SL68B, the "all around" boolit lube and how to make it

OK, here we go...this is the sales pitch ;)
:arrow: Disclaimer: I am not selling boolit lube

1. It works for pistol and rifle boolits, slow low pressure rounds like 38 spl WC right on up to high velocity rifle.

2. It's been successfully tested (shooting) in the extreme heat of Texas and extreme cold of the Rockies and hasn't had any serious issues.

3. It been successfully tested (storage) in the extreme heat of a parked car (windows up) in the summer sun and it doesn't melt or weep oil out and contaminate the powder in loaded rounds.

4. It's soft, so whatever is left on the bullet, when it exits the barrel, flings off, so as to not make the bullet unbalanced.

5. Accuracy-wise, It shoots clean, leaving the inside of the barrel in a state where it doesn't create cold barrel flyers.

6. Smokiness-wise, it shoots pretty cleanly ...mostly... becuase humidity and the type of gunpowder kinda dictate part of smokiness.

7. Messiness-wise, It shoots clean, I've tested it with revolver ammo, and after shooting a box of 50 rds, the outside (as well as the inside) of the gun just had a light haze of soot and NOT greasey like many beeswax based lubed (where the lube is 50% or more beeswax and the other portion is mosty oil or grease.)

8. It's soft, but not tacky like a Speed green type of lube. When handling lubed bullets, obviously I try to avoid touching the lubed areas, with lubes like speed green, no matter who careful you are, I've found it to become a sticky mess, lube finger prints on everything. Now a bullet lubed with SL68B, when the lube area is touched, it feels like lotion and my fingers are is easily wiped on a rag or trousers to become clean...it doesn't become a mess. I'm kinda anal about hand/finger cleanliness, so this was important to me in a soft lube.

9. lastly, It's flows through a lubesizer without heat, even if room temp is cold, like 55ºF.

edited to add one more
"#10 Stuff doesn't goober-up gas systems." (per Gear) see the second paragraph of post #6


edited 9-19-2016:
the following issue (in quote below) about Corrosion hasn't shown itself to exist with the batches I've made, it's been 18 months and no signs of any problems on my long term test samples. I'll continue inspecting the samples of this long term test and report every once in a while.

Quote:

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One potential downside ...corrosion. Others have had evidence of verdigris and other corrosion with a very similar recipe, I HAVE NOT with this exact recipe (my stored bullets sized/lubed for as long as 6 months, including Minnesota humid summer as well as some loaded ammo, I pulled apart...no corrosion evidence), but recently, after hearing others having this issue, I have set up an long term experiment and will report on that in the future.

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Preface to recipe, I have made this or similar a couple times, and I learned techniques each time. Today, I made 5 batches and honed the technique even more. I am confident I can give all the tips and tricks for any boolit caster to cook up a batch.
See post #2 "commentary" regarding tweaking this recipe

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons 90-wt GL-1 gear oil
2 tablespoons generic white petrolatum
1 tablespoon heavy mineral oil (laxative grade from pharmacy)
1/2 tablespoon castor bean oil (also from pharmacy)
2 ounces fresh Ivory soap (soft, damp).

Waxes:
0.5 ounces 175º Micro-crystalline Wax (MW)
0.5 ounces 185º MW
0.5 ounces 190º MW
0.7 ounces Bees Wax (BW)

Instructions:
1. Melt everything except the soap and BW.
I cook this outside on a coleman gasoline cookstove, medium flame. while this recipe makes only about 6 ozs of lube and fills two tuna cans about 3/4 full each, I use a thick aluminum 3 quart soup pot, you will need that much capacity due to the soap foaming up.

2. After the above has melted, then add the soap (which should have been previously sliced into slivers, I use a shop scissors) stir constantly, it will foam up, but rest assured that is why I prescribed you to use a large enough soup pot, continue with medium flame, stirring constantly, until all the foaminess is gone and the mix becomes a light clear amber liquid with no gel or clumps of soap remaining.
Heads up, it will start smoking about now, that is correct and NOT a problem...be careful it's hot ! (this stage, the reducing of the soap, takes about 10 minutes if it's not too cold and windy).

