Felix Lube / Liquid Alox

[Doc - J]

I was wondering if anyone tried to use liquid alox and beeswax plus perhaps ivory soap to make a lube? I've tried the LA and I'm not that happy with it. But what do I do with all the bottles I keep getting when I order sizers ect, ect. from Lee....

[versifier]

I'm running low. How much do you have and what do you want for it? PM me if interested.

[Leftoverdj]

I'm told that the Liquid Alox is just Alox 350 cut 50/50 with mineral spirits. If you evaporated out as much of the mineral spririts as you could and then mixed the remainer with an equal amount of beeswax, you would have something very close to the classic NRA formula lube. I'd just pour the LA into the container I was going to melt and mix in and let it set a week or two. Mineral spirits is too flammable for me to want to apply heat to it.

I make lube outside with a hood handy to go over the pot should it ignite. Never had it happen, but others have.

[MTWeatherman]

I have...sort of.

Lee Alox is actually Alox 606-55 which is 55 % Alox 606 in a 45% concentration of mineral spirits or essentialy a 50/50 Alox mix as leftoverdj pointed out. So, if you mix LLA with beeswax in a 50/50 mix its not the same as the NRA formula... different Alox and you wind up with a 2part beesmax, 1 part Alox, 1 part mineral spirits mix. The mineral spirits boil off and its a 2 to 1 mix.

So, I didn't use the 50/50 Alox mix. I mixed the LLA with the beeswax and soap using the Felix trick and can confirm the two mixed well. May well have worked without the soap too...just didn't try it. I mixed them outdoors on low heat to avoid the risk of fire in boiling off the mineral spirits. I then turned up the heat and added 1 part by volume of moly fortified lithium grease. Reason...it was a simple experiment to get rid of a bunch of the Alox I'd picked up with the Lee sizers. I wasn't sure if the 2 to 1 beeswax/Alox 606 would provide enough lubrication...but it well may have. I wound up with a 2 part beeswax, 1 part Alox 606, 1 part moly/lithium mix.

I used the lube in handguns...up through heavy .44 Magnum loads and it worked well enough. However, handguns are much more forgiving of lubricant than rifles. It flowed well at room temperatures...really sticky so it adhered in the bullet grooves well...but the smell when lubricating bullets was not unlike that in a poorly cleaned auto maintenance shop. I can testify that wives don't like it.

If I were to do it again, I'd try it without the Lithium grease. The Alox mixes well with the beeswax...at least if soap is used but I'd try it first without. If lubrication wasn't adequate, I'd double the Liquid Alox to bring it up to a modified NRA 50/50 formula using Alox 606. I'd definitely want to at least try it in a rifle the next time around.

[barrrel]

I mix liquid alox with bees wax and a little vasaline,pan loubing 454 casull bullets,no leading problems. barrel

[Lloyd Smale]

I add about a 1/3 of a bottle of liquid lee tumble lube to a 3lb coffee can batch of felix lube. I also add about 3 tablespoons of cordoba wax and about 4-6 sticks of blue angel or red rooster hard lube to it to firm it up. I guess i could do the same with paraphin wax but i figure why add somehing that doesnt lube when the hard lubes at least have something (granted little) lube capeabiltys. Dont know if all my experimenting makes the lube any better then felixs original. But i know IT WORKS and i guess it makes me feel a little more like its my own creation. About the only thing i can attest to is that i store ALOT of bullets out in the barn and felix lube as per the recipe is a little soft for storage in the heat.