Need imputs on homemade lube

[Gunslinger]

I'm about to start experimenting on making lube. I have vaseline, paraffin and bees wax. I'll try my luck with the well-known recipe of a third of each but do have a few questions:

I would like a lube that doesn't require heating up the sizer, I know vaseline makes the lube softer, but how much more vaseline should I add to the above mentioned recipe?

What do you use to color the lube? Crayons? And how much?

[softpoint]

I've tried several recipes for home lube and they all work, but some a lot better than others, especially when the weather gets really hot
Look on the site here and find the recipe for Felix lube. Its a little more trouble to make, but in my opinion it's worth it. I've made a 4x batch of it so I don't have to do it quite as often. The ingredients in it cooked together give it pretty good stability in widely varying temperatures, ( I don't know about extreme cold, because we don't have any of that here) I've used Emmerts lube, Darr's lube(50/50 vaseline -paraffin) And a NASTY combination of black moly grease and beeswax. The first two are good lubes ,till it gets around 90 degrees, and they will start to get a little thin, The moly grease lube works pretty good, and is pretty stable, too, I just don't like making it ,and it stinks, the hi-temp moly grease is kinda hard to melt in my experience. I recommend the Felix lube, others here may give you some more opinions:drinks::-D

[243winxb]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showpost.php?p=632936&postcount=14 And if you want store bought > http://www.lsstuff.com/lube/

[snaggdit]

I'm about to start experimenting on making lube. I have vaseline, paraffin and bees wax. I'll try my luck with the well-known recipe of a third of each but do have a few questions:

I would like a lube that doesn't require heating up the sizer, I know vaseline makes the lube softer, but how much more vaseline should I add to the above mentioned recipe?

What do you use to color the lube? Crayons? And how much?

I don't have a lube/sizer yet so I can't speak to that. I made a 2 lb batch of similar stuff and used one large crayon (1cm x 13cm) to color it. I bought them at the Dollar Store, but don't know what you have to compare to over there.

[lead_her_fly]

I use White Label's Liquid Xlox and Beeswax warmed and mixed in equal quantities for my pistol lube. This has worked well with my Marlin rifles in all of the pistol calibers I cast for.
I got this suggestion from White Label's owner.

I also have some BAC from them and other than being more sticky than I want to mess with, it works really, really well. Not only that, it's cheap enough that I don't WANT to make my own lube anymore!

[Leftoverdj]

I'm about to start experimenting on making lube. I have vaseline, paraffin and bees wax. I'll try my luck with the well-known recipe of a third of each but do have a few questions:

I would like a lube that doesn't require heating up the sizer, I know vaseline makes the lube softer, but how much more vaseline should I add to the above mentioned recipe?

What do you use to color the lube? Crayons? And how much?

Paraffin makes the lube hard. It's also also cheap bulk, but does nothing else to improve the lube. Reduce the paraffin and increase the beeswax to soften your lube. I used a 50/50 mixture of beeswax and white lithium based automotive grease for decades. The grease never really melts but patient stirring will blend it into the molten beeswax as though it had melted. It's cheap, easy to make, and very effective.

Felix does give a bit better accuracy at the higher velocities, and seems to add a couple hundred fps to the useful velocity of cast bullets. This may matter if you are pushing cast past 2000 fps from rifles, and is why I switched.

If you use crayons for colorant, treat them as paraffin and expect them to affect the lube just as the same amount of paraffin would. I do not care about the color of my lubes, and, if I did, the off white of Felix and the creamy orange of the beeswax/white grease mixture would suit me fine. You can buy colorants at crafts stores catering to women making soap and candles so you would not have to adjust for the paraffin in crayons.

Majestic Sage is such an online source. They have everything you might want for making lube, but I have not pursued it further. At my rate of consumption, I've already made a lifetime supply of lube.

[superior]

I use parrafin/lithium axel grease, 50/50 with excellent results in 40sw,7.62x39 and 303 Brit. I push my 303's at 2200fps+ with no leading and great accuracy. As far as the method of lubing goes, I've pan lubed, dipped, tumbled with heated boolits and even applied it by hand by rubbing it into the grooves. It's all good. To soften it, I sometimes add a little canola oil or chicken fat to the mix. It smokes when fired, but I kinda like that.

[Recluse]

I would like a lube that doesn't require heating up the sizer, I know vaseline makes the lube softer, but how much more vaseline should I add to the above mentioned recipe?

What do you use to color the lube? Crayons? And how much?

Two things I've learned down the fascinating road of homemade lube experiments.

1. Vasoline isn't for me. Too slimy, too greasy AND sticky (I can take one or the other, but not both--I actually prefer sticky so it sticks to the boolit), and too soft.

