Lube help in process

[DK1911]

Gents:

I'm working my first boolits and Lube.

I cast yesterday with an H&G 68 Knockoff .45 200gr SWC.
Used gun shop Lead ingots with unknown pedigree (soft to fingernail).
Boolits came out great at .455 but a bit frosty.

I'm pan Lubing. I'm trying an "All Natural" lube.
I'm going for 800-900 fps.

Base:
1/2 Lb (nominal) Beeswax from local beestore.
2 oz Natural Castor oil from local Granola grocery.
2 oz Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
1 Tsp Anhydrous Lanolin.
1/2 Crayola "Teal Blue".

Melted together in double boiler, lubed about 50 in a pie tin and let set overnight.
Cookie cuttered them out and sized .452".

All looks good, but, the lube seems soft and sticky. Put them in the freezer to see if that would give them a "set".

"Surface" hardness in the pan seems to be what I want.
once you break the surface is when is seems a bit soft and sticky.
This mix makes a great lip balm, melts into you hands when you rub it in, more "All Natural" than I see in the drug store for this stuff .

I decided to run another batch of about 50 rounds.
I remelded over a double boiler and added 1 oz parafin to about 4 oz of the base to try to harden the lube.

Questions:
Is this kind of the "normal" process?
Is there anything in there that will cause problems with the propellant charge?

Thanks

DK

[.22-10-45]

Hello, DK1911..Be careful!!...bullet lube concocting can become as addictive as bullet casting..or mould collecting! Your kind of heavy in the oil dept. For my rifles, I too use a beeswax base, plus anhydrous lanolin, & castor oil..I usually don't go over 10-15% on the oil.
Too much oil & over time..especially if exposed to hot weather, can cause 'sweating" out of oil on surface..bad for powder & primer. Best of luck in your new-found hobby!

[stubshaft]

Looks more like a BP lube to me rather than one for smokeless. If you clean the base of the boolit you should have no problems with contamination. As far as being normal I would say no, usually when I cook up a batch of lube like Felix I expect it to be a certain consistency with 50/50 being about as soft as I want in a smokeless load. Some of the threads will give you an idea of the consistency of a lube and after a while cooking them up you can usually tell what it will come out like by the ingredients.

IIRC - Castor oil will not homogenize with beeswax unless polymerized. The lanolin component is to make it sticky enough to stay in the grooves and "grip" the boolit and freezing any lube will not make it set better.

[runfiverun]

you don't need the olive oil.
that's whats causing your problems.
often an oil will continue to make a lube softer and softer.
if you mix the castor oil and lanolin one to one and only use the lanolin amount for your measure it'll work better for you.
castor oil can bleed out of a lube without the [proper] polymerization with mineral oil, and the stearate binder is to help insure it stays there.
the addition of parrafin will stiffen up your lube but it might turn from mushy to crumbly.

lube has a few necessary parts of the equasion.
a carrier.
a lube.
a binder [may or may not be needed and can be a lube also]
and a modifier [viscosity,flexibility,stickyness]
sometimes the modifier does more than one thing also.

a bunch of slippery and a carrier rarely works properly, it often don't stay where you want it and generally causes accuracy issues.
a good lube has a balance because it does more than one thing.

[miestro_jerry]

You need to add some Alox 350 to your mix, yes this can be additive. So I made 30 pounds up one weekend and have been shooting it every since, that batch should last me another 3 to 5 years.

I can get my CBs up to about 2,500 fps with my home brewed lube. Any faster than that the bullets have problems.

Good Luck with your formula,

Jerry

[DK1911]

Thanks Folks:

After a night in the freezer and a thaw, looks like I have a pan of natural and organic lip balm that will eventully give me blue lips. Too soft in the groove. It sticks nice but wipes right out.

I think I'll risk the wrath of "she who must be obeyed" and smoke up the kitchen with a batch of felix. Go with something with a good track record. Thanks for the advice.

Avis la Fin

DK

[DK1911]

Allright guys... I'm torn.

I'm no too confident (inexperience) in the consistency of the lube. Its "surface hard" in the pan, but, alot like lip balm after a little mechanical working. I decided to load up 50 each of my new cast boolits in the original lube and 50 more with lube stiffened with a couple ounces of parafin. I shot them Sunday and they worked great! No leading, nice polished bore that the powder residue cleaned out of with a quick pass with hoppe's. I cleaned the 1911 barrel between tests and both lubes tore 1 (5 shot) ragged hole in the target at 15 yds off a bag. This is pretty much what I was looking for as a start. Am I missing something or did I get lucky and am at the fine tuning of what I'm looking for?

I backed off about .2 gr on the charge for the larger bullet dia (.452 vs .451) and did see a small amount of unburned powder residue. I'm a little concerned about sweating lube (olive and castor oil) into the powder, should I be? I backed off about .2 gr on the charge for the larger bullet dia (.452 vs .451) and did see a small amount of unburned powder residue.

I have smelting as my next step. 300 Lbs of lead will let me inventory 10k rounds for future use. Don't want the lot to go bad from lube contamination.

DK

[runfiverun]

you are on track what you need to watch is the lube over time.
the sweating and softening can happen.
will it squeeze down between the boolit and the case?
doubt it.
will it get softer...yep.
will it work in the higher temps of summer....most likely, but remember it can be modified as you go.
but going super soft can lead to other issues like making a mess of the gun. [and jamming]
i like my lubes to soften up and flow with some heat and pressure,it's just finding the balance between right and too much.