Just the facts: Lube recipes

[eljefeoz]

a little umm thicker lube generally does better with the quicker boolit speeds.

a squishy malleable slightly sticky playdough type lube that takes a little heat to flow in a
65-f room and has a little bit of glide when you run your finger over it, seems to be the better all round lube that holds up to velocity rather well over a broad range of temps.

Run,
Am going to post up a vid of my latest creation.
It looks like all that you describe.Now lets hope it performs too...Its just that I had a jar of the shale oil derivative laying around, slippery, black stuff, so, I decided to give it a go.
Cheers

[Socal147]

Equal parts beeswax and Sta-Lube Extreme Pressure Moly-Graph Multi-Purpose Grease. I throw just a little canuba and paraffin in the mix.

Mine turned out too sticky. How much paraffin and carnauba did you add?

[Bogone]

I think cost is factor also, so you would need a new spread with a cost analysis also.

[str8shot426]

Just threw this together and it works for me.

1-16 oz. Cr laurence tube wax lubricant.
2- lyman alox sticks

Melted and mixed. Pan lube boolits.

The tube wax lubricant contains.. white paraffin, multiwax?, tallow and petamber. Per msds sheet. No percentage is given. Just played mad scientist and tried it out and got lucky.

[Bill*B]

Here's a simple lube that I use in my 30-30 carbine.

Take a nice piece of clean yellow beeswax and weigh it. Divide by 3 and weigh out that amount of "LubeGuard Marine 2 stroke oil and Engine Additive" into a paper cup. Then divide the weight of the beeswax by 15, and put this weight of cetyl alcohol into a second cup. That should give you (by weight):

15 parts beeswax
5 parts TCW (two cycle water cooled) oil
1 part cetyl alcohol

Melt the beeswax in a double boiler, sprinkle the cetyl alcohol flakes over it, and then dump in the 2-stroke oil. Stir gently with a wooden dowel - it will look just like motor oil when done. You can then pour it into your lubesizer, or molds. Paper cups are a convenient way to store the excess.

What you have is 2 cycle oil in a beeswax carrier. The cetyl alcohol helped the mix, by acting as a surfactant.

The choice of LubeGuard was deliberate - the maker states that the esters it contains were designed to emulate sperm oil.

You won't need heat to run it in your lubesizer. It isn't attractive, and smells like grease, but the barrel stays clean - so clean that a patch moistened with BreakFree CLP literally squeaks. After a range session (I usually fire 20 to 25 shots) I will clean with a single patch, and then put the little rifle away until next time.

[MaxJon]

Whats a good lube for 2200+ fps out of my 7,62 Nagant?
I have beeswax, petroleum jelly, lithium grease, etc... Thinking of some carnauba wax could be good tho too! ?

[Forgetful]

The 45/45/10 recipe refers to this + LLA + spirits?

[Desertbuck]

I'm playing around with lithi-bee + a dash of LLA.
In my father in laws 91/30 it's working good. A cool unintended side effect is it is making my boolist have a smoke trail

[michiganmike]

Good Evening Gentlemen and Ladies:

I have been looking for a good home recipe for tumble lubing. I've been using the tumble method since I began casting bullets. It works well for me and given that, can't justify the high price of a lube machine. The closest I have come is the 45/45/10 recipe of Joshnon"s Paste Wax, Lee Liquid Alox and mineral spirits.

But from what I have read, the 45/45/10 lube has an upper velocity limit that the Lee Liquid Alox (LLA) does not have. So, I am asking myself, "What advantage is there in creating my own lube?" Life seems a lot simpler if I just use LLA, thinned just a bit with some mineral spirits. I am going to begin purchasing White Label Alox to reduce my cost.

I have read all of the entries in this section.All of the recipes seem to require three basic ingredients a hard wax, a soft grease, and a solvent, such as mineral spirits to attain the right consistency/viscosity/hardness. And a lot of the recipes seem to be fellas trying a little of anything they have handy in their shop or garage.

Two questions:
1. Can anyone recommend a cost effective addition to 45/45/10 recipe that would allow increased velocity (up to 2,000 fps)?
2. Is there a cost limit that one must meet with home made lubes to be cost effective in comparison to commercial lubes?

Thank you. I wish you all well,

MichiganMike

[Forgetful]

Two questions:
1. Can anyone recommend a cost effective addition to 45/45/10 recipe that would allow increased velocity (up to 2,000 fps)?
2. Is there a cost limit that one must meet with home made lubes to be cost effective in comparison to commercial lubes?

1) Carnauba Red
2) It's all inexpensive, in terms of lifetime use.

[Bill*B]

Rolling your own is for hobby obsessed nuts like me. If you value your time, buying a stick of commercial lube is the cost effective way to go.

[RobS]

Red 10:
This is a lube I developed and works nicely at lower pressures as well as at high pressure rifle use. It also works well in cold temps and then again in the hotter days of the summer. Great all around lube I use for 45 Auto, 45 Colt, 454 Casull and a 375 H&H 1:12" twist pushing a 270 grain boolit out to 2300 fps or so.

To measure the waxes I melt them down and use a glass measuring beaker to do so.

