Mica or talc?

[Longwood]

I see that ground soapstone (talc) is very similar to Mica but many times cheaper. Have any of you tried it in place of Mica?
LS

[geargnasher]

For what?

Gear

[Longwood]

Case neck lubing and controlling the sticky when using liquid Allox

[geargnasher]

I lube case necks with Alberto V05 Hair Dressing and control the sticky in LLA by mixing it with JPW and thinning it with a splash of mineral spirits. No need for mica or talc.

I lube the inside/outside of bottleneck brass necks by applying the case mouth to the lube pad giving a light twist, that gets just a trace of the lube on the case mouth and the sizer and expander ball spread it out. I usually collet or bushing-size my necks on the outside only, and don't use a lube for that.

Gear

[RP]

I case lube with VO5 for case lubeing works great, After sizeing you can wipe them down with a cleaner to remove any oils or toss into tumbler to remove.

[geargnasher]

I case lube with VO5 for case lubeing works great, After sizeing you can wipe them down with a cleaner to remove any oils or toss into tumbler to remove.

Spread out your finished cartridges on one half of an old towel, sprinkle with Ed's Red or Goo-Gone, fold the towel over, and "shuffle" your ammo between the layers of towel like you would dominoes. Switch to a clean, dry towel, repeat. Shiny and corrosion-proofed ammo in a few seconds!

Gear

[Longwood]

I case lube with VO5 for case lubeing works great, After sizeing you can wipe them down with a cleaner to remove any oils or toss into tumbler to remove.

I don't care for using liquid lube and a pad if I can get away from it. I use mostly carbide dies but sometimes I load for a friends Nagant and other calibers with cheaper dies so I do occasionally use it or a spray lube.
I just bought a Midway neck lubber that uses mica for a dry lube and am shocked at what people want for an ounce of dirt.
Would Graphite also work fin the neck lubber or does it cause problems.
My thoughts were that mica added right after tumble lubing would not only help prevent sticky but add to the slickness of the liquid allox.
Thanks Folks
LS

[steg]

Mica, talc and graphite are all very abrasive, I'd avoid them all, it's like constantly fire lapping your bores imo.........................steg

[luvtn]

Mica, talc and graphite are all very abrasive, I'd avoid them all, it's like constantly fire lapping your bores imo.........................steg

"Moh's Scale of Relative Hardness":

1: Talc (softest)

2: Gypsum

2½: Fingernail

3: Calcite or Copper Penny

4: Fluorite

5: Fluorapatite

5+: Pocket Knife

5½: Window Glass

6: Microcline

6½: Steel File

7: Quartz

8: Topaz

9: Corundum

9-9½: Carborundum

10: Diamond
Please exlpain how talc, graphite, and micah would be abrasive?
luvtn

[Longwood]

Mica, talc and graphite are all very abrasive, I'd avoid them all, it's like constantly fire lapping your bores imo.........................steg

All of them are used as a lubricant or additive to make stuff like grease, paper, paint and plastics slick so it is plenty slick enough for any barrel I own.
I just bought a Midway neck luber that uses Mica, just thought talc would be way cheaper.
LS

[geargnasher]

I lube case necks with Alberto V05 Hair Dressing and control the sticky in LLA by mixing it with JPW and thinning it with a splash of mineral spirits. No need for mica or talc.

I lube the inside/outside of bottleneck brass necks by applying the case mouth to the lube pad giving a light twist, that gets just a trace of the lube on the case mouth and the sizer and expander ball spread it out. I usually collet or bushing-size my necks on the outside only, and don't use a lube for that.

Gear

Gear

[steg]

Back when I was a machinist we used to machine pressure molds from graphite, and even using a carbide cutting tool, it wold wear out the tool faster than cutting steel, IMO the others would fall into the same catagory

[Longwood]

Back when I was a machinist we used to machine pressure molds from graphite, and even using a carbide cutting tool, it wold wear out the tool faster than cutting steel, IMO the others would fall into the same catagory

The first casting job I ever did was a part for an old lawn tractor and my next job was a set of grips for an old Iver and Johnson pistol. I made that set of molds from a piece of graphite. Fortunately I had access to broken carbide end mills and other tools to do the job with. What a pain!
It was shortly thereafter that I cast my first bullet in some homemade molds I made up for a small cannon I made.

The best polish job I have ever saw in my 50 plus years of working around machine shops, was done using three different grits of polishing compound which was made from diamond dust. As you probably know, it's even harder than powdered graphite powder.
Loren

[x101airborne]

OK, so carborundium powder may not be good for my dies, right? Just want to be sure Im tracking.

[onondaga]

being low on the Moh's scale has nothing to do with how abrasive something is. You can easily scratch your fingernail into a stick of auto body buffing compound. So buffing compound is lower on the Moh's scale than fingernail. Would you use buffing compound for a lubricant? Look at the chemical footprint of talc---
H2Mg3(SiO3)4 or Mg3Si4O10(OH)2. The "Si" stands for silicon, as in sand or glass. Talc is a type of stone and it is used as an abrasive in rock tumbling. It will cut a shine on flint, agate, jasper, quartz and certainly gun barrels

[Bret4207]

Huh. I've been in the habit of dusting my Mule Snot lubed boolits with mica or talc body powders for some time. I've never noticed a difference on bore appearance or wear. Considering the extremely fine nature of the mica, graphite or talc used I wonder just how much wear really occurs. I'm of the opinion that we probably get more wear from errant dust and powder heat and pressure than from talc.

For that matter, our lead alloys certainly contain contaminants of one sort or another, and wear does antimony, a highly abrasive mineral from what I'm told, fit on the MOH scale?

[44man]

Huh. I've been in the habit of dusting my Mule Snot lubed boolits with mica or talc body powders for some time. I've never noticed a difference on bore appearance or wear. Considering the extremely fine nature of the mica, graphite or talc used I wonder just how much wear really occurs. I'm of the opinion that we probably get more wear from errant dust and powder heat and pressure than from talc.

For that matter, our lead alloys certainly contain contaminants of one sort or another, and wear does antimony, a highly abrasive mineral from what I'm told, fit on the MOH scale?

This should be correct, it is grain size. Sandpaper at 80 grit is harsh but the same material at 1200 grit hardly polishes. I have some 2000 grit stuff around here and paper is more abrasive. It was a waste to apply the stuff to paper! Just use the other side.

[roysha]

The negative aspects of this debate are akin to the argument that using aluminum GCs will ultimately damage a barrel because of the aluminum oxide on the GC. NONSENSE!
There is probably more potential of damage from the primer residue, (ground glass) than from mica, talc, graphite, aluminum oxide as it relates to GCs, or any of the other things that get pushed down the bore when shooting and/or cleaning.
I have shot literally tens of thousands of Motor Mica coated bullets from my 629 S&Ws with no noticeable wear to the barrel.

[GLL]

As a geologist for the past 45 years I find much of this discussion most interesting ! As in humorous !

Jerry

[BABore]

Me too

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/pro...sp?number=MICA