NEW ! ! T/L Liquid Lube

[Bullwolf]

Bullwolf

Those are things of beauty !!!! I need to read more about this Motor Mica stuff!

I'd love to know your process with the Motor Mica as well.

Motor Mica, or just regular Mica is something that many folks use instead of Graphite for an inside case neck lube. You remember powdered graphite that was intended for use in locks. Motor Mica works about the same, only its white and a whole lot less messy when compared to black graphite. Motor Mica also tends to be more expensive than Graphite when it's marketed to reloaders for some odd reason.

It used to be quite popular to pour a little bird shot in a pill bottle, and then add either graphite or Motor Mica into the bottle. You then dip your cases mouth first into the bottle to get a dry film lube inside of the case necks. Unlike oily case lubes, you can easily wipe off the Graphite or Motor Mica off (or just leave it on) and not worry about it contaminating the powder or the primer.

Many folks have talked about using Talcum powder, Graphite, and Motor Mica here on Cast Boolits as a way to reduce the sticky-ness of Alox based tumble lubes.

Most of us will not encounter Mica all that often, as it's somewhat expensive, and less likely to be had around the house... Though it is used often as a base for many types of makeup.

You can get Motor Mica from most of the usual sources: like Midway, and Amazon just to name two. There are lots of pre-packaged brand names for Motor Mica as well. Lyman, RCBS, and Frankford Arsenal sell small containers of Motor Mica intended for reloading use.





You can even find somewhat larger quantities of Mica from BPI, marketed as Mica Wad Slick, intended for lubing shotgun wads, and hull bases.

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/Mic...ductinfo/MICA/

Mica Wad Slick (8 oz)
Creates a dry film on wads, which allows for easier, less resistant loading, reduced friction, and increased velocities. Simply put about a teaspoon of Mica Wad Slick in a bag with wads and lightly shake. That is all there is to it.
Our laboratory uses Mica Wad Slick on all of our high performance lead, steel, ITX Shot, and Hevi-Shot loads. When loads are tightly compacted, Mica sure makes them go together much easier. (8oz container)

• Allows for easier loading
• Reduces friction between wad and hull and bore
• Increases velocity

Do not substitute other lubricants in your loads: The wrong lubricant can contaminate powder - either raising or lowering pressures.
Curmudgeon's Loading Tips:
Resizing high-brass hulls: If you are experience resistance when resizing high-brass hulls, try just a little bit of Mica Wad Slick on the brass, die, or resizing area of your reloader. A little dry lube goes a long way toward saving reloading sanity. Also, the MEC Super Sizer works very for all high brass hulls. It is an essential tool to achieve consistent reloading results.

You would think it was made out of gold, as much as they charge for such tiny amounts of Motor Mica.

If you don't mind a little graphite getting on your fingers and clothes, they often mix Graphite and Motor Mica together for use as a seed flowing lubricant.
(Which can often be found in bulk at Tractor Supply stores)

Anyhow, you use Motor Mica much like you would use Talcum or Baby Powder. Sprinkle some on boolits to make them drier, and not so sticky. I sprinkle a little Motor Mica over my boolits in a round clean plastic food container, and then lightly agitate them.

I end up with cast boolits that are dusted with a small amount of fine white powder, that I can handle and load immediately afterwards.

I haven't noticed any differences, either better or worse after shooting lubed boolits dusted with Motor Mica vs non dusted ones. I don't do this to all my cast boolits though, only when I'm in a rush for some particular reason. I've also used it with small amounts of snake shot for pistol shot loads so it doesn't clump up as much.

I use Motor Mica much more often as an inside case neck lubricant, rather than a tumble lube boolit dusting powder.

Hope that helps some.


- Bullwolf

[lablover]

Outstanding Post Bullwolf...Thanks A Million

[Phlier]

If some of you are unable to locate any Johnson's Liquid wax, this is a pretty good alternative.

Make as per this formula :

I wouldn't be surprised at all if you made it " 1/3 - 1/3 - 1/3 " and it came out just fine. But this is the recipe that I used below :


To be honest, I can't tell much ( if any ) difference in :

• The drying time of the Liquid coating.
• The hardness of the coating once dry ( I let these dry 24 hrs. ) vs. the old style with Johnson's One step.

Here are some H & G # 46 cast bullets that have been sized to .452" , lubed with Ben's Red and then coated in the " New " alternate BLL that I made recently with the Lundmark Liquid Wax.




I have found that the viscosity of both of the liquids ( Lundmark Liquid Wax and Lar's, White Label, X Lox ) that you see above, to vary greatly when it arrives at your residence. It is possible that the age of the liquid since packaging contributes to a thickening of the liquid. As a consequence, if your Alternate BLL using the formula above comes out a bit thick, simply add a little more mineral spirits and shake the container until you get a liquid that " Pours like Coke out of a bottle ." When you do this, you should be " good to go".

