Greese Cookies 101

[GregLaROCHE]

I know most PPers don’t use them these days, but I am sure you know a lot about them. For the time being, I’m not interested in competition. I just want to start shooting PP boolits with BP in my Marlin, so I don’t want to swab each time I shoot a round.

I have been getting a lot of info and compiling a lot of stuff to begin. I am ready to start soon and need to mix up something to use for a greee cookie. I have beeswax and mutton tallow. How should I mix it and in what proportions? Should I add anything else? I assume I heat the wax and then add the tallow. Should I pour it out so it hardens into sheets? Any other advice? Should I refrigerate or freeze it after?

Thanks

[Huvius]

That would be very similar to the 60% beeswax 40% petroleum Jelly I use.
I bought round cake pans from the dollar store - as long as the bottoms are nice and flat they will work.
Float the cake pan in a larger skillet of hot water on the stove to prevent your lube from scorching.
Stir the lube to mix well and to the desired thickness and then turn off the stove and let cool right on the stove. That will insure that it has a nice even thickness as the water levels the pan perfectly.
I then cookie cut them out with a same caliber case with the bottom cut off to make a tube.

[Huvius]

The proportions of wax and tallow (or PJ) can be adjusted to soften or harden your lube which is nice for different seasons etc.
Someone here with tallow experience will chime in I’m sure.

[country gent]

Emmerts is 50% beeswax 40% unsalted Crisco 10% canola or olive oil. Improved cut the oil to 5% and add 5% anahydrous lanolin.
Met beeswax and Crisco ( modern version of Tallow) in a double boiler and add oil and lanolin stir and blend for 5 mins.

Making sheets for grease cookies can be done in several ways.
First way that works good and is consistant Is 2 cake pans 1 that fits freely inside the other. On my inner pan I blued the inside dark. I used a hieght gage and scribe to make a scale on the inside first mark off the bottom is 1/2" then every 1/16" up to 3/4" or 1" This is the ruler for measuring the cookie as its poured. set inner pan inside the outer pan on a couple spacers and fill outer with water. Fill inner with water to 1st mark from bottom. Heat with stove burner, add desired lube and melt If you want 1/8" thick cookies melt lube to second line from water level and let cool. when cool use a spatula to remove set on paper towels to dry. Lube floats on the water and the water is self leveling making a very consistant grease cookie.

Second way is lay a sheet of wax paper on table or counter. a flat piece the thickness of the cookie on each side. a amount of lube and another sheet of wax paper. roll out to thickness of spacers with a rolling pin. Thickness depends on the spacers used. Cold rolled flat stock or gage stock work for spacers.

With the shorter barrel on your marlin 1/16" -3/32" thick cookie may be plenty. Another way to go might be to cut some Felt wads and melt the lube into them using them. On my 45-90 with larger charges and 34" barrel I use a cookie around .100 thick and it takes 6-8 rounds to get the lube star showing.

[Lead pot]

Well you have a good base with the tallow and B wax. I have to ask, your tallow is it a hard tallow or just a rendered soft like lard ? There is a difference between the two.
But If it is a hard dry tallow you could use that without adding B wax and some peanut oil enough to get the consistency you like, hard or soft. But this will make a crumbly lube that meeds some binder like B wax if you want to use it for a GG bullet so it sticks in the grooves.

Here is what I use for my lube wads.
I use a hard tallow that I render from either deer fat if I have or the last few years I used Bison fat but it really don't matter what you have.
I use 50/50% hard tallow and Vaseline and thin it out with peanut oil to the hardness I like. I like it just solid enough so you can squeeze it between the thumb and finger and it flattens out with a little pressure like real butter just out of the fridge.
You can add some B wax to make it a little more flexible.

Now this is how I heat and blent the mix. And I feel this is the best way to mix any lube.
IO use a old deep fryer and put about a quart of water in it, you can use a pot if you want. I let it simmer in the water and stir it now and then I think the water puts some moisture in the mix that helps keeping the fouling soft. I like this mix for my lever rifles with repeated shots fired without using fouling control.
Don't let the water cook out or you will ruin the lube.
Shut off the heat and let the lube get hard and just push down on one side to raise the other side and take the lube cake out of the water and wipe off the jell on the bottom.
If the lube it to hard add more peanut oil. If to soft add more wax till you get the hardness you like.

Now this is how I make my lube wad.
I use a round cake pan that is 12" wide 2" deep straight walled. I weigh out 280 grams or 9.8 OZ of lube and put it in the cake pan with water about a inch deep and put it on a hot plate and let it melt in the water with medium heat when it's melted I shut off the heat and let the cake cool with a string and a small nail tied to the string in the mix so when it cools I can lift it out of the pan with out breaking the lube.
When it's cool lift the cake out and wipe off the bottom. This makes a consistent thickness of the lube about 5/32" thick or .165" thick.
The lube will not spoil. I have bread pan lube ingots that have been in room temp for years. I use a old fridge that quit working in the basement I store my unused lube.

