp, I removed heat, then added the two crayon pieces after the amberish liquid cooled to about 350ish and the stuff lumped up, So I heated it back up to try and get it liquid again, I think something in the crayon scorched

When it cooled, I noticed different colored layers, 3 of them, (Brown, blue, then brown again). I had already poured this first batch into the lube sizer, so I'm gonna give it a try, but I did make a second batch (without any crayon), just in case, since I was all setup, as you can see in the Tuna can photo, The second batch is a nice tan/light brown color. I really like how easy it flows through a lubesizer and how it feels silky, but a little more tack to it, than the MML+soap that I got from Mike (357maximum).

fyi, to those how look for the ironic details, I also melted/blended some BP lube, hence the 'other' ingredients on the table

[MBTcustom]

Excellent work Jon!
FWIW, I screwed up and threw blue crayons in my FWFL once hoping to get a blue color too (what is it about the color blue?!??!)
Anyway, it separated just like yours did, and I wound up with pea green FWFL. It worked great. Looked like sewage though LOL!

[5Shot]

Is the SL-68 good for high pressure/velocity stuff? Gear told me that SL-61 and similar were inferior to FWFL for those applications.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

5shot, PM sent.

Well,I just found out that this lube is suppose to end up an yellowish white color, like old Ivory. I guess I'll try another batch, when time permits and fix my technique.

[Doc Highwall]

Even if I only get a lube that works great above 40 degrees to 100 degrees I will be very happy as I am looking for a high velocity lube for target shooting during the spring through the fall season.

[Bullshop]

Even if I only get a lube that works great above 40 degrees to 100 degrees I will be very happy as I am looking for a high velocity lube for target shooting during the spring through the fall season.

Have you tried LOTAK lube for your high velocity loading?

[geargnasher]

Jon, thank you for not posting the recipe for SL-68 here, yet. I would like for you to prove it out yourself, see if it meets your own set of criteria as well as those laid out in the first post of the Extreme Lube Quest, give it a fair shake, and report your findings fully and objectively. Then, if you find it to be particularly noteworthy, post up the recipe so that others might try it. If you find issues with it, contact me and let's discuss them, as I am pretty well satisfied with it as a truly all-around lube and am interested in discovering how it works in other people's guns. If it isn't better than sliced bread, then forget it and we won't waste anyone else's time or components fooling with the recipe. THAT is why I don't want to share it too broadly yet, or with people who don't know enough about bullet lube to give evaluations that are useful to the rest of us. Fair enough?

As a general point, I have been using a slight variant of SL-68 exclusively since this spring and am mostly satisfied with it. Improvements could be made to the exact wax specified, if there is one thing I'm not entirely pleased with it's the wax as it is too refined and has a very abrupt phase change.

Gear

[Doc Highwall]

Bullshop, I have been using your NASA lube to about 2000 fps with great accuracy. I have some of White Label 2700 to try first and if it does not work I will look at your LOTAK for sure.

[Bullshop]

Bullshop, I have been using your NASA lube to about 2000 fps with great accuracy. I have some of White Label 2700 to try first and if it does not work I will look at your LOTAK for sure.

The Lotak will handle high velocity/pressure smokeless powder loads better than the NASA lube.
The Nasa may be better for smokeless powder loads in sub zero or nearly so temps.

[Bjornb]

Jon, have you tried the lube in any HV loads? I'm very interested in hearing about results.
Bjorn

[btroj]

Send a PM to Gear, he can give you all the detail you need.

If if you decide to make lube liek this just realize it is HOT and burns like the dickens. My burn took a couple weeks to heal, far worse than small lead splatters.

[Bjornb]

Jon, thank you for not posting the recipe for SL-68 here, yet. I would like for you to prove it out yourself, see if it meets your own set of criteria as well as those laid out in the first post of the Extreme Lube Quest, give it a fair shake, and report your findings fully and objectively. Then, if you find it to be particularly noteworthy, post up the recipe so that others might try it. If you find issues with it, contact me and let's discuss them, as I am pretty well satisfied with it as a truly all-around lube and am interested in discovering how it works in other people's guns. If it isn't better than sliced bread, then forget it and we won't waste anyone else's time or components fooling with the recipe. THAT is why I don't want to share it too broadly yet, or with people who don't know enough about bullet lube to give evaluations that are useful to the rest of us. Fair enough?

