Ranch Dog + Recluse Lubing

[Motard]

Ok apologize for the returning discussion, but beeing new to casting and living on the other side of the ocean I don't have access to all components and infos You have.
I need to lube some 45-70 CB made from Lyman 400gr Don Shay design and Lee 425gr Hollow Base moulds. Both without GC, both to be driven maximum 1500 fp from my Marlin and Henry 18 inch barrel levers.
I have read tons of pages on lubing sistem and recipes (with great benefits for my english spelling :) I mus admit ) and come to conclusions:
A) I would like to dip lube my bullets over panlubing or tumbling
B) I would like to see a thik and steady ring of lube in all bullets groves (mostly for my peace of mind dan for real necessity I suppose)
So far I have access to lee liquid alox, mineral spirith, but no JPW. But I have a good wax compound made by pure bees wax and carnauba, this is sold in 1kg cans, and is keept soft by vegetale turpentine (name Eocera) on sale from Ikea. I have as well some "rocks" of solid pure bees wax.
Question: can I make some effective Recluse concot with this components (I mean cooking the Ikea compund and adding 45 LLA and 10 MS) intead of the Jpw paste?
And can I use it for dipping my bulletts (may be adding some pure wax fot thiking it and keeping it wharm untill job done) following RD way?
Please correct where I am wrong or suggest any better way

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

My short answer is: I think you are on the right track, but you may need to adjust your percentages depending on the consistency of your "wax compound" with Eocera. AND your desired consistency of your final product. And the details of the actual technique you end up using to dip the boolits (dipping them warm, or cold, or heating the lube?)

FYI: Micheal (Ranch Dog) uses straight "Lee Liquid Alox" for dipping his boolit designs in and he does it cold.

I mention this, as my technique of dip lubing boolits uses traditional beeswax based lubes, but I heat the lube to it's melting point and I also preheat the boolits...not real hot, but warm to touch. Lube tends to stick to preheated boolits better

[Motard]

Hi Jon B, I thought I could warm them a bit in the essicator I use to dry brass. may work
Meanwhile I have casted some with both molds and I think I am facing another problem. I know they are far from any good as CB but intent was to measure the two molds dropping not shooting them. So while Lee HB 425 is dropping a nice 11,8 mm (458 cal) the Lyman gave me 11,6 (456mm). I sludged both rifles and these are on the tight side (henry 11,58 mm equal.455, marlin 11,6 equal .456) but still I fear leading. Sending back lyman is not an option. Is it possible to lap it? Or I may change the lead type (now should be near ww 2 but havent tested the hardness) will do later. Thankyou for helping :)
lee Brinnel returned me a 8 bn hardness

[Motard]

here are the two I made from Lee and the Lyman one

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I would preheat the mold and cast boolits til they are just starting to be frosty, instead of shiny. That will also get rid of the wrinkles. Then measure those, you may see the size change. Also it's challenging to get good repeatable measurements with a dial calipers, I'd suggest a 1" micrometer for measuring boolits and slugs.

If it comes to needing to enlarge the mold, which I doubt, read this thread.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?257858-Expanding-a-boolit-mould-the-quot-WEET-quot-method-(In-parts)

[Motard]

+1 for heating tips. I had a suspect about and thankiou for the great tutorial link

[EDK]

You might want to do some searches on various floor waxes. I'm using BEN'S LIQUID LUBE, a mixture of ALOX and JOHNSON ONE STEP liquid floor wax. You could experiment with ALOX and beeswax or add more beeswax to the carnauba mix to thicken it; either could be melted and used to dip lube.
I'm not good at going from metric to inch measurement. Slug your barrels and then go 1/20 milimeter(.002 inches) larger for sizing.
Clean the molds some more with solvent or hot water and detergent. It doesn't take much oil in the cavity to give you wrinkled boolits. Do some searches on venting issues on molds also.
I've been casting for almost 50 years and it is a d*** poor day I don't learn something new on this forum. Continue to ask questions and WE will try to help you.

[Motard]

You alla jet helped me a lot. I think I wouln't step into casting if not having the support of this great forum. I can also have a good access to casted boolits from professional shop. But cannot retrain myself from tryng to do alone. Today I pre heated the Lyman as suggested and got nice 458. I also added some tin to the alloy wich was barely 8/9 brinnel before (there should be only lead and 2/100 antimony cause I was melting shotgun duble zero balls). Have contacted a foundry that sells new but discarded shotgun leads made 97 lead and 3 antimony. Adding 2 to 6 % Tin do You think would gave me a good enaught alloy? In the 12 brn hardness range? need to work more on formulas I am afraid

[Cowboy_Dan]

There is a free alloy calculator available as a download. It is found in a sticky, I believe in the "Lead and Lead Alloys" section. It takes all of the guesswork out of alloy mixing.

[Motard]

Would you all think that the alloy I have, 97 lead 2/3 antimony would fit with my rifles? Also adding 5% tin I would'nt rise hardennes over 12 brn. I eventually can have access to some pure antimony dust but after reading as much as I could it seems that melting antimony would be a pita. For what I could achieve
A) melting before adding Tin is better
B) melting in no oxigen would help avoiding burning or wasting the powder
So I was wondering to build a lead layer envelope, like a charm, filled wit the right amount of Sb and drop it in the pot once lead was liquid. Hoping avoiding great KABOOM
Correct me please If am wrong
Ps I am thinking in terms of few grams of sb. Just to rise from 2 to 5 % in one kg of lead