Just my way :) Kurt

[Good Cheer]

One of my want-to projects this winter is FFg paper patch loads for the 9.3x74R Ruger No.1.
Thinking about using either a 5/16" or 3/8" gasket punch and cotton batting (being married to a quilter:-) ) as the internal support for the lube cookies.
My standard is LOOB (lanolin-olive oil-beeswax).

[JSnover]

One of my want-to projects this winter is FFg paper patch loads for the 9.3x74R Ruger No.1.
Thinking about using either a 5/16" or 3/8" gasket punch and cotton batting (being married to a quilter:-) ) as the internal support for the lube cookies.
My standard is LOOB (lanolin-olive oil-beeswax).
If you get around to it, please post the results!

[GregLaROCHE]

I also have lanolin and castor oil, that I mix with alcohol to lube cases. It’s not cheap, so I hesitate to use it for greese cookies, but I can if it will make a big difference.

[rfd]

this is how i made up consistently "perfect" grease cookies ...

https://i.imgur.com/K7kzGEu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6cLyV24.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/9jg4vnJ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RkYiKIK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/D43XhWG.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6JamC9n.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RCwDSUj.jpg

[Huvius]

Rfd, that is very cool! Great idea!
What is your mix?
You use compressed air to blow the cookies out of the case? I used to do that but then switched to the tube method.
I even tried syringes but the walls are just too thick - worked OK though for my purposes but limited to available diameters.

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg312/Huvius/Grease%20Cookies/GreaseCookies007.jpg (http://s251.photobucket.com/user/Huvius/media/Grease%20Cookies/GreaseCookies007.jpg.html)


http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg312/Huvius/Grease%20Cookies/GreaseCookies016.jpg (http://s251.photobucket.com/user/Huvius/media/Grease%20Cookies/GreaseCookies016.jpg.html)


Here’s where I’m at now:

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg312/Huvius/Grease%20Cookies/FD93CCC7-333D-4EF9-87FC-F46E915F9AA4.jpg (http://s251.photobucket.com/user/Huvius/media/Grease%20Cookies/FD93CCC7-333D-4EF9-87FC-F46E915F9AA4.jpg.html)

[rfd]

cookies are built on the fly, into a loaded case. drop fill the powder compress with a wad (the cookie bottom), use the case to grab the grease, add the top wad and press in, add the PPB.

[country gent]

I drop the charge add wad and compress then use the case to cut the wad from the sheet. Wad holds powder in and the grease cookie is seated with a hand seater with light pressure. I also punch a small hole in the cookie before eating with a needle or paper clip, this helps stop air locks and cookies pushing up.

[GregLaROCHE]

this is how i made up consistently "perfect" grease cookies ...

https://i.imgur.com/K7kzGEu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6cLyV24.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/9jg4vnJ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RkYiKIK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/D43XhWG.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6JamC9n.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RCwDSUj.jpg

Your setup looks top notch. How thick were your greese cookies and what was your recipe?

[rfd]

i like 3/16" and used that thickness in plywood scraps to make the frame. the "grease" is gato feo #1 lube (beeswax, mutton tallow, paraffin canning wax).

[Southern Son]

I use the same lube that I use on grease groove boolits. I make the cookies by extruding a ribbon with a lube ribbon extruder I got from BACO. I cut the cookies for my 45/70 with a modified .44mag case. I use a .44mag case so that I can drop the cookies into the case and they fall down on the wad stack. I found that if I cut the cookies with the 45/70 case, then air got trapped under the cookies.

Another thing that I do is I use a bees wax sheet over the powder charge, then the cookie, then a 0.060 hdpe wad, then a news paper wad, then the boolit. I believe that the thin bees wax sheet slows down rate that the cookie can contaminate the powder, but when the powder burns, the bees wax sheet will basically disappear leaving the cookie to interact with the burning powder. I am probably overthinking things, but this has provided good results with grease groove boolits and blow tubing in really hot dry conditions.

[GregLaROCHE]

That’s good thinking to use a .44 mag case. I’ll give it a try.

[Buckshot]

http://www.fototime.com/8CBCB84DDFEB98C/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/C10BFE98B1D07D0/standard.jpg

...........I made a lube ribbon extruder. Screws into the 7/8-14 threads on the reloading press. Piston pushrod fits into the shell holder slot of the ram. I used to pour the liquid lube into the cylinder. That took too long to cool if you wanted to make a lot of cookies. I bought some 1" copper waterpipe, parted it off to the length for the extruder and use a copper endcap to seal one end when pouring full of lube. Once they cool, you can push out the lube, and then place it into the extruder cylinder.

I cut strips of baking parchment paper about a foot long. As the lube ribbon appears I hold the paper against the strip of lube. Just short of the end of paper I cut the lube ribbon, and then lay it aside and extrude another.

.............Buckshot

[Racing]

Have to ask,why so few melt the grease used in the microwave?

I do it all the time. Way faster,way more safe then a double bath IMO.