Simple readily available lube

[Arrow]

I have read pages and pages of everyone's favorite lubes. Thy all have one thing in common, they are all made of ingredients I have never heard of before. What is a good lube you can cook up with stuff you can pick up locally like a grocery store, auto parts store, Walmart. I'm not looking to he very high tech, I'm just about to start casting. I am looking for a general purpose lube I can use for pistol cartridges up to magnum handgun cartridges mostly. I will be loading for a 45-70 as well if the same lube will work for it. If not I am mostly concerned with handgun cartridges. Also, everyone is talking about bees wax as a main part, where do you get that? And last thing, when doing volume measurements on ingredients that are not liquid, do you get a volume measure after you have melted it? Thanks for all the help.

[CastingFool]

There is a member here that sells beeswax. Pretty good price, too! When I was looking for lubes, I choose Emmert's lube. It's a blackpowder lube, but it's said to work in low pressure smokeless rounds. I use it to pan lube my lee 452-255 swc, and I use either Unique or Bullseye, and it seems to work. I basically load for plinking loads.

[celem]

I make my own pan lube of half beeswax and half Armour brand lard. Works great. Ask you county extension agent for the name of a local beekeeper. They usually have excess wax. They slice off the comb caps and it is a waste byproduct that they sell, usually to companies that mold comb starter frames.

[geargnasher]

Randyrat (vendor sponsor of this site) is where I get my beeswax. Shoot him a PM and ask about TAC #1 lube while you're at it. For the best, long-range, accurate magnum handgun loads, I haven't found anything better than Felix lube. The recipe is in the first post of the sticky. If you make it, DO NOT deviate from the instructions. All ingredients except the beeswax can be found at Wal Mart. Buy a tube of Lansinoh nipple creme in the nursing mother's section if you need a source of lanolin.

Gear

[btroj]

Felix lube is easy to make, just follow the directions. Lanolin can be bought from Randy too, think. If not, look online, it is available. Be sure it is anhydrous lanolin, it should look like brown, sticky Vaseline.
The lanolin is an awesome case lube too.

[jonas302]

What method are you going to use pan, sizer, tumble ? If your going to be sizing or putting gas checks on with a lee sizer kit it will come with a bottle of LLA that you might as well try out or make 45/45/10 from it
Also recommend Randy for the bees wax and his ready made TAC lube will do what you want if you are going to pan lube or run though a lube sizer

[bhn22]

50/50 Lithium grease from the auto parts store and beeswax. That's probably the easiest, and quickest. When I make lube, it's also Felix' formula.

[Idaho Mule]

Arrow, all these other guys have more experience than I do but here goes anyway. Either get some beeswax from a local bee keeper or order some from RandyRat here, some vaseline, Dexron, and some 2-cycle oil. A member here by the name of run5run has a recipe with these ingredients for Simple Lube and it flat works. I looked thru all kinds of lube stuff here and settled on this one. I am not saying it does everything but I sure haven't had a problem with it. It is ultra simple to make, you can pan lube, run it thru a lubra-sizer, or probably just smear it on. I have been using it for almost a year now in calibers from .25 to .454 and velocities from 750fps to just over 2000fps with no troubles at all. JW

[smokesahoy]

beeswax (crafts store) synthetic 2 stroke (nearly anywhere) 3 parts to 1 part, if too tacky add another part wax until where you want it. that's simple man.

[C. Latch]

If you can find beeswax, mix it with olive oil until you get a mix that is solid at the temps your ammo will be exposed to. That's where I started, I still have gobs of it, and it works for any handgun I've tried it in yet. It requires -0- noxious, smelly ingredients; you can mix it in your wife's cookware.

[hotbrew]

Randyrat has the ingredients that are not at the grocery store, pharmacy, or auto parts store. Something I've done is to make up Felix grease ( Mineral oil, Castor oil, and Ivory soap from pharmacy) cooked per instructions, and save it to mix with the beeswax, lanolin, and carnauba (from Randyrat) as needed.

hotbrew

[fryboy]

if for some reason you wish to forgo the beeswax ( tho i wouldnt as it's a near perfect base and all natural ) you can make darr lube ,( it's in the recipe thread ) from paraffin wax , as is it's more for low to mid velocity as opposed to magnum type loadings but you may be able to crowd up there a wee bit if you have a decent bore, proper size and a powder with a lower pressure burning curve but i honestly doubt that it'll see you successfully thru the upper end of magnum type loads
hobby lobby sells beeswax as do some other type craft stores but expect to pay a pretty penny for it , honestly randy rat cant be beat , send him a pm get a quote send him a money order and wait a few days and you'll be good to go , if you have pay pal it can even be done faster [shrugz]

[JSnover]

My 45-70 loves Emmerts, with black and smokeless.

