flake carnauba wax for 45-45-10

[Trifocals]

Not wanting to render down a can of JPW to make 45-45-10 lube, I purchased a 1# bag of flake carnauba wax to melt and use instead of the JPW. Can anyone suggest how much melted flake carnauba to add to 4oz of Alox/Xlox to equal the rendered down JPW? I also am curious to hear how fast 45-45-10 coated boolits have been driven without leading.

[geargnasher]

There's a lot more to JPW than Carnauba. Check the MSDS but I think it's mostly solvents and paraffin wax, with something like 5-10% carnauba. You can try beeswax or paraffin wax softened with a little Vaseline plus a little carnauba to substitute, so it would be something like 45% Liquid Alox, 25% beeswax/paraffin wax, 15% Vaseline, 5% Carnauba, and 10% petroleum mineral spirits (NOT the milky fake "paint thinner" stuff that's low-volatility).

Give it a whirl, as long as it dries, should work ok. I'd still melt everything except the mineral spirits together in a double boiler for 5-10 minutes while stirring to make sure it all gets homogenized, then let it cool to about body temperature and add your mineral spirits until it's about like 30-weight engine oil, might take more than 10% to do that, and it's fine if it does, the MS is only to adjust the viscosity so you can get the right thickness of coating on the boolits.

Gear

[utk]

The MSDS says:

Isoparaffinic hydrocarbon
solvent CAS 64742-88-7.......75-85 weight %
Paraffin Wax 8002-74-2........10-30
Carnauba Wax 8015-86-9......5-10

I melted 5 grams of Carnauba in a double boiler, added 15 grams of Paraffin. When all melted, I finally added 50 milliliters of Aliphatic Naphta (Odorless Mineral Spirits).
It cooled down to a paste like substance, approximately 60-65 ml in volume.

I've never seen nor used the real product so I didn't know what to expect but it "looked OK".

Using my version of the wax, I would start with the same amounts of carnauba and paraffin wax but instead of the aliphatic naphta, I would use 60-65 ml of LLA. And add some aliphatic naphta if too thick.

[utk]

Now I've done my first experiment:

When the carnauba (5g) and paraffin (15g) had melted I opened one of my little Lee LLA bottles only to find that it was more of a paste than liquid. (No wonder, really, as they have been sitting for some ten years or so). Had some problems getting it out of the bottle.

Anyways, I weighed the LLA paste to be 40 grams.
Then I put five boolits in a small plastic bag and added a few drops of the still warm lube. Trying to spread the lube on the boolits (Lee TL358-158-SWC) but it almost immediately "coagulated" giving a very uneven coating.

So, I added 10 ml of aliphatic naphta with the intention of getting a liquid lube when it cools down to room temperature.

The experiment is progressing. And the first five test boolits are not sticky at all, possibly a slight oily feeling.

Looks promising, all in all...

I will give this lube to a friend who tumble lubes, he will be a better judge than I am.

[Wingnutt]

Trifocals

I posted what might be your answer on this link, #508

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=67654&page=26


I call this a fortified LLA, that is 10% Carnuba wax by weight to LLA. I use enough Mineral Spirits to keep the same consitancy has normal LLA, using a very light coat to dry overnight. I use this in rifle velocities up to 1,200fps with great accuracy and no lead fouling on PBBs. Adding more than 10% Carnuba Wax may make the coating brittle.

I don't like to add Vasoline or Parrafin wax to my fortified lubes. If I felt like I need to soften a lube and make it sticky, I'd add a very small amount of Lanolin.........