3. Now It should be around 460ºF
I choose not to use a thermometer, it just complicates things, everything needs to be done quickly at this stage, if not, the lube will get scorched.
Add the BW now, You must have it pre-melted and ready to pour at this stage, Stir it a bit (2 or 3 seconds) and cut the heat and pour into your chilled molds* ...BUT, if the mix Gels-up when BW is added**, continue to stir with the pot over the heat, til it's a clear liquid again, it will start turning light brown, the BW is starting to scorch, I've decided a little scorching is no big deal, but the BW "needs" to be blended at the liquid stage.

chilled molds* I use recycled tuna cans and have them sitting in a icewater bath.

Gels-up when BW is added** This only happened when I cooked this on a cold Minnesota wintery windy day. I had no geling when I made these 5 batches today, temp was 70º today.


http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/u...psaa5f8a24.jpg




It will look like this as the soap foams up.
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/u...ps3aa0e65a.jpg


After the soap foam settles down some, it'll look lke Cream of wheat, but it's not hot enough yet.http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/u...ps9c837118.jpg


This is the clear amber color you want to see, you know all the soap is combined and turned into grease and it's at 460ºF. ***you want to add the beeswax quickly and cut the heat and pour into the molds...all in about 10 seconds or less.
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/u...ps354f4fef.jpg

This is the color of all 5 batches of finished lube from today. I suspect they got a little scorched due to the fact I didn't "crash cool" the lube, as I was able to do last winter, in the snow. But I have decided a little scorch isn't a big deal, and a little color is a good thing.
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/u...psmmzqnz4o.jpg

Tweaking the recipe:
I think using a single MW and no beeswax will make a lube nearly identical to SL68B...as that is basically what Gear's SL-68 recipe is. I guess it's all in what you are able to obtain in regards to MW.

So, why did I tweak the original recipe ?
After I made my first batch of soap lube (SL-68) and I liked it.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...ipe&highlight=
BUT, I knew I had three different high melt temp MW samples (about 1 lb samples) from different sources...none of which, I may be able to get more of. Worrying a bit that when I ran out of the MW I started with and switching to one of the others may change the lube's performance, I started thinking of altering the recipe and blending equal portions of each MW into the recipe, making a 'possibly' more desirable complex wax base, and prolonging my stash. Discussions with Gear and others on that thought, also brought up beeswax...and that could add more/different benefits of wax complexity as well as stretch out my stash even more. That's the reason why.

If you are interested is tweaking any other part of the recipe, the Quote below is from Gear in regards to the basis of the original SL-68 recipe (but after the fact that SL68B is successful) and will give you far more insight that I can personally offer.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by geargnasher

About the lube, any basic mix involving about 1/3 mixed micro-crystalline waxes, 1/3 by weight FRESH Ivory soap, and the balance Vaseline with a castor oil booster at the rate of 1-2 teaspoons per pound of lube does well. The reason for the GL-1 mineral gear oil in the original SL-68 recipe was to temper the dry, hard micro-crystalline 180F wax that I was using by itself for the entire wax portion. The white mineral oil is there to soften the whole mix, may or may not be necessary depending on the waxes used. In essence, it's only four ingredients: A wax/soap carrier plasticized by non-slick petrolatum, and a very controlled amount of high-performance lubricant. Castor oil does special things between moving hot metal surfaces that not a lot of other oils do, but too much of a good thing makes the lube super-slippery and accuracy suffers, that's why Vaseline and mineral-based, paraffinic oils (NOT napthenic or branched-chain oils like engine oil or GL-5 gear lubes) are used to plasticize the wax and oils...they soften without adding too much of a slippery element that would cause purge flyers or cold/hot barrel discrepancies.

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In regards to all the claims I made in the OP "sales pitch". Most are documented in this thread:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...ipe&highlight=

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What was causing the corrosion w/ the other recipes? And what's different in this one that makes you think it won't be an issue?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dragon813gt

What was causing the corrosion w/ the other recipes? And what's different in this one that makes you think it won't be an issue?

