Melting Mobil 1 axle grease for boolit lube

[Recluse]

Haven't abused myself this much since the last time I decided to pan lube some boolits.

Been tinkering with some lube formulas and had the great idea of using some Mobil 1 synthetic axle/bearing grease as primary lube. Stood in front of the rack at my local auto parts store with my prescription reading glasses on and read and re-read and read and re-read all the descriptions--especially the line about "extremely resiliant to extended heat." (paraphrasing) Really liked that 'cause we all know how hot our barrels and boolits and stuff can get when we're shooting.

Drive home in anticipatory glee of spending the evening in the shop slaving over my griddle and dollar-store pans and funnels and measuring cups and getting the chance to use my brand new beeswax I got in from Randyrat (unabashed plug for Randy--this is great stuff!)

I always melt my base ingredient first, which for this formula as beeswax. I think that was a mistake because when I got it up to temp and melted, then added the requisite amount of Mobil 1, the description about "extremely resiliant to extended heat" bore itself out.

In short, the dang stuff wouldn't melt! :groner:

Finally got it melted after around two hours and 400F and a lot of mashing. Got my other usual ingredients mixed in (carnauba, MMO, LLA, stearic acid) and coloring. I colored this stuff black to match my mood because this stuff STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN! I had to rummage around the old candle-making supplies and add some scent to it. My shop smelled like cooked Mobil 1 bearing grease for two days. . . :violin:

Lube appears to have come out good, though, and will flow without a heater. Will put it through the usual testing either early next week or end of the month. May have to shoot with a clothespin clamped to my nose.

:coffee:

[oldtoolsniper]

Find the MSDS sheet and it will reveal most of the answers you seek on melting temps and what is in it.

[MtGun44]

Synthetic are VERY, VERY temp stable. You have now verfied this through
actual lab testing. You are a scientific researcher. :-D

Bill

[dubber123]

Do yourself a HUGE favor and buy one of those little hand held mixers, the kind used for mixing drinks and such. I got a new Hamilton Beach one off Fee-Bay for 10$. I use Mobil 1 motor oil in my lube.

The shaved Ivory soap was the bugger to get blended. After buying the blender, mix time went from 45 mins, to maybe a minute. A much more consistant end product as well.

[felix]

I shuda' thunk of 'dat. A great idea! ... felix

[runfiverun]

i use a hand blender for mixing in the goodies.
my patience only lasts so long, #1 wife suggested it!

[Humpy]

When I started reading the post I was thinking this is going exactly where you said it went. Another excellent grease is Grease, Automotive and Artillery GAA and Grease, Aircraft, Wide Temperature Range WTR. Most can be had military surplus. I use it for lubing cases before FL and case forming. Just a touch will do it.
You can also clean your barrel with it very well. I take a GI patch, cut it in half and wrap it around a 270 nylon brush after putting a bit of grease on half of it and wrapping it so the greased section is facing out.

Make about 20 passes on your barrel, take out rewrap patch clean side out and do a couple passes with that and repeat first process.

I have a new 358 Win I just built and shooting cast booleets and three patches and it comes out clean. I leave it just as I finished the last patch and leave the trace grease in bore.

I have some Mobil 1 grease but haven't tried it yet but see no reason why it won't work the same way.

[superior]

I've switched from synthetic grease to a regular lithium grease. I mix 50/50 with this and parrafin. I've loaded my 303brit with 3 different boolit types and pushed them as high as 2000 fps with no sign of leading even after extended shooting sessions. For that reason and the fact that accuracy was excellent, I've decided to stay with it. Cheap, easy to mix and works, no matter what method I use to apply the lube. At first, I would just rub a solidified chunk of the finished product along the sides of the bullet until the grooves were filled. Now I pour the liquified product into a margarine bowl containing standing boolits, let cool and punch them out as that seems easier. In every case the lube has never failed. For my 40sw boolits, I just tumble lube with a warm chunk in a bowl. Works for ME !

[leftiye]

Yup, and there are variants of lithium grease with Mulybdenum disulfide mixed in too. I doubt that the extended resistance to heat thang is really needed, an your dwell time in the barrel isn't very long. The high burn temp is probly the thing.

[Sven]

I'm curious to see how this turns out. Gets me to thinking. . . I have a tub of Amsoil low speed bearing grease sitting in the garage that I inherited from my Dad. The "low speed" makes me think it's not good for trailer wheel bearings, so I've been using regular Amsoil grease gun grease for bearings. How much beeswax did you mix in???

[madman]

1+ I make mine with bees wax and mix in a little of Lucas Red sticky. Is smells bad.works like crazy, great stuff. I have also mixed in a little of Lucas synthetic oil stabilizer. Not much smoke cleans up easy. Slicker than snot on a door knob.

