I wrote a reply but deleted it because I really don't know why this happens. But I've seen this phenomena with several different lube cookings and the lube seems to work fine anyway.
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I wrote a reply but deleted it because I really don't know why this happens. But I've seen this phenomena with several different lube cookings and the lube seems to work fine anyway.
Since my last batch of "Pine Tree Green" is almost gone,decided to make a batch of "Simple Green"
Pine Tree Green is 1 lb. of beeswax,a 13 oz. jar of petroleum jelly and 3 oz. of Amsoil 100:1,2 cycle oil.
For "Simple green" I followed R5R's recipe,except, added 1 tsp. of "Bag Balm" in place of 1 tsp. of PJ. Everyone knows that "Bag Balm" is good for colds,molds,schwoles,sore a**holes,good for your kidneys and makes child birth a pleasure. So thought a little in Simple Green couldn't make it bad. Bag Balm is supposedly petroleum jelly and lanolin with an antibiotic added.
When it cooled,it had the same "slug tracks" on top.
Personally, I like to follow the directions given for lube to a T. There are subtle differences in products that will produce different characteristics in a lube. Also, each ingredient affects all the others, and it's much easier to cause a negative effect that a positive one. A good lube is a very delicate balance.
If you go changing things up, then you will not be using the same lube that was described in the OP.
Personally, I don't have enough money to go bravely trying out new, unproven ingredients. It's much cheaper for me to just follow the directions perfectly and be sure that what I am using is the stuff being advertised. For one thing, If I have trouble I can get help, and for another thing, if it actually works, I'll have a prayer of repeating the recipe when I run out.
I learned this the hard way with my first batch of FWFL. The stuff is amazing and works better than any batch I have made since. All I know is that I used a certain amount of bag-balm instead of anhydrous lanolin. Now I'm down to my last 1/2 cup of the stuff. What exactly did I do? It's been 3 years, who knows?!?!?
the striping is nothing more than temperature differences in the cooling process.
the top cooled faster than the bottom is all, there ain't no separation.
this lube takes substitutions and additions pretty easily, the whole purpose was/is a base lube that can be used as is or modified as you see fit for your particular area.
some guy's in australia add a little carnuba wax, others in some northern climates add a little xlox.
as long as you stay pretty close to the basic ingredients the lube will work as intended.
i have even added some lithium grease to the lube with no ill affects.
One thing SL doesn't seem to like is synthetics. There isn't much in the way of friction modifiers or stearates in the recipe to contend with the excess slippery of the synthetics. Synthetics add a significant measure of low-temperature usefulness to a lube, but must be used carefully. Incidentally, carnauba wax is an excellent friction modifier, as is xlox. I can think of several commercial lubes that have synthetic oil bases heavily modified with such things, and other things too. But they aren't "simple" either.
Gear
O.k. I mixed up some lube 50/50 bees wax vasolene roughly there about till I was pleased with it..
Put a bit of 2 stroke oil (air cooled in it) and some ATF.
Comes our a bit grainy when scraped up slippery .
Seemed to work alright for low velocity loads and cleaned out easy with eds red.
I found some rbcs green lube as far as the label said that had rotted mostly away.
I scraped off some of the shed droppings dust and muck and carved what I could off the stick. (sad and pathetic isn't it :) )
This seems to be able to be sweezed into a waxy film with the fingers and has a waxy feel to it.
My brew seams about the same hardness but butters better and feels slipperier and not as waxy.Smears on and doesn't film like the rbsc putty.
Mines more smeary
How fast can you push this lube?? 1800 fps area??
Is there a difference between outboard cw3 oil and general air cooled mower oiL for this application.
I have heaps of outboard oil. Or even low smoke chainsaw super duper oil.
What about diesel or petrol additive injector cleaner???
I've been finger lubing to try this out on a 311466 loverin.with out gas check low vel loads.
But I want to try some of this gas check caper out.
mix 50ww/lead.acc.
or just stick to the original post??
Mine aint green as the bees wax is brown and hard.
Thanks
Bruce
I've been well over 2600fps with it without a trace of lead in rifle loads. Given a good boolit fit i don't think speed will be an issue.
Well I shot some gas checked things today at about 1900fps ish or there abouts. Finger lubed and they shot surprisingly accurate. Messy compared to paper patching but well worth the effort.
I don't think I had any lead and it cleans out easy as with a bit of ed's red.
I also shot a few jacketed stuff and cursed at having to scrub the bore with copper solvents and all that menagerie ones goes though.......thank the heavens for dirty leading inaccurate cheap homemade lead boolits :)
I'm beginning to like this lube...goes nicely with my philosophy ...simple and made with easy to get common things.