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That is the question of the year !
BUT, what makes me think it won't be an issue in SL68B? ...because it hasn't yet.

edited: (others think soap)

the corrosion was from a different stearate.
stearic acid was substituted for sodium stearate.
it will do the same thing but has a tendency to retain and pull in moisture much like glycerin does.
it also changes the ph of the lube just a titch lower.

Excellent tutorial, Jon, thanks for posting that.

A few remarks about the corrosion. Way back when I was trying to work this out the first sixty or so times, ex-member 357Maximum joined in the experimentation in HUMID Michigan. I don't recall exactly if he ever had anything corrode due to the soap lube, but his stuff got very slimy and soft due to the humidity and he brought that to our attention with no small emphasis. Having had similar concerns from the start, I had been doing corrosion testing already for some time and felt that his concerns were misplaced. Several years and continuing corrosion testing later I still feel that way, BUT, for the benefit of everyone whose been following this, I'd be doing a disservice to ignore a couple of minor things that I've observed since then. The whole SL series, at about 25% net finished weight of Ivory (around 18-20% Na stearate based on many lubes made with pure Na stearate instead of Ivory bar soap) is essentially water-soluble. You can smear it all over your hands and go wash them totally clean with plain water since the soap emulsifies the water and wax. It may be the hygroscopic nature of the lube that has caused some slight discoloration of my lubed and stored bullets and a bit of white to blue powdery stuff inside fired case necks, or it might be other things like additives in the particular gear oil I've been using for SL-68 and its variants. One thing I DO know is that I have about seventy lube samples with polished brass cases stuck in them, in an un-insulated shed, and only three have shown any real corrosion: Felix lube, Felix/Wiljen lube, and SL-68.1. Even TnT, which is about half soap and half polyolester oil, didn't even create any significant discoloration of polished brass after over two years. I'd say it's about a .5 on the ASTM copper strip corrosion scale. So is it the soap? I don't know. None of these soap-ish lubes except Felix/Wiljen lube (made with stearic acid) has had any effect whatsoever on cast iron or tool steel. I'm seeing three things that CAN have a corrosive effect on copper: Stearic acid, beeswax (YEP!), and the particular flavor of gear oil I've been using for SL-68.1. The GL-1 gear oil I'm using is a bulk industrial product that isn't API certified as such and likely contains some yellow-metal-unfriendly sulphur compounds or maybe even phosphorous as EP additives, things normally reserved for GL-5 hypoid gear lubricants. Specifying the GL-1, straight mineral oil has two reasons: A relatively non-slippery plasticizer/viscosity modifier, and something that DOES NOT have EP compounds that will react unfavorably with copper gas checks and brass cartridge cases. The NAPA stuff is probably real GL-1 spec. We have a lot to consider when choosing lube ingredients, and making sure that bad things aren't happening to our guns or ammunition while we sleep is right up there with making sure we don't poison ourselves cooking or shooting the stuff. Everyone just keep an eye out for any long-term side effects of lube or fired lube residue, as you should with ANY home-brew lube formula.

One last thing, I'd personally like to add a #10 to the list of attributes in the OP: Stuff doesn't goober-up gas systems. Been running it in an M1A and three ARs going back almost two years. Recently I shot some old bullets lubed with Javelina Alox in one of my ARs and couldn't believe the mess. It runs really clean in automatic pistols, too, alleviating the necessity to disassemble and clean the lube gunk out of magazines on a regular basis, and also the need to keep a bottle of Windex handy for de-hazing shooting glasses and scope lenses. This ain't a sales pitch either, just an honest observation. FACT: The more beeswax you put in a lube, the higher the tendency to smoke and leave a greasy residue on things as the lube vapor condenses. This is due (I think) to the high mono- and di-ester content of beeswax, a property that also makes it extremely effective as an extreme heat/pressure lubricant. I think the small beeswax proportion of SL-68B can only be an improvement, even if it has the side effect of a teensy bit more smoke. Kudos to coming up with a clever way of sneaking in the beeswax so it doesn't scorch too badly, that was something that twarted about 40 of my SL lube attempts and made me give up more than once. SL-68.0 doesn't smoke and doesn't leave a lube star, but will leave a slight antimony haze when the velocity gets up past 2500 fps. The beeswax ought to help that a little.