At this point in time ( at least from my experiences ), I have now used this " Alternate " for about a year, I can't tell a lot of difference in the original BLL and the " Alternate BLL ".

So........., If you're unable to locate the old original Johnson's Liquid Wax in the tall yellow cans, don't panic. A quart bottle of each of the above should make you a lifetime of BLL that works well.

This was originally posted in a different thread. Wanted to make sure it found it's way here.

Thanks, Ben!

[Phlier]

I've had really good success with 45/45/10, but have been unhappy with the clouds of smoke. I'll be making up some BLL next week, but until then, it would be nice to hear from guys that have used both 45/45/10 and BLL as to how the smoke compares.

Considering that the JLFW has enough solvents that "the new coat dissolves the old", I'm wondering if there's any benefit at all to multiple coats.

[Bookworm]

I can't speak for the BLL, as I have made up a batch of BLL#2 (with the Lundmark & Xlox) but have yet to use it.

I can speak for the 45/45/10. It does produce some smoke, but certainly no more (and I think less) than the smoke produced from NRA lube. I usually notice the smoke only in passing.

Either way, I do almost all my shooting outdoors. I live in Okra-homa, and the wind is ALWAYS blowing, so what small amount of smoke that is produced just.... goes away.

[popper]

Had to wait for the cloud to disappear after the guy next to me finished shooting LLA & BP, falling block & Win 30/30. Was holding my breath too - outdoors.

[Bookworm]

You think maybe the black powder had anything to do with the volume of smoke ?

[popper]

Wasn't bad from his 30/30, the other choked me. Wondering how well BLL dries in 30+F weather? Did some last nite - felt dry this morning but I brought them inside, just in case. I've done LLA, recluse - BLL doesn't smoke nearly as much.

[dragon813gt]

It dries but takes significantly longer at that temp. This all based on touch but the ones I left in the garage felt tackier than the ones I brought inside to dry. I give them 24 hours to dry. I considered the ones in the garage dry at 48 hours.

[Phlier]

Wasn't bad from his 30/30, the other choked me. Wondering how well BLL dries in 30+F weather? Did some last nite - felt dry this morning but I brought them inside, just in case. I've done LLA, recluse - BLL doesn't smoke nearly as much.

That's great news! My son and I have been applying the 45/45/10 in coats that are way too thick. I'm pretty sure that's been the main cause of our excessive smoke.

Over the holidays, Dad showed me some very old (Speer? Sierra?) commercially produced .38 wad cutters and semi wadcutters that had been tumble lubed at the factory. I should take a picture of one and post it, but I digress... the layer of lube on them was thin. Thiiiiiiin. They looked completely unlubed. But if you squeezed them between your fingers very tightly, you could feel the lube, which felt just like 45/45/10. Dad said they were the most accurate wadcutters he'd ever loaded, and never leaded his barrels. I was also amazed at how soft they were... if they weren't straight lead, they were very close to it.

I'm going to try to TL some of my boolits today in an effort to get the resulting film of lube as thin as on the old wadcutters. I had been using one half teaspoon per 250 9mm boolits, and doing two coats. After seeing how thiiiiiiin the layer was on those old cans, I'm gonna do one coat using 1/4 tsp.

[trixter]

I have a question; do any of you warm up the Lee Liquid Alox to a 'watery' consistency and them apply?

[popper]

Still tacky after a day inside. I used a toothpick drop for each boolit, too much? I'll load these tomorrow with unique - supposed to get warm enough to shoot next week - want to see what the alloy does. I thinned the LLA with mineral spirits and only did the coating in the summer when I used the LLA ~5 yrs ago. Just the smell of that stuff sets of my sinuses, BLL doesn't bother me.

[Phlier]

I have a question; do any of you warm up the Lee Liquid Alox to a 'watery' consistency and them apply?

Yes, I warm it til it pours like 2% milk.

Still tacky after a day inside. I used a toothpick drop for each boolit, too much? I'll load these tomorrow with unique - supposed to get warm enough to shoot next week - want to see what the alloy does. I thinned the LLA with mineral spirits and only did the coating in the summer when I used the LLA ~5 yrs ago. Just the smell of that stuff sets of my sinuses, BLL doesn't bother me.

Odd that it's not drying faster.

I let my 45/45/10 boolits dry on aluminum cookie sheets in the garage, with an infrared dish type space heater hitting the underneath of the cookie sheets. The cookie sheets get pretty warm. My boolits are completely dry in an hour.

[shooter bob]

Hello all.I was at ace the other day and got the lundmark floor wax odorless mineral spirits but i did not notice it was "green"mineral spirits.I was a milky color but i made some bll anyway.I just seen onother odorless mineral spirits and it was not the milky color.I have 30 boolits lubed with the "green"mixture.I made new bll with the new mineral spirits. What i need to know is will the "green"mineral spirits have any bad affects on the bore or brass. Thanks Bob

[Cowboy_Dan]

Hello all.I was at ace the other day and got the lundmark floor wax odorless mineral spirits but i did not notice it was "green"mineral spirits.I was a milky color but i made some bll anyway.I just seen onother odorless mineral spirits and it was not the milky color.I have 30 boolits lubed with the "green"mixture.I made new bll with the new mineral spirits. What i need to know is will the "green"mineral spirits have any bad affects on the bore or brass. Thanks Bob

Probably worth a try, and a look at the MSDS. Just be smart and be safe if you try those boolits.