2. Don't worry TOO much about hardness and needing a heater. Here in Texas, one of my homemade lubes is a bit too soft during the heat of the summer for my librasizer--I get seepage. During fall/winter/spring, it's perfect. If it gets too hard on the coldest of days here, thirty seconds with the heat gun blasting the lubesizer and I'm good to size/lube for at least half an hour.

Now, what I found as one of my base ingredients has been the best thing going for my lubes--it's container candle wax. It's not hard and brittle like paraffin or candle-mould wax. Instead, it's pliable, melts at around 140 degrees, and when it cools and hardens (as in a container candle), it's nice and firm--but NOT hard. And boy, does it stick to the boolits well!

If you can find some of at in your neck of the woods, give it a try.

As far as coloring, I go the place where we get our candle-making supplies and get those concentrated color chips to toss in the mix. They're cheap, and they give you a nice, clean color.

:coffee:

[Triggerhappy]

Recluse,

By container candle, do you mean the candles that come in the tall glass jars usually with pics on them? I've been mulling over making my own lube but haven't tackled it yet. Was thinking of using beeswax and some red high pressure wheel bearing grease. Would need something to tighten the mix up somewhat though, maybe this candle wax would do it. I like the idea you have with coloring the lube by using the colored wax chips. Now I have to find a craft store that has that kind of stuff. May be tough around here. Container candles, as long as they are what I think they are I think I can find.

Thanks for any input you may have. Unlike you I will have to run heat.

TH

[runfiverun]

the scented candles you know them when you run a nail over the top it digs in and the candle wax will ball up,not peel like an old dinner candle or canning wax.
be aware they are a bit spendy but do a nice job.
lanolin will soften the mix up as will lithium grease just keep those under 8-10% of the total and add lanolin when the temps are under 120* or as he lube cools or it'll burn and not work properly.
you can also add jpw as the lube cools [if you add the jpw while hot it will cook out the solvents and make the lube harder]
i have found that one stick of carnuba red to two sticks of b-wax/alox makes a nice lube [softer, needs heat] and if you want it soft then add the lithium/lanolin mix to it.
this works well in the cold and in the heat pretty well but smokes some in higher humidity [mainly because of the alox] so i cut the alox back to about 30%.
lots of stuff to make lube from it's just a matter of proportions to suit what you are going to lube with [star,lee ,pan etc],and viscosity plays a key role in lubricants it ain't all slippery stuff in wax.

[Char-Gar]

I have used a mix of beeswax and Vaseline for 50 years with total sucess. The porportions are not critical, but 60/40 (was to Vaseline) is about right. The idea is to soften the beeswax enough so it will work through a lube/xize machine without a heater. This l will work for hangun and rifle applications up to about 2 K fps.

It won't melt out and run in the summer. I have never used it in real cold weather, so I don't know how it works there. I have usedit down to about 30 degrees and it works fine at that temp.

Some folks use automotive chassis grease instead of Vaseline and get the same results.

Some folks like to add a tablespoon of RCBS case lube or some canuba wax to the mix, but I have not found that to improve anything. Doesn't hurt, just doesn't make it any better than I can notice.

[BABore]

I'm about to start experimenting on making lube. I have vaseline, paraffin and bees wax. I'll try my luck with the well-known recipe of a third of each but do have a few questions:

I would like a lube that doesn't require heating up the sizer, I know vaseline makes the lube softer, but how much more vaseline should I add to the above mentioned recipe?

What do you use to color the lube? Crayons? And how much?

A word of warning on the vaseline and the old NRA formula. 45 2.1 and I went round and round on that lube. He claimed it worked great. I said my fresh made batch sucked. When he ran out, he made a new batch with standard, store bought vaseline. His lube sucked too. He claimed his original stuff was made from a darker colored, industrial vaseline instead of the almost white/slightly yellow stuff you find. It might pay to do some looking around before you cook the first batch. 357Max found us some vaseline-like stuff that he used putting in pipelines. It's much darker and looks to be right.

[runfiverun]

probably victraulic fitting lube..
they use it to lube the rubber joints on grooved pipe,now that i thnk about it i might have some at my f.i.l's.

[windrider919]

I mostly shoot PP in rifle but after experimenting for a combination pistol and rifle lube I use;

1 qt melted beeswax
12 oz soft container wax
4oz Lee Liquid Lube
1 tbl spoon of Ivory bar soap, flakes grated off the bar
1/4 cup STP
1/4 cup JPW (based on carnuba wax)

Add to the pot in the order listed, heat n stir till the ivory disappears then I add the LLL and JPW last after removing from the heat and after it has cooled a bit, just before its cool enough to harden. I pour it into pint canning jars and leave the lid off while I let it 'age for two weeks before putting the lids on or using it. Works in summer or in the mild Gulf Coast n East Texas winters where it rarely gets below 40F

I usually pan lube but I have used in a lubrisizer too.