Gear

Gear, thanks for the well layed out details, of which, I am unable to convey

Thank you for the information. I appreciate it. I'm always looking for lubes that I can make myself if needed. But White Label makes it so easy to just buy lubes :)

Is straight carnauba wax or Johnson paste wax used for the Micro-crystalline Wax? Is the white petrolatum a Vaseline? If not where is it found or what is it? I see that it seems to be critical to use "fresh" Ivory soap and was wondering why it needs to be fresh. I thought the fresh soap had more water in it which made it foam more and that by using the older dried out stuff would eliminate the foaming some. I'm sure there is a reason and was wondering what it was.

Just a few questions for the newer guys like me.
Thanks! and nice write up!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cs86

Is straight carnauba wax or Johnson paste wax used for the Micro-crystalline Wax? ...snip

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No.

"Microcrystalline waxes are a type of wax produced by de-oiling petrolatum, as part of the petroleum refining process. In contrast to the more familiar paraffin wax which contains mostly unbranched alkanes, microcrystalline wax contains a higher percentage of isoparaffinic (branched) hydrocarbons and naphthenic hydrocarbons. It is characterized by the fineness of its crystals in contrast to the larger crystal of paraffin wax."

read more at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcrystalline_wax

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cs86

snip...
Is the white petrolatum a Vaseline? If not where is it found or what is it?

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If you buy your "Vaseline" at the dollar store, and it isn't the Vasoline brand, the product will probably be labeled as white petrolatum
...it's the same stuff...but the main reason to buy the cheaper Generic, is that generally it won't have any "extras" in it, like fragrances or colors or some other random skin softening ingredient like Aloe or Vit E, that you won't want in this recipe of boolit lube.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cs86

snip...
I see that it seems to be critical to use "fresh" Ivory soap and was wondering why it needs to be fresh. I thought the fresh soap had more water in it which made it foam more and that by using the older dried out stuff would eliminate the foaming some. I'm sure there is a reason and was wondering what it was.

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Good question, not everyone that has been in discussions of soap lubes have agreed on this. At least one former castboolit member was adamant that the soap be aged/dried out for a month or so.

The first batch I made yesterday, was using a bar where the wrapper was opened last winter when I made my first batch of SL68B. The bar was still whole, but didn't seem dried out but it cut a lot different than I remembered. So I weighed it, it was 2.80 oz...the package said each bar weighs 3.1 oz. So, the first thing I did, was to calculate the weight of soap needed from that dry bar (accounting for water weight loss), to get the proper amount of soap into the recipe. Then when I cooked that particular batch, in comparison to subsequent batches I made with 2.0 ozs of fresh soap. I noticed that it took longer to dissolve the larger chunks of soap shavings when they were dry, as opposed to the fresh soap. I believe the water cooking off helps the dissolution of soap, or probably more correctly the reaction of making grease ...and I believe that's what Gear explained to me the first time I started the consideration making my first batch of soap lube in the summer of 2014, while at least one other member stated the opposite on that occasion.

All the SL-67-71 series of lubes use equal parts wax and soap BY WEIGHT. This only works out if the soap is FRESH and account for the water weight that will be cooked off. Now, if you use "bar quantity", as in a 3.1-ounce bar, use 3.1 ounces of wax PER BAR, dry or not. Same for the 4.2 ounce Ivory bar, use 4.2 ounces wax.

Jon is right, it's a helluva lot easier to get the soap broken down to the "cream o' wheat" stage if it's not too dried out. All the foaming breaks it down and some stirring makes the whole pot full of stuff that resembles meringue rather than crushed egg shells. The dried stuff, even if powdered, takes longer to melt and will have little pinhead-sized grains haunting you all the way to the fully-molten part. Trying to get all those hard bits to melt adds time to the high-temperature portion of the cooking sequence and that is NOT a good thing.