As a general point, I have been using a slight variant of SL-68 exclusively since this spring and am mostly satisfied with it. Improvements could be made to the exact wax specified, if there is one thing I'm not entirely pleased with it's the wax as it is too refined and has a very abrupt phase change.

Gear

Gear,
I have read your recipe for this lube on another forum and I'm very interested in trying to make a batch. The wax you are talking about is a very specific MC wax from a specific company. Have you been able to locate a substitute for this wax? From the wax seller's website it appears that this is the highest temp MC wax they carry.
Bjorn

[Bjornb]

Send a PM to Gear, he can give you all the detail you need.

If if you decide to make lube liek this just realize it is HOT and burns like the dickens. My burn took a couple weeks to heal, far worse than small lead splatters.

OK will do.

[btroj]

Gear,
I have read your recipe for this lube on another forum and I'm very interested in trying to make a batch. The wax you are talking about is a very specific MC wax from a specific company. Have you been able to locate a substitute for this wax? From the wax seller's website it appears that this is the highest temp MC wax they carry.
Bjorn

Changing we wax even slightly can make a huge difference in final lube properties. Try it and see is the only way to know for sure. I bet Gear used the highest mlet point because he lives just south of the sun. You get heat too I bet, high melt point is a good thing.

[runfiverun]

that and part of the homogenization needs to take place at high temp.
if the wax won't take the heat it breaks down improperly and won't mix into the final product.
if in doubt with these types of lubes going hotter with the initial steps almost always works.
not so with li stearate type lubes it will cause things to cake and either drop out the oils or go into full lock-up and start burning.[poly glycol bases are bad at the locking up and burning at the temps needed to do this]

one of the tricks I developed was to use an evaporating oil like mineral spirits to act as an indicator and as and initiator to get the base ingredients going.

[geargnasher]

PM responded to, Bjorn. The magic number is 460F, after all traces of water (active foaming) have subsided during an approximately 30 minute simmer and stir at 250F. Go full heat and stir constantly until it gets to the melt point. Near the end it will emit a thick, grey smoke that you can't see through into the pot. At 460F the sodium stearate actually melts and the lube goes to a smooth liquid like cooking oil and all hints of bubbles in the liquid disappear. The instant it liquifies, pull it off the heat and pour out of the pan, do not hesitate, as the stearate starts to darken more every second the mix remains at the liquid temperature. It will gel almost immediately upon being poured into a cool container. Let it set until fully cool before disturbing. An aluminum foil liner for your cooling pan is your friend.

You MUST melt the stearate for this to work, as melting allows the metal salt matrix to break down fully and then re-form around the wax and oil molecules. You can actually see the effect of this as the "grease" re-gels as it cools. You can also dip out a couple spoonfulls of the mixture after cooking off all the water and compare it's consistency and feel to the fully gelled mix to see the difference that the soap matrix makes. This is the whole reason we use soap in the formula, as we are technically making a full-on metal soap brick grease.

Gear

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Jon, have you tried the lube in any HV loads? I'm very interested in hearing about results.
Bjorn

Yes, one test so far.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...t-1&highlight=
I may be trying too many 'new' things with this new endeavor, if I stick with SL-68, I plan to scrap all this burnt lube and make another batch that isn't burnt (scrap meaning using it for pistol plinkers). btw, the MC wax I'm using was given to me from another member ( and came from a source unknown to me...it was just labeled as "Micro-crystalline 175" and "175º F is the melt temp". I also have a couple other MC wax samples from other sources.

I may just use Lotak, it's worked great for my 22 cal rifle shooting, but I've never loaded for HV til now.

[5Shot]

Gear -

What is this lube recipe tailored for? High Velocity, High Pressure, both?

[geargnasher]

5shot: See the first post of the Extreme Lube Quest thread, it meets all of those things except hasn't been verified to work in extreme cold and I have done only limited first-shot-flyer testing in HV rifles. Preliminary results are very encouraging.

Gear

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

5shot, I'm not gonna try to speak for Gear, but I think the answer to your question is well covered in Gear's OP of the "Extreme boolit lube, The Quest..."thread.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...lube-The-Quest