[Recluse]

Do yourself a HUGE favor and buy one of those little hand held mixers, the kind used for mixing drinks and such. I got a new Hamilton Beach one off Fee-Bay for 10$. I use Mobil 1 motor oil in my lube.

The shaved Ivory soap was the bugger to get blended. After buying the blender, mix time went from 45 mins, to maybe a minute. A much more consistant end product as well.

The hand-held mixer is a great idea. Gonna pick one up this weekend.

As far as getting the shaved Ivory soap to blend, I used to struggle with that. Then I got a hand-held fine cheese grate. What would be little flakes of cheese on this thing instead turns a bar of Ivory soap into literal dust. Think I found it at either a Walmart or a Walgreens for a buck or two. I use it from time to time as part of my fluxing in the furnace, but mainly while mixing up lubes.


I have a tub of Amsoil low speed bearing grease sitting in the garage that I inherited from my Dad. How much beeswax did you mix in???

I've got a couple of tubs of that myself. It is the gosh-awfullest sticky, greasy stuff known to man in my opinion, but it sure works!

Here is the formula:

4 oz by weight of pure unrefined beeswax
2 oz by weight of container candle wax
2 oz by volume of Mobil 1 Sythetic Lube
2 oz by volume of Johnsons Paste Wax (pre-cooked to eliminate solvents)
1 tbs of LLA
1 tsp of stearic acid (Ivory soap shavings)
1 oz liquid silicone
Some dark blue or black crayons to turn the whole nose hair curling mess a dark, blackish color.

I cooked this at 400F to get the Mobil1 to melt. If I like this lube as much as I think I'm going to, I'll definitely use a hand-held beater next time.

I melted the beeswax and container candle wax first at 250F, then added the Mobil1 and increased heat to 400F while chopping, stirring and blending. Once all was blended thoroughly, I added the JPW, then reduced heat back to 250F. Next I added the LLA and stirred thoroughly, then the stearic acid, then the coloring. I added the silicone just as I reduced the heat to its lowest setting (I use a pancake griddle to put my melting pots and pans on--more room to "cook" that way), I added the silicone, stirred well, then poured into my PVC moulds.

Am lubing up some boolits this afternoon and reloading this evening and weekend. Will probabgly shoot next week and will report back on how this mess does.

:coffee:

[hedgehorn]

by all means let us know how it works! :drinks:




The hand-held mixer is a great idea. Gonna pick one up this weekend.

As far as getting the shaved Ivory soap to blend, I used to struggle with that. Then I got a hand-held fine cheese grate. What would be little flakes of cheese on this thing instead turns a bar of Ivory soap into literal dust. Think I found it at either a Walmart or a Walgreens for a buck or two. I use it from time to time as part of my fluxing in the furnace, but mainly while mixing up lubes.



I've got a couple of tubs of that myself. It is the gosh-awfullest sticky, greasy stuff known to man in my opinion, but it sure works!

Here is the formula:

4 oz by weight of pure unrefined beeswax
2 oz by weight of container candle wax
2 oz by volume of Mobil 1 Sythetic Lube
2 oz by volume of Johnsons Paste Wax (pre-cooked to eliminate solvents)
1 tbs of LLA
1 tsp of stearic acid (Ivory soap shavings)
1 oz liquid silicone
Some dark blue or black crayons to turn the whole nose hair curling mess a dark, blackish color.

I cooked this at 400F to get the Mobil1 to melt. If I like this lube as much as I think I'm going to, I'll definitely use a hand-held beater next time.

I melted the beeswax and container candle wax first at 250F, then added the Mobil1 and increased heat to 400F while chopping, stirring and blending. Once all was blended thoroughly, I added the JPW, then reduced heat back to 250F. Next I added the LLA and stirred thoroughly, then the stearic acid, then the coloring. I added the silicone just as I reduced the heat to its lowest setting (I use a pancake griddle to put my melting pots and pans on--more room to "cook" that way), I added the silicone, stirred well, then poured into my PVC moulds.

Am lubing up some boolits this afternoon and reloading this evening and weekend. Will probabgly shoot next week and will report back on how this mess does.

:coffee:

[Sven]

Here is the formula:

4 oz by weight of pure unrefined beeswax
2 oz by weight of container candle wax
2 oz by volume of Mobil 1 Sythetic Lube
2 oz by volume of Johnsons Paste Wax (pre-cooked to eliminate solvents)
1 tbs of LLA
1 tsp of stearic acid (Ivory soap shavings)
1 oz liquid silicone
Some dark blue or black crayons to turn the whole nose hair curling mess a dark, blackish color.



Thanks for the formula, but what is LLA?:confused:

[runfiverun]

lee liquid alox.
or you can get the thicker xlox from lars