And White Label doesn't make anything like this, or that has the same performance range, not even close. Whether or not you need the capabilities of this lube is up to you. The performance requirements that lead eventually to the development of this lube are outlined in the first couple of posts on the Extreme Lube Quest sticky thread.

Gear

Aargh :( I'll never the ingredients of these lubes. Always the same problem. In this recipe it is the micro-crystalline wax.. no idea where to get some.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ola

Aargh :( I'll never the ingredients of these lubes. Always the same problem. In this recipe it is the micro-crystalline wax.. no idea where to get some.

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I've never bought any...I've only swapped for it.
but if I were to buy some, I'd start a GB and buy here.
http://blendedwaxes.com/microcrystalline-wax/

a quick google search came up with this, but they don't share any specs, but they are only a toll-free phone call away.
http://www.candlesandsupplies.net/Mi...FZKAaQodjmANzA

I'm sure there are other sources, all you need to do is start typing in the google search box ...or you could just continue frowning :p

Of course I did the google thing: I tried to find it locally. Only thing I found was microcrystalline wax as E905C food additive (interestingly E905A is paraffin, E905B is Vaseline). You can eat it, but not too much: has laxative effects in high concentrations.

That candle supply link gave me a new clue.. Thanks!

Heheh! You started this, Jon, see why I didn't?

See ya.

Gear

lolz @ " you started ..."

aye yi yi , i mostly keep my experiments to myself for such reasons altho granted sometimes feedback would be a boon , i havent hit my nirvana yet and oft wonder if i ever will , i've lost count of the " close but no cigar " attempts , f.w.i.w. .... my goal is like many folk's ( a good lube ) but rather in a non-traditional form ( i like the harder lubes when they're good eg; hi- melt temp crayon but not crayon ) i havent gotten there yet with natural ingredients and use mostly synthetics including quite a few various MW's and as we know synthetics ...are a challenge ... maybe someday [shrugz]
until such a time if a group buy goes forwards ( and they usually want you to buy quite a quantity [dratz] ) the blended waxes site is the best place i know to get umm small quantities of micro wax ( small meaning 10 #'s minimum and 10 #'s goes along ways when you're making small batches of lube
)
http://www.shopblendedwaxes.com/Microcrystalline-Wax/

btw ? none of their listed wax has the higher melting point i'm looking for ( 200 F + )

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ola

Of course I did the google thing: I tried to find it locally. Only thing I found was microcrystalline wax as E905C food additive (interestingly E905A is paraffin, E905B is Vaseline). You can eat it, but not too much: has laxative effects in high concentrations.

That candle supply link gave me a new clue.. Thanks!

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OK, I didn't notice your location was Finland, til just now.
I adjusted my google search and wala
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Microcryst...-/261963519033

Gear and Fry,
It's what I do. I've always been a open and public person (read: hunger for attention), long before the Internet had public access. I wear my heart on my sleeve and my brain in my back pocket :p It's an illness , I even coined a title for it, COTUS (center of the universe syndrome).
Luckily I'm not seriously afflicted, or I might be on 'some' of those reality shows.

JonB,
I'm all set to make SL-68 (Beta) Shooting rifle cast exclusively: Should I go forth or Jump to your SL-68B (Have every thing I need for both)
I have both Gear's SL-68 and Your SL-68B tutorials to fall back on!
What would you say?
Jim

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JWFilips

JonB,
I'm all set to make SL-68 (Beta) Shooting rifle cast exclusively: Should I go forth or Jump to your SL-68B (Have every thing I need for both)
I have both Gear's SL-68 and Your SL-68B tutorials to fall back on!
What would you say?
Jim

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Jim,
While I, myself, am sold on using a small portion of beeswax, in place of some of the MW, when giving someone else advice on this, I would quote myself from the first part of post #2 of this thread...and then add, it's totally up to you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JonB_in_Glencoe

