Just a quick question you've probably answered 1,000 times.

[Arkansas Paul]

Hey guys, you've probably heard countless questions of this nature, but I searched and didn't find the exact answer.

I cast for .38 Spcl/.357 magnum and .45 Colt and just yesterday purchased my first .44 magnum, a 4 5/8" Super Blackhawk so I'll be adding .44 Spcl/.44 magnum to the list.

I'm going to start making my own lube and pan lubing. I've pan lubed a little bit with lube I've been given, and like it, so I'm going that route for good.

I would like a lube that will cover everything from light plinking .38 Spcl to full throttle .44 magnum.

My question is this. Is the old standby of 1 lb beeswax, 1 lb paraffin, and 1 lb Vaseline sufficient for the entire range of loads I want it to do?

I'm not interested in making a lube with 8-10 ingredients. I'd like to keep it simple, and these 3 ingredients are readily available.

So that's it, will this work well for all of my needs?

Thanks.

[centershot]

Well, for everything from target wadcutters to full-house 44 magnum I settled on NRA 50-50 lube a LONG time ago! It hasn't let me down yet! I think the lube you are asking about is going to come up short at magnum velocities and pressures.

[dragon813gt]

To the OP, I can't help either besides suggesting you buy from White Label Lubes. Their lines work and you will save yourself a lot of aggravation and money.

[Minerat]

I'm using a 50\50 molly bee lube but it is stinky and messy to make. I use it on my 454 casull to .223, But really like it on my 357, 41, 44 & 45 colt. There is a thread on the molly\bee that will tell you more. I pan lube it too. It is sticky so I usually coat my bollits it with BLL too. White Label Lubs are attractive too.

[Biggin]

White label lube all the way!!

[john.k]

Why dont you get a lubrisizer of some kind?......they are not dear on ebay,and you might get the right size accs with it, as well.Pan lubing is a PITA,unless you like fiddling around endlessly.You can also use moly lubes without mess in a lubrisizer.

[Biggin]

You will to call him first but if you are close enough Lars will accept visitors!!!

[Rcmaveric]

The 1/3 bee's wax, paraffin, and vasaline isn't bad. Will work just fine in low pressure/velocity rounds. I don't like a lot of paraffin in my lube and add just enough to stiffin it up if i do use it. If you use a simple home made Kake cutter you can use any lube you want regardless of stiffness. Stiffer isn't better when it comes to lubes. 50/50 Bee wax and vasaline with about 10% paraffin added worked just fine for me for about a year in 9mm pan lubing. I switched to Rivers Simple lube and lubersizer since then. Works good in about anything and is only a few ingredients and easy to tweak to suite a purpose. I would lean towards 2-5% carnauba wax to stiffen the lube now a days enstead of paraffin and it would polish up your bore nicely. You could also just use own of those candle wax melter thingy's that melt the smelly good wax that woman/wifes love to liquefy your lube then dip the bullets and place them on a sheet of wax paper to cool.

I here good things about the Molly lubes, never tried them though. But if Fryxel recommends it and talks about it then i would listen and recommend it. Its a supper simple lube.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Hey guys, you've probably heard countless questions of this nature, but I searched and didn't find the exact answer.

I cast for .38 Spcl/.357 magnum and .45 Colt and just yesterday purchased my first .44 magnum, a 4 5/8" Super Blackhawk so I'll be adding .44 Spcl/.44 magnum to the list.

I'm going to start making my own lube and pan lubing. I've pan lubed a little bit with lube I've been given, and like it, so I'm going that route for good.

I would like a lube that will cover everything from light plinking .38 Spcl to full throttle .44 magnum.

My question is this. Is the old standby of 1 lb beeswax, 1 lb paraffin, and 1 lb Vaseline sufficient for the entire range of loads I want it to do?

I'm not interested in making a lube with 8-10 ingredients. I'd like to keep it simple, and these 3 ingredients are readily available.

So that's it, will this work well for all of my needs?

Thanks.

