NRA 50/50 Lube

[alamogunr]

Several years ago, I had some correspondence with Ken Mollohan about making NRA lube from Alox 350. This was right after Lubrizol discontinued Alox 2138F. He recommended adding a microwax to make the 350 equal to 2138F. He recommended getting a sample of C-700, which I did. I had some reservations about asking for a sample but they were willing so I accepted. Haven't tried it yet since I had a pretty good supply of 2138F and use LLA(made from Alox 606-55)/JPW on most of my handgun boolets.

This same information is contained in this thread:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?1705-Beeswax-and-Alox-350

There is another thread about microwaxes that I didn't want to hijack with a semi-off topic post. The participants of this thread(http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?181082-BW-408-Microwax) are more advanced and experimentally inclined than I am.

I am only posting this because there may be some here who are interested in NRA lube. Considering that there are several sources here for NRA, I'm not sure that it is worth the trouble to make your own. They were not in existence when I acquired my components so I'll continue to make my own.

[runfiverun]

simple matter of adding 7% parrafinic wax to the now made xlox.
this will get you in the close enough to not know the difference realm.
or the as close as you are gona get with what you got world.

[alamogunr]

simple matter of adding 7% parrafinic wax to the now made xlox.
this will get you in the close enough to not know the difference realm.
or the as close as you are gona get with what you got world.

And I'm satisfied with that. Kind of makes my OP sort of meaningless.

[runfiverun]

not really.
most don't know that you can modify the existing oxidized calcium soap grease to be similar to the old stuff.
fewer know they could make a facsimile at home with stuff found at the grocery store.

[geargnasher]

If a person wants to be really authentic, they need only order a slab of BW 430 or 431 from Blendewaxes dot com and put about 8% by weight with some Alox 350 from White Label Lubes and then mix that 50/50 with hard, yellow beeswax. Works GOOD if you don't mind cleaning your rifle with Hoppe's and a brush every 20-50 shots if you want to stay under MOA at a hunnert. That's assuming your "system" will shoot sub-MOA clean.

Gear

[Hard_Cast]

not really.
most don't know that you can modify the existing oxidized calcium soap grease to be similar to the old stuff.
fewer know they could make a facsimile at home with stuff found at the grocery store.

What kind of stuff from the 'grocery store'?

[captaint]

When I got my Star, Magma included a solid stick of NRA 50/50. Actually it was Javelina, which I always thought was NRA 50/50. So, I used it first and it worked REALLY well. It was, of course, a little soft. I don't use it anymore due to the softness, but it was good loob. May have to make some up someday. Right after I make the Felix loob. Mike

[runfiverun]

tums is calcium carbonate, it is the soap used in the alox grease.
the other ingredient is mineral oil [vaseline will work also, probably better].
you blend them together and take the heat up to about 450-500-f this will get the calcium into the mineral oil,which will gel, you just have to get the gel to oxidize,and you have alox.
most greases are stearated with @ 5-7 % stearate, some higher up to 12 or even 20%.
ivory soap and mineral oil/vasoline will mke a passable homebrew grease also.
you just have to watch your heat or it will lock up on you.
if you can get a good pao oil and a lith stearate you can make chassis or wheel bearing grease yourself.

[geargnasher]

Marine grease plus Vaseline, cook it at the smoke point for about a day.

Gear

[357maximum]

The few times I have tried to make alox from scratch it came out feeling and looking right, but "that alox smell" was not there......what did I do wrong. I assumed it was lack of cook time, but never proceeded to cook it longer...is that the key to that smell?

[btroj]

Why would you want tha smell? The odor is my biggest problem with Alox.

Mike, if you like that smell then you really have some issues. Yuck

[357maximum]

I absolutely love the smell of alox. Do you really think you are the first person to throw the "issues" card my way.....ha....take a number..... get in line. :mrgreen:

[btroj]

That smell kills me. I just hate it. I suppose there always has to be that one guy. One of the biggest reasons I started using other lubes.
The smell isn't bad as long as I never shoot those bullets with Alox on them. Strange thing is that the 45/45/10 recipe on handgun bullets doesn't bother me a bit.