carnuba red

[runfiverun]

a little discovery.
y'all know jow carnuba red has that tacky feeling and is hard to store a bunch all together.
to take that tacky out try a spritz of rubbing alcohol.
i use my case sizing lube on them made from 90% rubbing alcohol mixed 5-1 with lanolin.
i just mist them and roll them over hitting them again.
it takes the tacky out of the carnuba.

[dromia]

Good tip, thank you. :D

[nanuk]

nice little tidbit there.

thanks for that

[BulletFactory]

Where do you get 90% alcohol? Is this good for rifle sizing?

[btroj]

90% alcohol should be found in about any drug store. With the anhydrous lanolin mixed in it is an excellent sizing lube.

[runfiverun]

walmart pharmacy.
the regular don't work so well for me, the 90% does much better.
i melt the anhydrous lanolin and pour and shake..
i have also added about 20% castor oil to the lanolin to use as a swage/case forming lube.
makes pretty good lip balm too.

[GabbyM]

Find pure alcohol in the paint department. Comes in the quart tin cans. Rectangular shaped ones. Right next to it you'll see acetone and mineral spirits which are two of the ingredients in making Ed's Red bore cleaner.

Great tip runfiverun. Will give that a try.

[randyrat]

VERY NICE! It works with any bullet lube that has Carnauba wax in it. I've been playing with this but didn't realize alcohol would create a hard crust. I was playing with ice water, hot water among other stupid things. If I would have just read up a little Carnauba wax is made up of 12% of fatty acid alcohols

RUNFIVERUN gets a Christmas bonus next year. A wheelbarrow full of lube grooves delivered to his doorstep- free shipping delivered by a fat singing Norwegian maiden. ( a skinny one can't cook!)

[GLL]

If it is 90% and from Walmart it is probably isopropyl. Inexpensive !

Jerry

[BossHoss]

Carnuba Red + Icky Sticky and clean barrel. Gums up the press, gets stuck on everything,

but.........clean barrel.

After reading about CR here on CB , I lept and bought a box full, only to find out that it is real mess maker.

If this method is going to put a "crust" on the lube...will that (I would bet on it) change the lube's characteristics? ...AKA ...not lubing as well, caking, gunking, ...etc.

I can try this on some sticky icky 44's I lubed with CR....I bet tumble lubed boolits are as sticky.

I switched to Blue Angel , it is harder to apply, more finicky in the settings on the star, because CR was just a mess.....but clean barrel.

If BA doesn't keep the barrel clean....I might just have to get used to cleaning up red gunk in the press and everything that touches the boolits...my fingers, the sizer, the boxes...etc.

[runfiverun]

that's what lead to the trying the alcohol and lanolin.
i figured it was the alcohol reacting with the cetyl alcohols in the beeswax, not the fats in the carnuba.
i was trying it with my homemade lube first. and thought about it when i got the heat a bit too high on the star.
it so far is seeming to act on the outside of the lube ring, might be from the misting and not soaking it.

[runfiverun]

heck i can cook... send one that don't mind operating a star lubesizer.
if she can sing thats a bonus.

[BossHoss]

Heck no, I am NOT wiping down just lubed boolits....it is just not worth the trouble.

When my shooting buddy tells me "Man , those Red boolits gummed up my seating die, gunked my micrometer, stickified my fingers, and everything I touched after that......"

I said "remember what the barrel looked like?" .....

""Ain't worth it if it makes a mess....."" I ALMOST tend to agree...but,


Next lube , please.... sorry C R ......(cue loud buzzer sound), your done.
Can't have my budd P.O. ed at me for gunking up the works.

[btroj]

I never found CR to be a sticky mess. It certainly didn't gunk up my dies or press.

I find that with ANY cast bullet I need to take the seater apart every 1000 rounds or so for a good cleaning.

CR did leave my barrel clean and shiny. Shot well too.

I went away from CR because it gave cold barrel flyers at temps much below 50 degrees.

I find the alcohol treatment interesting. It sure sounds simple, cheap, and effective.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Bosshoss,
I've only applied CR in a Lyman 45.
as long as the boolit was larger enough to be sized,
and the sizer was adjusted properly,
and I didn't apply too much heat,
The CR is less sticky/messy than all the other soft lubes I use.
which includes Tamarack (NRA 50/50),BAC,speed green,Lotak, Randyrat's TAK #1,lithbee,Glenhills green, and two of my our recipes which are similar to speed green.
BTW the #2 least sticky/messy is Glenhills green.

One thing I do... is handle them very carefully after they come out of the lubesizer,
and line them up on tagboard (see photo in this link), http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=140454
even the stickiest lubed boolits develope a dry skin after a day of sitting.
making loading/seating as clean as J-words, if you've expanded and belled
the case mouth correctly.
Piling them in a container is just a recipe for a mess, as you have found.
Jon

[BossHoss]

Yup, filling a box up with the Star, sticky mess. And sticky mess continues during and after loading...gum city.

If I have to handle each one with kid gloves after sizing......(cue loud buzzer sound).

I like what the barrel looked like and may do small runs of 44's for my own shooting, but only if I can't find a lube that makes the barrel as shiny, AND doesn't get all over everything a lubed boolit touches.

NRA 50/50 was great, when I wanted to messy smelly, smoky. Clean barrel ...with caveats.

New loads testing tonite , diff lubes, boolits, and powders....then ELK Stew for dinner with the crew.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

If I have to handle each one with kid gloves after sizing......(cue loud buzzer sound).

I like what the barrel looked like and may do small runs of 44's for my own shooting

yeah, if you need to produce high quantities of boolits for yourself and others, I suspect a soft lube isn't the best choice.
Jon

[geargnasher]

heck i can cook... send one that don't mind operating a star lubesizer.
if she can sing thats a bonus.

.....and the less English she speaks the better!

Gear

[btroj]

I ran many 1000 pistol bullets thru my Star. Yeah, bullets got a little lube on them here and there. Some lost a little from a lube groove here and there.

Pistols never seemed to notice. It got on my seater a bit but so does any lube. Easy to clean off.

I hardy consider CR a soft lube. Maybe a med hard one? Felix lube is softer but I never cared about it either, it worked too well.

My hands and dies clean up easily. Why sweat the little details?

[Dale53]

I have lubed tens of thousands of bullets with Carnauba Red. I get no mess...

I use just enough heat (I have a Star luber) to get it to flow well - no more!

I box mine as I size:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj80/Dale53/BulletBoxes-3722.jpg

It skins over when sitting and there is no mess whatsoever.

Dale53

[BossHoss]

yeah, if you need to produce high quantities of boolits for yourself and others, I suspect a soft lube isn't the best choice.
Jon


You nailed it , Jon.

I like CR for the shiny barrel, and will probably do MY large slows with it, I don't mind a little clean up.

But, for mass sizing and boxing, I have to go harder.

At 1.65 a stick it is hard to beat.

[Ben]

Dale,

Those are some fine looking bullets you've got there. My compliments .
I also like your storage containers. Top shelf all the way.

Ben

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I hardy consider CR a soft lube. Maybe a med hard one?

Even thought I kind of insinuated CR is soft, I agree with you that's it's somewhere in the middle. I was just trying to differenciate all the softer lubes I use from a Hard commercial type lube. What I think is great about CR, is once applied and develops a "skin" it handles every bit as good as a hard lube...well Actually better, if it gets some age and is rough handled, it won't "break" and fall out of the grooves.
Jon