I cooked a can of JPW down.
I started out with a full can of JPW. The can and contents weighed 18.9oz, the can weighed 2.6 oz, therefore the JPW weighed 16.3oz. The height of the cold JPW was 2in above the level portion of the bottom of the can. I put the can in a saucepan of water to act as a double boiler and melted the JPW. The height increased to 2 1/8 inches as the JPW expanded due to the heat. After a half hour only a little of the solvents had evaporated so I poured the JPW into another saucepan so I could heat it up to a higher temperature. When melted the height in this pan was 1 1/2 inches. I could see a little water in the bottom of the pan so I kept the heat below LOW until it had boiled off. Then I gradually increased the heat to halfway between LOW and MED on my Walgreens' 1000 Watt hot plate. This was where it started smoking seriously. Like when you drop some candle wax on top of your melt for fluxing. I was doing this in the garage and had cleared the benchtop for over 18" in all directions. Good thing because after 20-30 minutes it flamed. Just like when you flux using candle wax. Put a cake pan on it to smother the flames. Took the cake pan off and it flamed again. I'm a slow learner so I did it twice more. Finally, I left the cake pan on for a half hour. When I came back and uncovered it, the JPW was still liquid and was 9/32 above the bottom of the pan. I poured it into a Pyrex measuring cup (used only in the garage) and there was 2 oz of liquid left. I poured this into the empty JPW can. After the measuring cup and contents had cooled, I chipped the JPW out of the cup and added it to the can. Weighing again, the remains of the JPW weighed 2.25 oz. Since there were 2 oz of liquid it looks like the density is just over 1.0
The MSDS indicates that the amount of solvents is about 80% of the weight of the JPW. This means that the paraffin and carnuba waxes should be about 3.25 ounces so it looks like I may have burned out some of these waxes. Next time I will mark a stick at about 3/8 inch and stop cooking before the level gets down to that point.
I'll save the now concentrated JPW for the next time I make a batch of 45/45/10.
I didn't do it "right" but it didn't turn out "wrong"
Well, 18 pages was a long read!
First, thanks to Recluse for documenting the process of making 45/45/10
After a bit of scrounging, I came up with a can of JPW. Decided NOT to reduce the JPW (much, anyway) so melted it down. I used a coffee can over my gas grill. Yeah, it could catch fire, but it is in the BBQ, after all. I used my IR thermometer to monitor temp, and once it got to 180F, I pulled it off the heat. Poured in the LLA, which was microwaved to a liquid state. Put the mess back on the heat for just a bit while I stirred it all together. Took it off the heat, and when it was back down to 130F or so, added an OZ of MS. Poured all of it in some LLA bottles. I had boolits ready to lube, so started using it right away. Found I shoulda warmed the boolits, as dripping lube on them made the lube begin to harden right away. They seemed to lube up OK anyway.
The finished lube looks like chocolate pudding so I think the consistency is about right. It returns to a liquid with 45 sec in the microwave.
Bottom line, I sure do LOVE the way the boolits turn out! No more sticky brown mess when they are lubed! Now you can only tell they are lubed by touching them. Even then they are not sticky, they feel waxy. I haven't shot them yet, but assuming it is as reported, no more smoke will be a real plus, too.
Again, thanks Recluse, you da man!
Readers and lurkers, don't start a kitchen fire in your house melting flammables! Take it outside! And if you haven't tried this stuff, you really should. This is cool beans! 8-)
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Gotta love that TumbleLoob!!!
Hello the camp! First stab at making 45/45/10 went swimmingly. Nothing succeeds like success.
What follows is not original; I burgled it off a kaboy-kinda site. Made from shop scrap--doesn't everybody have hardware cloth laying around?--it took about 20 min to cobble together, allows virtually 360-deg drying and obviates wax paper hanging around.
Gotta admit new mix is friendlier in indoor loading room than std LLA. This screen hangs under my bench ready for whenever.
See ya round the campfire. mm