What lubricant can I make?

[nueces5]

When I started doing my cast, I did the simple lube.
I then panlubeed with orange magic, and have really noticed an improvement in my accuracy since using it. Here in Argentina the orange magic is over, and I was thinking of making the felix lube or some other that is suitable for rifle boolits that are going to be pushed to 2500 fps.
I have all the ingredients for the felix lube, except the ivory, I don't know what soap can be similar in Argentina.
If you have any ideas to simplify my life, I will thank you.

[pworley1]

Castile soap should work if you can get it.

[justindad]

You need soap that was made by mixing lye and triglycerides (AKA grease), and then the glycerin has to be removed to result in pure soap. You can make grease by boiling animal fat, filtering out the solid particles, and the let the oil solidify into grease while it floats on top of the water. Boiling fat in salt water helps to remove more impurities, and it can be helpful to boil the grease in salt water a second time to get more impurities out. The lye is mixed with water in a 2 parts water to 1 part lye by weight, and then the lye is mixed with the melted grease to produce a mixture of soap and glycerin. The exact ratio of lye:grease depends on the type of grease/oil you are using (search for “saponification table”). You dissolve the resulting bar soap in hydrochloric acid HCl to produce a free fatty acid plus salt plus water plus glycerin. The free fatty acid will float on top of the water mixed with everything else. The free fatty acid (oil that is not a tryglyceride) can be separated from the water+salt+glycerin. You can then melt the free fatty acid and mix it with lye again to produce pure soap that does not contain any glycerin. You can use this pure soap to make FWFL.
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If you can buy a free fatty acid, that is easier.
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If you can buy a true soap made from lye and you know there is no glycerin or other stuff in it, that is the easiest.
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I buy pure soap (sodium stearate) from Amazon.com. I use 10 grains of sodium stearate when I make a batch of FWFL that uses 6.8 ounces of beeswax. It can be helpful to melt the sodium stearate in paraffin wax or the mineral oil (not required) so that you can keep the beeswax below any temperature that might damage it.

[justindad]

Castile soap should work if you can get it.

True Castile soap is made by mixing olive oil and lye, which means it has glycerin. If you know the manufacturer extracted the glycerin, then you are fine. Glycerin attracts water, so it’s bad for guns & ammo.

[Wilderness]

Neuces

I too am a fan of Orange Magic for full power loads. If you can deal with Brownells, they may be able to get it to you.

I have not tried Felix lube yet, though I would like to.

In the meantime I have used variations on Lithi-Bee. That's Lithium automotive grease stiffened with beeswax. In my case the Lithium grease most recently used was Castrol LMM, which has some moly in it. I used LMM because that is what I had on hand. I referred to my lube as Black Lithi-Bee. Ratio was about three parts beeswax to one part LMM. There are a number of lubes using this general principle of beeswax plus some variation of lithium grease, with or without small amounts of Automatic Tramsmission Fluid or STP oil additive. Adjust the beeswax % to get the desired stiffness.

The early work of Col E.H.Harrison (pre 1960) demonstrated the superiority of the lithium greases as bullet lubricants, although they were inconveniently soft. Later he came up with the Alox:Beeswax lube. I have used straight soft lithium grease and it worked well - part seat the unlubed bullet leaving all the grease grooves exposed, apply grease to the bullet with fingers, then complete bullet seating.

Edit: Larry Gibson says he likes White Label Lube 2500 for higher velocity. International shipping costs from the maker (not Ebay) are less painful if you buy say two x one pound blocks.

[stubshaft]

I am and always will be a fan of Felix lube, it has worked well for me.

[Gobeyond]

Yah try Amazon for ivory. Or eBay. For lye use draino- sodium hydroxide.

Amazon.comhttp://Amazon.com

eBay.comhttp://www.eBay.com