[randyrat]

Let me know what you want with a private message. I also have a spare chunk of My own buck Emmert's lube or a spare chunk I'd throw in so you can try it out for free..Let me know I can send you some samples of my lube..TAC1 and buck emmerts..At least it will hold you off until you decide on making your own witches brew. along with the free sample I'll send you a list of my goodies

[Arrow]

Randyrat, thank you very much for the offer. I will be contacting you in the next couple months. I have not even started casting yet. I am just doing as much research now so I have a plan and hopefully have an idea of what to expect when I start in a couple months. I will be using a lubrisizer and occasionally pan lube. So if there are lubes as simple as bees wax am 2 stroke that work fine, why are there usually all those other added ingredients? I will go out and try to locate all those things if there is a big difference. I'm just tryin to learn this stuff. Any help is much appreciated. Thank you.

[William Yanda]

", why are there usually all those other added ingredients? "
Why do some witches say; "Eye of newt and skin of toad" and others say; "Skin of newt and eye of toad"?
Bill
Duckin and runnin, and sorry-that's probably not much help.

[a.squibload]

Want simple? Buy some BAC sticks from White Label Lubes
and stick one in your lubersizer.
There are a hundred lube recipes, like beers, variety is
the spice of life.

[fryboy]

making lubes appeals to the mad scientist in all of us ( ermm at least those who have the mad scientist gene lolz ) some folks also just prefer to do it themselfs , now having stated that ... keep in mind that different ingredients do different things , since you are in a learning stage as opposed to a need to use stage allow me to leave a link that you should pursue to lasc's site about lube ingredients , altho i've found that practical application beats book learnin' any day of the week both are tools that can be well utilized
http://www.lasc.us/LubeIngredients.htm

and this link which has many sub-links of info that are very very worthy

http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm

[JSnover]

Want simple? Buy some BAC sticks from White Label Lubes
and stick one in your lubersizer.
There are a hundred lube recipes, like beers, variety is
the spice of life.

True on both counts. I have bought lubes for maximum simplicity. I've also enjoyed making them... To an extent. IMO if it has more than three ingredients and you have to do more than "heat, mix, apply to boolits," it is over-complicated.

[9.3X62AL]

HERESY ALERT.....don't say you weren't warned.

I don't make my own lubes. There--I said it. I use two different lube types--an Alox/beeswax 50/50 type for handguns up to 1100 FPS and a concoction known as Carnauba Red for everything else. Both of these are mailed by Glenn and Leah Larsen www.LsStuff.com at a VERY reasonable cost.

[Ben]

HERESY ALERT.....don't say you weren't warned.

I don't make my own lubes. There--I said it. I use two different lube types--an Alox/beeswax 50/50 type for handguns up to 1100 FPS and a concoction known as Carnauba Red for everything else. Both of these are mailed by Glenn and Leah Larsen www.LsStuff.com at a VERY reasonable cost.

9.3X62AL

_____________________

As much as I enjoy shooting Ben's Red, Al has just made a very good point. It is simple, just order good lube at a good price from Lar's and be done with it.

Ben

[a.squibload]

I have to admit, I wanna make some Ben's Red.
Maybe after I learn to bake bread from that other thread.
You know, when I get a minute!

[detox]

Confusing isn't it.

[Doc_Stihl]

HERESY ALERT.....don't say you weren't warned.

I don't make my own lubes. There--I said it. I use two different lube types--an Alox/beeswax 50/50 type for handguns up to 1100 FPS and a concoction known as Carnauba Red for everything else. Both of these are mailed by Glenn and Leah Larsen www.LsStuff.com at a VERY reasonable cost.

I've made several batches and use them.
But when it comes down to it, it's Really hard to beat 50/50 and Carnuba Red. I spent more money on my first 2 batches of "not so good" lube than I did on my White Label order.

[btroj]

But it is fun, interesting, and exciting to make lubes. You learn about things you don't care and meet lots of strange folks.

Heck, I did it so much I even got this neat hat.......

[dikman]

I'm already mixing all sorts of weird concoctions (and I only shoot BP) and yes, I've met all manner of people who some might consider, umm, different? (But in a nice sort of way).

So, how many posts do I need to get a neat hat too?:kidding:

[btroj]

Oh dude, you ain't even close.......

Besides, the hat is from south of the border, not south of the equator. Maybe Jeff can get you some tights......

[454PB]

I made my own for 35 years, then realized the raw components cost nearly as much as just buying BAC from Lars.

I was in Sportsman's Warehouse the other day, RCBS boolit lube was $6 a stick!

[dikman]

Tights? TIGHTS!!! What do you think I am? For your information, real Aussie men don't wear tights. (Why haven't we got a smiley with a tongue sticking out?). As for the hat, guess I'll have to stick to a "proper" hat ( my Akubra). Come to think of it, if I wore a hat like yours to the range no one would get any shooting in, they wouldn't be able to stop laughing.[smilie=l:.

[btroj]

That is right, Jeff is from NZ.

[dverna]

Arrow,

Making your own lube is the last thing you need to worry about when you are starting out. For less than $2/stick White Label is the way to go. Randy Rat is supposed to have good lubes too but I have not purchased from him.

After you have cast a bit you might want to use your time making lube. But do it for the "fun" - if hovering over a sticky pot of fuming goop is your idea of fun.

