Made Some Ben's Red Today

[405grain]

I made up my first batch of Ben's red today. I must have missed it in other threads, but I don't think I saw anything about the smell. This stuff better be the best lube in the universe because boy o boy does it stink. As I was concocting this stuff I tried to place the unique odor. Things that came to mind were "road killed robot with a home perm", "carpet melting in the microwave", "four alarm fire at a pesticide factory", and the like. I finally decided that it smells like Chernobyl.
They were right about the Lucas red & tacky never really melting. When everything was liquid the grease wasn't really blending in no matter how much I stirred. I decided to turn off the heat and let the lube start to set up. When it was about the consistency of peanut butter I stirred it vigorously with a wooden stir stick. This made everything homogeneous. Then I heated it back up to liquid and it came out just right. Can't wait to see how it performs at the range.

[GoodOlBoy]

I find a shot of rum helps when making bullet lube. Not for the lube, for the lube maker!

God Bless!

Richard

[Ben]

How much reading in previous threads did you do before you attempted to make the lube ?

Ben

[BK7saum]

how hot did you get it? I know the red and tacky has a fairly strong odor, but don't really remember the smell being that bad. You really don't want to overheat most lubes when making/blending

[Ben]

If you over heat Ben's Red, it will have a bad odor and you run the risk of loosing the entire batch. Of course, all of this is covered in the original instructions along with never trying to make the lube inside your home.

[centershot]

I made up a batch of this a while ago, never noticed any particularly bad odor. But, I adhered to the advice to use no more heat than absolutely necessary. It came out fine, good lube!

[405grain]

Hi Ben. I think that I should have put a smiley face on my first post to show that I was being humorous and exaggerating. I only heat the lube enough for it to liquefy and no more. I made the batch outdoors. I think that it's going to work pretty well. Thanks both for the research and the tutorial on making the lube. (I've also got some Xlox on order so that I can try BLL)
Here's some more overview: I've been having trouble with powder coating bore riding cast boolits. The PC makes the nose too fat and they won't chamber. I reload for several 30 caliber cartridges but my main "test mule" is 7.62x39 (with a .308 bore). I tried to correct this problem by machining a nose die that uses Redding neck bushings, and screws into a single stage reloading press like a conventional reloading die. This did not work at all. It's not possible to keep the nose of the boolit concentric with the driving bands.
With this being the case, I decided that the next course of action was to try a completely novel approach and actually use the cast boolits in the way that they were designed for. I'm prepping two batches; a couple of hundred RCBS 30-165-Sil for the 7.62x39, and another another batch of 311299 that I'll load in 30-06. These are gas checked and cast from water quenched COWW. I'll try to get out to my shooting area next weekend to see how they shoot. In the meantime, the pile of powder coated 30 caliber bullets should work fine in a 7.65x53 or an SKS.

[gwpercle]

You might have scorched it .
I used an old crock pot and a stiff wire whisk , heat on high and blend untill your arms get tired .
Turn off pot , let cool , come back the next day and repeat process. The third times the charm .
The cool down / reheating and blending three times seems to help get everything homogenized .

Overheating doesn't seem to damage the lube just funky smell it .
It should work fine .
Gary

[725]

I've made a few batches and love it. Tried to follow the original instructions as best I could and it worked out great. As to the OP, you made me smile, a la tongue in cheek.

[405grain]

I'm not having much luck with this. The first batch of boolits are sized and lubed. The Ben's red seems to work as advertised. Then I made up a batch of Ben's liquid lube to overcoat the boolits with. This is not the original recipe of BLL because they stopped making Johnson liquid paste wax. This was a different recipe that I found on the web that uses white label Xlox, Lundmark liquid paste wax, and mineral spirits. About half a teaspoon in a bowl was enough to swirl coat 100 boolits. Three days later and it still hasn't dried. Even the film in the bowl is still wet. Somethings not right.
I'm going to wipe off all the bullets and try again. This time I'll only mix together the Xlox and liquid paste wax. I think that the mineral spirits are what's causing the problem. I get the gut feeling that once I get this sorted out it's going to work fine, just need to keep trying.

[725]

I think you're right about the mineral spirits.