Using car engine oil as lub

[pfsantos]

Hi folks
Has anyone tryed car engine oil as bullet lube? I was wondering if a 15w 40 diesel oil mixed with beeswax as base and a thickener like, say, grease or lanolin would do the job. Would it be better sinthetic, semi or mineral?
Car engine oil is available and inexpensive (at least in the quantities needed).

Thanks

[runfiverun]

it don't work.
just b-wax, lithium grease, and lanolin does fine.

[mdi]

I don't have personal experience with the mix you suggest, but in Joe Brennan's book he mentions several lube recipes and "beeswax softened with Marvel Mystery Oil, and/or other oils and/or vaseline and/or Crisco". Also mentioned is "paraffin softened with M.M.O. or other oil, and/or vaseline and/or Crisco and/or Lithium grease or silicone grease from the auto parts store". Several recipes call for mineral oil or hydraulic oil (ATF). I would try Beeswax softened with motor oil, prolly synthetic, jes to see if it works...

[geargnasher]

"works" is relative. Yes, it WORKS, just not very WELL accuracy-wise in my guns.

Gear

[pfsantos]

Thanks for your replies, folks. It was just a thought.
I'm using b wax, liquid vaselin, lithium grease, carnauba, a bit of hidraulic oil and a stick of wax pencil for color. Do you think is ok? I'm firing .30/30 Lee FP 170 gr at about 2000 FPS with BHN of 15 to 18 (mesured with Lee hardeness testing tool). Untill now no visible leading and acuracy at 100 meters is very good.

Thanks

[excess650]

If your lube is yielding good accuracy with no leading, then its good.

As for engine oil in lube, I have a recipe for a blackpowder lube specifically for cartridge guns that works. 7-3-3(by weight) beeswax, anhydrous laonlin, and Mobil 1 15W-40 FULL SYNTHETIC. A similar recipe uses Dexron III ATF in place of the Mobil 1. Yes they both work and yield excellent accuracy and fouling control of blackpowder. The ATF version seems to hold more moiste than the M1 version, so much that only 1 or 2 breaths(from a blowtube) is necessary on really humid days or else accuracy goes away(groups open from TOO MUCH moisture in barrel). Both of these work rather nicely through a lubrisizer with no heat, and are just a bit tacky. They can also be used as a panlube with a cake cutter.

For guys wiping their bores between shots the M1 recipe can be hardened by doubling the beeswax 14-3-3. The guy who used this recipe for years panlubed with it.

[runfiverun]

pfsantos if that hydraulic oil is atf thats fairly similar to the lube i use.

[oldandslow]

pfs, 11/19/11

When I first started smelting and casting about six months ago I experimented with a number of dilutions of JPW (carnuba wax), Alox, Vaseline, candle wax, White Label lube BAC and 50-50. Since I sold my boat a few years ago I have a number of quarts of generic 90weight gear oil sitting around. About six years ago I started lubing all my firearms with it and it has worked great ( I had been using Breakfree CLP but it tended to evaporate off over several months here in the tropics where I live). When mixing my lubes I figured that I should try the gear oil in several dilutions to see if it worked. Finally I arrived at a ratio of 1:1:2 for candle wax, Alox and gear oil. It pan lubes great and dries to a slightly tacky consistency like BAC after 24 hours. It also works in my Lyman 4500 lubrisizer without added heat (room temps here are 80-90 degrees). It is a bit messy in the 4500 sizer so I have settled on pan-lubing. I have tried it in .45 x 230 grain Accurate Mold bullets and 9mm x 135 grain Accurate mold bullets at moderate velocities (800-850 fps for the .45, 1000 fps for the 9mm) with no leading issues so far in 3.5 inch barreled pistols. I still need to test it in longer barrels.

Since I live a long way from the Continental US I needed some type of lube that I could mix up with local ingredients. My next step is to try the mixture without the Alox. It's all a lot of fun. Good luck.

best wishes- oldandslow

[pfsantos]

Hi all,
Yes. Making and experimenting with lubes is fun. Last weekend I made this recipe:
beeswax : 50 grams
Lithium Grease: 40 grames
Hidraulic oil: 1 tablespoon
Solid Vaseline: 1 tablespoon
Lee alox: 1 tablespoon
yellow crayon: 1 stick

First I dissolved the grease and the hidraulic oil, then added the beeswax, vaselin and lee alox. After some time, trying not to surpass 100º C, when i saw the ingredients were well mixed, I shutdown the fire.
When it cooled down, I liked the result: well mixed, tacky and soft (good for winter), but maybe too soft for summer. I use pan lube. Just add more beeswax or parafin to get it harder.

I still didn't shoot it, but I will, and then I post the results

obs: metric system used because I'm from Europe (Portugal)

Good shooting , folks

[3006guns]

I've never made boolit lube using engine oil, but I CAN tell you this.....I was using ordinary 30wt. oil in my machine tools for general lubricating. After all, it's oil, cheap and readily available right? I stopped immediately when I was advised that motor oils contain numerous additives (including clay in some of the cheaper stuff) that are harmful for such a use. Oh, they're great in an automobile engine but not so good for what I was doing. Since some of these additives can promote wear, I drained all of it. I won't chance damaging my lathe and I don't think you'd want to chance damaging a barrel.

The solution was simple....any 20wt or 30wt hydraulic oil is almost identical to the old "machine oils" used years ago. It contains no harmful additives as they would wreak havoc with hydraulic systems, so it's fairly pure. Automatic transmission oil is NOT in the same category however, although it still might be o.k. Any auto or tractor supply shop would probably give you a small sample to play with, and if it works well, you can buy it in quart or gallon sizes......enough to last you a LONG time.

[sqlbullet]

3006guns post brings us back to about what we already knew. ATF and hydraulic oils do make good additives, but motor oil probably not.

I find it makes an OK flux when refining, but not for boolit lube.

[pfsantos]

So much good information.
I can see this is a united comunity. Very nice indeed.
Thanks a lot guys.