Bee's Wax, White, Yellow and Dark: Performance

[StarMetal]

Dan,

I hear ya pardner. I'd rather it stay on the bullet too.

I bought some beeswax from a honey farm here in TN and I also got some from the fellow in Nevada. They are both the same color, light yelllow, but the one from TN smells different, smells like when you spit on a red hot iron, you men know what I'm talking about. The Nevada stuff doesn't have much of an odor. Now I did make some lube, 50/50 beeswax/alox. The alox come from from a fellow on the forum here and he lives in TN also. The stuff smells just like Javenlina and I just started using it.

Joe

[Bullshop]

Guys:

The "natural glue" Bullshop's contact mentioned is called "propolis"; it was used in making up specialty varnishes, and I read somewhere that it is thought to be the "secret" ingredient that made the Stradivarius violins sound so special.

floodgate

floodgate
There ya go propolis thats it! Makes sweet sweet music on my boolits too!
BIC/BS

[StarMetal]

Dan,

Kinda like Apropolis Now

Joe

[targetshootr]

Today I mixed natural beeswax 50-50 with the soft lube sticks that were too messy and it worked pretty well. I nuked it in the microwave along with some candle dye and poured it back into the cardboard tubes it came in and let it cool. It's not as hard as Magma lube but it's not all over eveything it touches anymore.

But even though it came out uniform in color it leaves streaks when it goes on boolits. Not a problemo, just odd.

[fivegunner]

I like reading about making bullet lubes, I was a Beekeeper for 15 years got up to about 100 hives,I did some pollination (very hard work) did it just for fun (I thought I was going to get rich) it`s a lot of work and you get stung alot. my first year I got 1100 LBs of honey. when the bee`s make wax it is pure white ,they reuse the combs over and over for honey and brood (young bees) Now Propolis is what the bees use to glue every thing togather in the hive they get it from trees, it is mostly tree sap, its very hard . combs gets darker every year. brood combs get the darkest . when you boil water with bees wax in it a lot of the dirt and pollen come out and then when it cools most of the junk go`s to the bottom of the tank or pot. and you have cleaner wax on top of the water . some beekeepers put Hydrogen Peroxide to bleach out the wax (works very well) the pale yellow wax is from the cappings, the top part of the wax that you cut off with a (hot knife) from a frame of honey. this wax is the most wanted and the best money maker. the darker wax comes from the brood combs. theres a lot more about this than I can write here, I am thinking about geting some alox and making a batch of 50/50 as I have about 25 lbs of bees wax left. anybody know where to buy some? thanks for puting up with me. Frank

[Hip's Ax]

I bought a quart of Alox 350 from Lar45 but he's under the weather right now and he's behind on shipping.

[lar45]

Hi all, I'm still kicking along here. A bit slower than normal, but still moveing.
I have around 25-30 gallons of Alox 350 That I'd be more than happy to share. Home depot has some clean new paint style cans in 1 quart and 1 gallon. I've filled several of the quart cans and sent out. I can fit around 1.9-2# of Alox in the quart can and sell for $9.32 + shipping. If anyone wants some you can email me at idahobronco@aol.com . I may need a couple of reminders though.
I read somewhere that the old Alox 2138F had more wax in it then today's Alox 350. A 50-50 mix seems to be softer than Javalina, so I add abit more beeswax until the consistency is right.
I've mixed and shot up to 4:1 wax: Alox, and it seemed to shoot about the same as 50-50.

I bought the last 2000# of surplus beeswax from Bob in Nevada. When I peeled the top layers off, then the inside was a very light color, almost a neon yellow. If it sits out in the sun it will turn darker from oxidation.
I am useing this wax in my lubes and they seem to be shooting pretty good. So mix it and use it.

http://www.texasdrone.com/ When I run out of Bob's wax, I'll be buying my beeswax here. It looks like about the best price I've seen on quality wax.

There was a thread somewhere here about the 2000 lbs of beeswax on ebay. I talked with the guy selling it. He said that they couldn't use it as it has some parraffin in it. I tried to find out, but he either didn't know or wasn't saying. He sent me a sample slab. It is much harder than Bob's surplus wax. It is still pliable at room temp, but very stiff and not as tacky as the Bob wax. The surplus Bob wax is fairly soft at room temp. If I get some time, I'll probably mix a small batch of 50-50 and shoot it next to my 50-50 with Bob's wax.

If bleaching removes the natural glue in the wax, then I would think that would be detrimental to the lube. I like mine to be sticky and stay on the bullet.

I think that Dan at mountianmolds had a good thought on lube needing to seal the bore to not allow blowby which might cut the bullet or leave lead residue in the bore.
If the beeswax is left with the natural glue in it, then the lube should be tougher and stay together helping to create the seal in the bore.

That's why I don't like parraffin in lubes, it's not pliable and doesn't want to stick together very well.

Sorry about the book, looks like I'm starting to ramble on here.

take care.
Glenn.

again, e-mail if you want some Alox 350 to play with.

[Springfield]

I bought 50 pounds from the guy in Nevada and I have been using it in the Big Lube(tm) bullets I sell on e-bay. Seems to work the same as the pure beeswax I was using before. Should have bought 100 pounds of it. Feels and works like regular beeswax, just a different smell.

[buck1]

Heres a tip I got from a bee keeper.
Buy those cheepo womens knee high stockings at wall mart. 2 for a quarter or something .
Put chunks of dirty bees wax inside them and tie them off in a knot. Then drop them in to hot NEAR but not boiling water. let the wax melt, remove the stockings and let cool. It worked good too. ....Buck