[Phlier]

Just an update for those curious on 45/45/10 vs. BLL...

As others have posted, BLL (using the original Jonhson's formula) is a lot less smokey.

BLL coats, for lack of a better word... differently than 45/45/10 does. Using 45/45/10, I found that around 1/2 teaspoon per 250 9mm boolits was a bit too much. Using 1/2 teaspoon of BLL per 250 9mm boolits results in a whisper thin coating. I think it's because the BLL has more solvent in it per volume measured (in other words, 1/2 teaspoon of 45/45/10 has more solids content to it than 1/2 teaspoon of BLL). The high solvent content of BLL results in a great carrier medium, allowing a very thin and uniform coating to be left behind when the solvents evaporate.

I'm only using one coat for 124gr 9mm boolits thrown at around 1k fps. Perfect results.

I need to spend a few hours casting today, and I'll try to remember to snap a picture of what the coated boolits look like. Hopefully some guys will be able to use it as a gauge as to whether they're using too much or not enough. I think some guys might be a bit surprised to see how little is needed to get good results.

[popper]

That's ~ 1/2 tsp/5# of boolits. I'm using 10-12 toothpick drops (maybe 1/4" dia. puddle) per 1/2# and having consistency problems (too heavy coating?). No M.S. added and a waxy buildup in the bottom of the 3x5" tub. Smell is like Kiwi, not M.S. but flows like coke. What size 'tub' to use for 100-200 boolits? I'd like to do larger batches. I BLL's (first try) some poorly hitek'd 40sw, barrel was nice & shiny after 250 rnds., same as just BLL. seems like some BLL then hitek or PC leaves a cleaner bore. I do have a plastic tsp I'll put 10 drops in to see how much I'm actually using.
Edit: 10 drops is ~ 1/8 tsp, close to what you use. I want 2 coats so I may need to add M.S. so the 'flow' is better.

[GhostHawk]

I have been trying to work up a formula counting drops times ??? Diameter? Weight in grains?

Some work well and I am happy with them. Some get a bit too much and take longer to dry, and some seem like they don't get enough and so I throw them another coat.

I have not found a hard and fast rule that works across all calibers.

30 caliber bullets, if I am doing 100, 12-15 drops in 3 light layers works quite well.

.35's take more, they are fatter.

Quantity matters, total surface area seems to matter.

Little 55 grain .223 boolits I wave the bottle over the top and hope for just a few drops.

Keep using the same container, some of that build up will come off and work into the grooves next batch.

They all shoot, barrels are clean and shiny. It is just that some look barely frosted while others have a hint of color.?

Anyone want to make up a table of boolit surface area on common calibers from .223 to .444?

[popper]

I did a little calc and area is pretty close to weight. Tried some heat today, kinda worked.

[Phlier]

That's ~ 1/2 tsp/5# of boolits. I'm using 10-12 toothpick drops (maybe 1/4" dia. puddle) per 1/2# and having consistency problems (too heavy coating?). No M.S. added and a waxy buildup in the bottom of the 3x5" tub. Smell is like Kiwi, not M.S. but flows like coke. What size 'tub' to use for 100-200 boolits? I'd like to do larger batches. I BLL's (first try) some poorly hitek'd 40sw, barrel was nice & shiny after 250 rnds., same as just BLL. seems like some BLL then hitek or PC leaves a cleaner bore. I do have a plastic tsp I'll put 10 drops in to see how much I'm actually using.
Edit: 10 drops is ~ 1/8 tsp, close to what you use. I want 2 coats so I may need to add M.S. so the 'flow' is better.

So today I went a bit more precise with my measurements. I was guessing that it was about 250 boolits.... One plastic cup completely full. Tonight I weighed it, and the cup was 6 lbs 11 oz, which works out (at an average of 122gr per boolit) to be ~380 boolits. I use exactly 1/2 teaspoon of the original formula BLL. I didn't take a picture of my tumbling tupperware container, but I'll do that and post it tomorrow. I did, however, take a couple of pictures of the boolits after they had been lubed.

I only use one coat of BLL on 9mm. The pictured boolits will be ready to load when they dry.





The coating is completely even. I warm the BLL up first in a pot of warm water. You can just barely see the lube, but you can feel it when they're dry.

Edit: I do wipe out the tumbling tupperware after dumping the boolits out. If I let the residue dry in the container, it causes the next boolits coated to have clumps on them; it never really dissolves correctly, so I wipe it out.