Pardon the Ignorant Question

[Dickenscpa]

I have a plethora of peanut oil (about 8 gal) and easy access to beeswax and Ivory soap. Planning to make a batch of lube using the 50/50 recipe of BW and peanut oil with some slivers of soap.

If I cut out a block of BW weighing 8oz, say. I use 8 fl oz of peanut oil? Or put an empty container on my scale, calibrate to 0 and pour peanut oil in it until it actually weighs 8oz?

I tried to do a search but mostly came up with threads saying their lube came out like peanut butter when I searched "peanut." LOL!

Brad

[willie_pete]

I do it by weight and it works fine.

WP

[geargnasher]

I made a batch using those three ingredients once, it worked pretty well but IIRC it took a lot less peanut oil than that. You'll have to play with it to get the consistency right. I'd start out by using about five tablespoons of peanut oil and see if you can get about two tablespoons of grated Ivory soap to dissolve in it, it will take a lot of time + heat (near smoke point of the oil) to get it to melt in completely. Reduce the heat and melt your wax in very slowly, you don't want to scorch the beeswax.

If it's too hard after a few days, remelt it and add some more peanut oil. One thing I discovered about this mix is that it got softer over time, as in months, but it worked great for a pistol lube and smelled like roasted peanuts when fired. This side effect can give you the munchies at the range!

Gear

[Dickenscpa]

Thank you guys so much for the responses. Those little bottles of Lee allox don't last long and I have all this peanut oil. My wife buys a lot of beeswax and paraffin for some contraption she dips her feet and hands in. Plus I make my own homemade shave soap and I have this stuff already.

Brad

[selmerfan]

Love me some peanut oil for frying up bluegills!

[randyrat]

Just to let you know,I do carry Stearic acid..It melts a lot easier than Ivory soap and a pound is only $5 + shipping..It's made into very small beads and is handy as can be.. I've melted/ desolved soap it is a pain in the neck. You can order as little as a few ounces if need be.

I don't recall but Ivory only has about 10-15% stearic acid right?

[wiljen]

Ivory is actually sodium stearate instead of stearic acid. It runs about 65-70%.

[220swiftfn]

Usually a beeswax/oil mix is by volume (AKA 50/50 beeswax olive oil for BP) I usually use canning jars and melt the beeswax first, then add the oil to it..... Recipies such as Bullshop's Speed Green go by weight, but they usually specify what their using......


Dan

[geargnasher]

+1 Randyrat. If you use the stearic acid you can melt the whole concoction together at about 175 degrees, which is lots better for the oil. If you get some stearic acid from Randyrat, go ahead and get some pure carnauba wax flakes too, you might want to add a spoonful to your lube to give it some more firmness, and it helps leave a shiny bore.

Gear

[Dickenscpa]

The thought never crossed my mind to melt the beeswax first to get oz in volume. I consider myself a bright fellow with common sense to boot, however when talking to others they can always bring up something that you never thought of.

Thanks again

Brad

[FirstBrit]

Just to let you know,I do carry Stearic acid..It melts a lot easier than Ivory soap and a pound is only $5 + shipping..It's made into very small beads and is handy as can be.. I've melted/ desolved soap it is a pain in the neck. You can order as little as a few ounces if need be.

I don't recall but Ivory only has about 10-15% stearic acid right?

Stearic acid behaves completely different in bullet lubes formulae than sodium stearate! If you want to work with stearic acid you will need to saponify it first with sodium hyroxide. ( stearic acid/sodium hydroxide/water at 180-190°C for 60 mins. with stirring.)

Ivory soap might in fact just contain 15% of sodium stearate. If it was made from from 100 % sodium stearate it wouldn't foam up so easily. Ivory uses a various mixture of vegatable oils and animal fats which contain a whole spectrum of fatty acids, hence the final product is mixture of sodium soaps ( laurate C-12; myristate C-14; palmitate C-16 and stearate C-18 and others). But IMHO it is the soap ( i.e. neutralised fatty acid)which is the important thing for our bullet lubes and not so much as whether it is pure stearate or not. The other soap entities work just as well.

Maybe you should check out your spec. sheet of your stearic acid since if it is 100% pure it is quite expensive to manufacture. More often than not a special blend of stearic and palmitic acids are sold at a more reasonable price.

Best regards,

Adrian - Germany.

[bigdaddy0826]

Murphy's oil soap seems to work well for me in my mixture and adds a distinctive smell to the lube. My BP lube has proven to be very good so far. I use beeswax , mineral oil, bacon lard, crisco and the afore mentioned Murphy's in varing amounts depending on how I'm using the lube. A little softer for patch lube, a little harder for pan lube. I've found little benefit to the use of crayons.

[Hang Fire]

I do the melt thingy to measure out my lube. 8 0z each of beeswax and coconut butter, with one table spoon of Mobil 1 oil. The hydrogenated coconut butter is the cat's meow in a hot weather lube, it may get softer at 125 degrees, but never separates from the BW or breaks down and melts. Lou Ann made it for popcorn, but it does double duty in a lube.

Have found it to be a great easy formula BP and smokeless lube.

[geargnasher]

If I got ahold of some of that coconut butter I doubt it would make it past the old pressure cooker in the kitchen that's used around here for scratch popcorn. There's absolutely nothing better for popcorn than coconut grease, and probably nothing worse for one's arteries, but heck you only live once, right?

Gear

[Hang Fire]

The problem with the coconut butter is it is hydrogenated.

Get the pure coconut oil, it is one of the healthest cooking oils there is. Pure coconut oil will remain unspoiled for years at ambient temperature.

https://www.google.com/#pq=workmate+shooting+bench&hl=en&sugexp=pfwl&cp=30&gs_id=2o&xhr=t&q=health+benefits+of+pure+coconut+oil&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&pbx=1&oq=health+benefits+of+pure+coconi&aq=0l&aqi=g-l1g-lv1&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=698494dcdd785fc5&biw=960&bih=465

[geargnasher]

Thanks, Hang Fire, it didn't occur to me to get the pure stuff, for some reason the theater stuff is like Crisco, bombarded with hydrogen until it's buttery and thick. I always figured it was hydrogenated for preservation like margerine, but if it keeps in its natural state then that's the way to go for home use.

Gear

[garym1a2]

I like the ideal of a bullet lube that smells like food.

[Hang Fire]

Fully hydrogenating of coconut oil also raises the melting point of the resulting butter, which remains firm. At higher heat where dairy butter and margarine would melt, has no effect on hyrogenated coconut butter.