Here are the ingredients and instructions:
-6 melted oz. of paraffin wax
-6 melted oz. of beeswax
-2 table spoons of Vaseline
-8 table spoons of Red N’ Tacky Grease
-260 grains of dried grated Ivory soap

Procedure:
1. Melt 6 oz of paraffin wax in measuring beaker
2. Poor melted paraffin into pot add 2 table spoons of Vaseline then heat on hotplate high until it smokes
3. Add 260 grains of dry grated Ivory soap
-poor entire grated ivory soap into pot of paraffin wax/Vaseline
-it will foam a lot so make sure your pot is large enough (mine is 5 1/2" diameter by 2 1/2" deep and barely large enough)
-when all the ivory is melted the mixture will not be frothy/foamy and will look like a jell, yellow/brown in color
4. Take off of heat and blend in 8 table spoons of Red N’ Tacky; doesn't take long just so the mixture looks evenly blended
5. At the same time as #4 put the empty measuring beaker back on the hot plat and put in beeswax
-melt down 6 oz.
6. Poor 6 oz. of melted beeswax into pot and blend lube (pot does not go back on heat)
7. After blended let cool and then reheat to a thick but pourable consistency.

Additional info:
Speaking with some other forum members I went ahead and did more experimenting. I wanted to see how the lube itself held up to heat as well as cold. btroj suggested to do the ball of lube on the dash of the car during the summer however it being winter I did an experiment with my convection oven and my PID unit instead. I also stuck the lube in the freezer for 24 hours to define some more characteristics.

Heat testing:
-Started out at 80 degrees and worked up in 15 minute intervals
-One small pea sized ball of lube and a lubed boolit.

degrees
80 - no noted difference as when put in oven; finger print marks from rolling lube still present, lube in grooves looks the same
90 - no noted difference
100 - no noted difference
110 - lube may have had a bit of shine to it; finger print marks present & ball maintaining shape; lube in grooves; no running of oil
115 - no noted difference
120 - lube slightly shiny; finger print marks present and ball maintaining shape; lube in groves; no running of oils
125 - no noted difference
130 - no noted difference
135 - no noted difference
140 - a bit more shiny; finger print marks not as prominent but still good, ball maintaining shape; lube in grooves; no running of oils
145 - no noted difference
150 - no noted difference
155 - shiny; finger print marks smoothing out but ball maintaining shape; lube still in grooves well; no running of oils
160 - shiny; finger print marks nearly gone; lube ball starting to slump ever so slightly; lube in grooves well; no running of oils
165 - no noted difference
170 - shiny; finger print marks gone; lube starts to melt; lube still in grooves though; no running of oils
175 - not much difference
180 - lube ball continues to melt at a very slow rate but lube stays in lube grooves; no running of oils
185 - lube ball is melted down to not quite half but lube stayed in lube grooves; no running of oils

End of test and 4 1/2 hours later

I allowed the ball of lube and boolit to cool back to room temp and there was no running of oils from the lube. The lube from the grooves never ran down the boolit and to the base. The consistency of the lube stayed the same as before it was put into the oven.

Cold testing: A very simple test but I put a strip of lube 2" wide X 4" long and roughly 3/8th" thick in the freezer for 24 hours and pulled it out. The lube still had flexibility to it in that I could bend it fairly easily which I feel is a good characteristic of a lube meant for colder climate. Also noted there is very little shrinkage with this lube in the cold as I typically put the lube pan in the freezer so I can pop the lube out easier. The lube hardly shrinks in the pan unlike many of the other lubes I've made in the past.

[gunshooter]

I like: 1/3 beeswax
1/3 purple machine grease
1/3 paraffin sealing wax

It gets a bit smeary on 80* F + days. It hardens up a bit on colder days. If I recall correctly, adding the melted wax and beeswax to the room temperature grease lowers the melting point of the grease. I tried to melt the grease but it got over 600 degrees and that is far above the flash point of the wax and paraffin.
It works well for me in a trapdoor spring field and a 45 acp.
I smear in on by hand on each bullet. I think I will try it in a bullet sizer-luber when I find a deal on one. I just keep the lube in glass jars and just scoop a bit out with my finger and roll it on the bullets. It is the consistancy of very firm grease at room temperature.

[Sekatoa]

RobS, does the red 10 require a heater to use in a lubrizer?

[RobS]

RobS, does the red 10 require a heater to use in a lubrizer?

Nope no heater needed, this is a soft lube and flows well.

[geargnasher]

Sticking a link to Ben's Red here, post #2 has a bunch of links related to making it that may come in handy http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...pposed-to-foam

Also, Ben's liquid lube recipe and instructions, looks like good stuff: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-L-Liquid-Lube

Gear

[deadwood pete]

I heard about a DIY brass spray lube for reloading using Ice Heat. Do you know anything about it?
deadwood pete

[MikeBitzenburger]

90% of the alchohol and 10% lanolin or liquid lanolin is the standard recipe for spray lube. Put it in a spray bottle and simply shake well before using.

[Southron]

From 1968 to 1989 I used Crisco as an ingredient in my muzzleloading Rifle-Musket Minie Ball lube (Bees Wax and Crisco.) I shot extensively in the Rapid fire Musket Team matches of the N-SSA (www.n-ssa.org/).

I also experienced a lot of "Cook Offs" during the rapid fire matches over the years. These usually resulted in "singed and burned" fingers. However, in 1990 I completely dropped Crisco from my bullet lube formula and I haven't experienced even one "Cook Off" since then. A good replacement for Crisco is Thompson Center's Bullet Bore lube.

So, while Crisco might be fine as a lube ingredient in the lube for a metallic cartridge breech loader, I would suggest that Crisco be avoided in any bullet lube for any bullet that is used in a muzzle loader.

[Tenbender]