A very basic qyestion

[Lead melter]

This may sound simple to you guys who make up your own bullet lube, but why can't regular old parraffin [spelling?] be used as the basis for a lube? It has lubricative powers, is very stable, and has a low melting point. Will it not properly mix with other ingredients? Just a thought.

:???:

[mag_01]

Lead Melter --- Paraffin for me is used as a stiffener in A version of Felix lube and by itself will not make a good lube. For one thing a heater would be required as paraffin is stiff --- Bee's wax performs better due to its make up --- Think of paraffin as a stiffener or cleaner in your mix. Bottom line try it and report back. Mag_01

[monadnock#5]

I've been using a pan lube recipe provided by JoeB for Darr Lube. It's made of equal parts paraffin and Petroleum Jelly, with a teaspoon of RCBS liquid case lube mixed in (I use Hornady lube, it's what I had on hand). I've used it in 9mm loads with great success, and it sure beats trying to lube a bevel base boolit in a Lyman 450.

[Leftoverdj]

I've been using a pan lube recipe provided by JoeB for Darr Lube. It's made of equal parts paraffin and Petroleum Jelly, with a teaspoon of RCBS liquid case lube mixed in (I use Hornady lube, it's what I had on hand). I've used it in 9mm loads with great success, and it sure beats trying to lube a bevel base boolit in a Lyman 450.

That's an extreme case of using parafin as a stiffener. The other stuff is doing the lubing.

[lar45]

I haven't found any good use for parrafin in a cast bullet lube. I wish I could as the wife bought 3 cases of it and was going to make candles. Only a few candles were actually made and there is still about 140 lbs in the shed

[felix]

There are all kinds of paraffin, but all of them tend to be residue from refined petro which contains the stuff. Big "crystals" to small crystals. The big crystal version has the lowest melting point and is used for canning purposes (the grocery store kind). The smaller the crystals become, the higher the melting temp. Paraffin is graded by the average melting temp of the lot on-hand from the refinery. Paraffin does not "hold" much of anything, whereas beeswax has that characteristic. There are some synthetic beeswaxes available, but none seem to outperform the natural stuff. Most, if not all, beeswaxes melt at 160, whereas paraffins melt throughout a range of 120 through 200 plus, depending on "temp grade". All of these waxes tend to harden a final lube. Generally, we can say that the drier the final lube is, the harder it is in terms of components of that lube. Melting temp has nothing to do with actual hardness to the touch, however, so keep that in mind. ... felix