If I were gonna use the old NRA recipe: 1/3 beeswax, 1/3 paraffin, 1/3 Vaseline.
I would add some soap, like 357maximum did in his "Satan's Lube".
It will easily handle full power 44mag loads and beyond.

see post #5 for recipe
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...=1#post2653932

While the recipe mentions Dry Ivory soap, You can use fresh (non dried) Ivory soap, it will foam up a little more during cooking, due to the moisture that needs to cook-off, just make sure to use a kettle that is about 5 times the size of the total volume of the lube.

[dverna]

To the OP, I can't help either besides suggesting you buy from White Label Lubes. Their lines work and you will save yourself a lot of aggravation and money.

Have to agree. There is no advantage to making lube for your needs....unless you do it for fun.

You may find BLL to be significantly faster and easier to use.

[runfiverun]

yes it is.

[Arkansas Paul]

Thanks for the replies guys.
I appreciate it.

[gwpercle]

Instead of Vaseline , use some Lithium grease , like Lucas Red-N-Tacky, in the same 1/3 proportion. The Lithium works better at higher magnum and rifle velocities ...at least for me. I've never had leading problems with this type lube.
Gary

[Harter66]

18oz paraffin canning wax
14oz cheap petroleum jelly
3 tblsp STP engine oil treatment

My tweek on Darrs lube .

Heat to clear , stir and cool , mould or pour in your pan .
This one will take all the excitement you can hit it with in most cases.

[303Guy]

Something to consider is air tool/air line lubricant in place of the petroleum jelly (may need some beeswax to get back to Harter66's suggestion). STP has stick and slick written all over it and air tool lube is a special needs lube with anti-corrosion properties. Together they seem to work quite well. Consider that air tool lube needs to provide lubrication and rust protection under harsh conditions and in very small quantities. Just a thought (since you want to do this for fun, which is the whole idea of what we do anyway).

Hey, it may be a complete disaster but I need someone to try it out for me.

What I have done is mix machining and tapping lube with candle wax and air tool lube to make a soft paste for tapping and it seems to perform rather well. I've also mixed air tool lube with STP (my favourite) at about 10% to use a bore cleaner and protector. It's slick, that I can say. I'll be doing a corrosion prevention test with it soon, coupled with a lube test (when my neighbors are out so they can't hear me firing into my test tube).

[geargnasher]

No one has mentioned the most important considerations for lube selection: Storage and operating temperatures. Pick your lube based on that, because anything will work for the calibers listed. Those with less or no tacky grease in them pain lube a lot easier.

BTW, I'd use BLL or start powder coating long before I ever considered pain lubing again.

Gear

[RED BEAR]

I guess I am just cheap I see the price for a stick of lube and I cringe . I bought a lot of my ingredients from a salvage store the paraffin was 50 cent a pound have had memory problems and didn't write it down so I have no idea what is in it. Wish I did. But at least I did make more than 50 pounds. Enough for my life time I hope. I used to think pan lubing was OK and cheap but after blowing the dust off my wallet and buying a rcbs lube a matic I can't believe I pan !ubed for so long. I had to refill my luber twice today could not imagine buying those 3 to 6 dollar lube sticks. I will admit I have started shooting a lot since have range about 3 miles away. Not working any more it gives me something to do and keeps me out of wife's hair. Well I've started to wonder. Who really should make some of the lubes on this site.

[mdi]

There's about 10,000 recipes for home made lube that works and there are a bunch of stickies on the subject. I have tried, successfully a few simple lubes; bees wax softened with Marvel's Mystery Oil, my version of Speed green; bees wax and 2 cycle motor oil, 3-1 by volume and 50-50 beeswax and alox to name a few.

I've been casting for mebbe 16-17 years and still don't have a lubersizer. I pan lube, dip lube and PC my bullets and don't need the extra expense of dies (about $30.00) and nose punches (about $12.00) for each caliber/bullet and "slow" and "fiddling" is relative; I like all aspects of making my own bullets...

[GhostHawk]

Another vote for BLL here. Cept I like to run mine with 1% Carnuba wax melted into the mix for clean shiny bores.

Personally I found pan lubing and cake cutting a messy pain in the posterior.

Hit BLL early hit the ground running and never looked back.

No equipment needed, easy to make, easy to use, and I often load boolits within an hour of casting them.

[kbstenberg]

BLL with either 2/3 coats.