I have heard the argument - "Making lube is no different than making bullets. Why not buy bullets if you think making stuff is a waste of time?' That is just horse-pucky. You can make a better bullet than you can buy. You cannot make a lube that is better than what you can buy. You can save a lot of money by making bullets. You save little or nothing by making your own lube. You know if you have buggered up a bullet and you can recast it. You will not know if you bugger up a lube until you shoot it - now you have a bunch of goop that you will spend more money on to "tweak" so it works.

BTW, welcome to the madness.

Don Verna

[scattershot]

Anybo dy ever use beeswax and tallow? I made some up years ago and just recently discovered it again. Never used it, but Iwas wondering if it would work for suppository guns as well.as frontstuffers.

[Good Cheer]

Once upon a time was looking around for some lanolin and saw a can of DAX pomade. Gave it a try making lube and yeehah it worked. Smelled a little strange but it worked. Nowadays there's also a half gallon bucket of lanolin sitting in the funatorium but I'm still working on that can of DAX. Made some more with it last night. Local beeswax, the DAX, some peanut oil, lanolin from a chemical supply company in Pasadena (sometimes I work in urban cowboy country east of Houston), brown lithium lube from the auto store and ancient crayolas for batch identification color. All easily available stuff. Melt it all using water heating (double boiler) and once melted and mixed, shift to direct heat for cooking with furious stirring. Probably unnecessarily complicated but a recipe with stuff currently on hand that I've found to do everything I've asked of it. When done right it becomes a soft plastic that does not require a heater on the press.
But speaking of simple, does anybody use Do-All Tool Saver straight from the tube? Haven't used it in a long time. Still have a tube on the shelf.

[BPShooter]

You can buy bees wax at Michael's craft store for 9.99 a pound. Look for coupons in the newspaper for 50% off. Michael's is a chain store in PA and NY, I don't know if there located across the country.

[dikman]

Anybo dy ever use beeswax and tallow? I made some up years ago and just recently discovered it again. Never used it, but Iwas wondering if it would work for suppository guns as well.as frontstuffers.

"Suppository guns"! Love it :lol:. Yep, add paraffin wax and you have Gatefeo's famous BP revolver lube. Good stuff, tallow (mutton tallow, of course).

[scattershot]

Thanks!

[9.3X62AL]

I was in Sportsman's Warehouse the other day, RCBS boolit lube was $6 a stick!

OK, THAT sort of markup would prompt me to start cooking bullet lube, for darn sure. More to the thread's point.....if I was to get back deeply into black powder cartridge or muzzle-loading rifles with elongated bullets, I could see the point in blending some bullet lube. SPG is GOOD STUFF, but it cost the earth last time I bought it--and I haven't seen it for some time. Almost all of my B/P shooting is PRB these days, so the need for masses of BP bullet lube just isn't there.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Saeco Green was a very simple lube to make, but I can`t remember the exact formula of it. I also freely admit I buy Lar`s lubes then blend 2 of them. I blend 2 sticks BAC with 1 stick Carnuba Red. I pour the melted mix in my 450 lubers wait an hour and proceed lubing everything from 9mm up to .416 Taylor boolets and having no leading of any sort.Robert

[fryboy]

saeco green does decent , i run a slightly improved version in one of my sizers but .. i make mine red :P in essence it's 2# beeswax, 2# paraffin and 1# stp oil treatment ( divide into more manageable quantities if desired such as 1-1- 1/2 etc , the break down is 40/40/20 %) from my understanding long ago it used rcbs case lube instead of stp but having seen so many recipes i may be in error

[Wolfer]

Being the cheap do it yourself guy that I am when I first started casting for my 45 colt I mixed one cake of parrifin to one Johnny bowl ring. The kind without the rubber on it. Worked great on my 44 spl also.
When I started keeping bees I then had beeswax to work with. Traded it out for the parrifin. Can't say it was better since I had no problems with the original recipe.
One day while smearing some Corona wound salve on one of my horses I thought this greasy **** would make good boolit lube. Seems the main ingredients is beeswax and lanolin. I now mix it 50/50 with beeswax and it works great in my pistols at around 1000 fps. Still no better than the original though.
When I started casting for rifles my lee sizing dies came with a bottle of LLA so I used it. I had no issues at the velocity I shoot ( 1700/1800 fps ) so I just stuck with it. Simple and easy, just like me.
I doubt that either of my lubes would work on barn burner stuff but since I don't shoot them I don't know.
I tried LLA in my pistols but didn't like it. I don't remember why. I was probably using too much. Nowadays I tend to thin it a little with mineral spirits and give it two lite coats. I have no issues with accuracy or leading. Woody

[pdawg_shooter]

Want simple? Buy some BAC sticks from White Label Lubes
and stick one in your lubersizer.
There are a hundred lube recipes, like beers, variety is
the spice of life.

I am with you on BAC. If you consider you time worth about $0.50 an hour it is cheaper and easier than messing around trying to find ingredients and make your own.

[Old Dawg]

Johnson's Paste Wax. You don't need to add anything, or stir it in a cauldron (bubble, bubble) with eye of newt or wing of bat. Just gently tumble a slightly warm bullet with a little dab.