Thanks to those who thought of it.
Cheers
Barra
stick to the plain ol' 2 stroke oil, and atf combo.
once you start changing the ester chain lengths [carbon strand lengths actually] or sub in a poa type oil it changes the composition of the molecular strands.
you can add in alox, carnuba, even some lith grease, and the other usual suspects like a little mineral oil or even castor oil.
but they all change the temp range of the lube..
Made up a small test batch today with stuff on hand and had a few questions/concerns.
Beeswax was some I'd cleaned up out of an abandon hive about 20 years ago. Been using it since then and now down to my last 4 oz but it seems to be fine.
Had to go to HelMart for ATF and Vasoline so picked "Super Tech" multi-vehicle ATF, with Dexron, D-II, D-III, Mercon, Mercon V ratings. Bright red and runny, smells like bike tire rubber. Also seems fine.
Vasoline label said "100% Pure" but has "fresh scent". Smells like baby powder and the aroma is still faintly there in the lube.
Big question is the 2 cycle oil I used, Briggs&Stratton "Easy Mix" with fuel stabilizer. This stuff smells funky - acrid and strong, a lot like some soaps and definitely like most outboard lower unit oils. I'm guessing the fuel stabilizer is the culprit? Any thoughts on whether this is good or bad in lube?
Color is an off yellow but consistency is exactly what every one else is reporting - kinda soft and kinda sticky but not bad and a bit crumbly. I use a lot of Carnauba Red but get a lot of lube goobers showing up on my chronograph and targets, especially with Keith SWCs and figured a less tenacious lube might help.
Just my .2 cents but next time maybe stick to plain ol 2 stroke like r5r says in post 291. I've used this lube up to 95* temps with 100% humidity @ a easy 2500fps and my brother uses it in the cold in colorado with the same loads i use in 35 whelen. I'm in MS. so seems to be pretty extreme temp range on it. It has come to be my go to lube for everything. So far haven't had to tweak it for anything. It's probably just me but i don't like straying too far from what the inventor used to make it with.
I've shot a few hundred rounds of my mix and it seems to work fine as a lube, I was mostly worried that it might cause funky fouling or something.
The fuel stabilizer stuff was just what I had on hand - either that or synthetic and the info above tends to shy away from the syn.
Tried pan lubing some 44KTSWCs and it was a bit of a pain, a bit too hard and gooey and got lube all over everything. Gonna try it in my sizer at the next refill.
By "hard", I mean that it takes quite a bit of pressure to shove my Kake Kutter over the bullet and down into the lube cake. This was at ambient room temperature. Undoubtedly a little heat would soften the lube but that would be one more step away from "simple".
By "gooey", I mean that the lube didn't slick off the bullet as well as some of the other pan lubes I've used. The Kake Kutter eventually had lube all over the outside and inside and lube got on the noses and crimp grooves of the following bullets and everything else I touched.
Another first time user report:
I made up a batch of SL a few weeks back using cheapo (blue bottle) ATF and 2-cycle, and store brand PJ from Wally's. My wife had some lanolin, which is about 5 years old. Beeswax was from Randy. The only additional additive was liquid candle color from Hobby Lobby, because my son really, really wanted green lube (what can I say, I'm a softie).
And I got SMOKE! :holysheep
I'm not gonna say it was blackpowder thick, but it was rather impressive. Considering it's not being used in a rapid-fire application (475 Linebaugh) I'm not really complaining, but it'll sure be interesting when I get some SWC's lubed up for indoor use with my .357.
I'm guessing it might be the candle color that caused the smoke, because that's the only oddball thing I added. More knowledgeable folks might want to chime here.
At this point, the verdict is out on whether it plays any nicer than the factory lube that the bullets shipped with. It took me a bit to get settled down with the gun this past weekend and I ran out of SL lubed rounds before groups really started to tighten up.
FWIW, this stuff works pretty good for metal cutting and mold parts!
I had a pan dirty from pan lubing sitting next to the workbench and I thought, hmmm, wonder if it'll make tapping this hole a little easier? Sure enough, a little gob on the tap cut the torque needed by about half! Gooey bullet lube doesn't do much for flushing out the chips but it's easy enough to back out the tap and give it a quick wire brushing.
Simple lube is also working nicely on the lathe for turning, ESPECIALLY since liquid oil get slung all over the place. I've got a Q-tip saturated with SLube and touch it to the cutting point while turning.
Oh ya, that same Q-tip works good for putting a little lube on mold sprue pivots and alignment pins!!
I've been using this for about 2 years now for all my boolits (that I don't tumble lube). Does anybody make a commercial variant in sticks? I like the lube but don't much enjoy making it.