Tweaking the recipe:
I think using a single MW and no beeswax will make a lube nearly identical to SL68B...as that is basically what Gear's SL-68 recipe is. I guess it's all in what you are able to obtain in regards to MW.
...snip

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JonB,
Ah I see you covered your bases early! That is great work for a true scientist!
I like your answer!
Jim

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JonB_in_Glencoe

OK, I didn't notice your location was Finland, til just now.
I adjusted my google search and wala
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Microcryst...-/261963519033

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Thanks, I'll probably order there. It should be the right stuff?
(The instructions are worryingly similar to "stearine" our local candle supply stores are selling..)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ola

Thanks, I'll probably order there. It should be the right stuff?
(The instructions are worryingly similar to "stearine" our local candle supply stores are selling..)

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I'd contact the seller and ask for details about the product...melt temp and such.

It seems that sourcing MW has been taken care of, but if someone else needs some try asking candle/soap/body vendors at your local craft fair where they get theirs, or if they would be willing to split an order.

I probably still have a 50lb box around here somewhere from my candle/soap days for making body products, not sure of the specs.
Maybe I should dig it out and check the specs to see if it would be useful to anyone here.
I can't throw stuff away, but I will never use it, at least not that much, I still have enough oils/lye to make a lifetime supply of soap.

if I were to make a new batch I would use as many waxes available to me as possible.
as long as they fit the criteria of the micro-wax and bees-wax realm.
going rogue with paraffin is likely to cause some issues.
I won't have an issue sneaking some soy wax in the mix. [probably sneak some small % of alox in it too :lol:]

Well, I took the big step yesterday, and emptied my Star of the Tamarack 50-50 (Beeswax-alox2138) and put in SL68B.

Why was this a big step, something that I've never mentioned before about SL68B, is that because of the high melt temp, you can't drain/empty a lubesizer by using a heatgun or boiling in water. Although it's easy enough to change lubes by just adding a new lube on top of SL68B and just cycle it through by lubing boolits or just pushing it out with pressure and the die removed...which is a bit of a drawback...The only one I've found so far.

Anyway, when I did this, I added some "bits" of old Ideal black lube between the two lubes, so I would know when the Tamarack was gone and I was pumping pure SL68B, as they are about the same color. For continued testing purposes, I don't want any Alox in my SL68B (for good or bad)...but mostly for smokiness evaluation.

I sized about (500) SWC 158gr for a coming batch of HOT 357 Mag ammo. So I'll have some tamarack lubed and some SL68B lubed and some blended...for testing smokiness purposes.

FYI, these SWC's are a NOE clone of a double crimp groove (lyman?) and have a single generous square lube groove. It took about 200 boolits from the beginning of the blended lube with black streaking to the end, where the lube was obviously pure SL68B...in case anyone is curious.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JonB_in_Glencoe

Well, I took the big step yesterday, and emptied my Star of the Tamarack 50-50 (Beeswax-alox2138) and put in SL68B.

Why was this a big step, something that I've never mentioned before about SL68B, is that because of the high melt temp, you can't drain/empty a lubesizer by using a heatgun or boiling in water. Although it's easy enough to change lubes by just adding a new lube on top of SL68B and just cycle it through by lubing boolits or just pushing it out with pressure and the die removed...which is a bit of a drawback...The only one I've found so far.

Anyway, when I did this, I added some "bits" of old Ideal black lube between the two lubes, so I would know when the Tamarack was gone and I was pumping pure SL68B, as they are about the same color. For continued testing purposes, I don't want any Alox in my SL68B (for good or bad)...but mostly for smokiness evaluation.

I sized about (500) SWC 158gr for a coming batch of HOT 357 Mag ammo. So I'll have some tamarack lubed and some SL68B lubed and some blended...for testing smokiness purposes.

FYI, these SWC's are a NOE clone of a double crimp groove (lyman?) and have a single generous square lube groove. It took about 200 boolits from the beginning of the blended lube with black streaking to the end, where the lube was obviously pure SL68B...in case anyone is curious.

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Jon,

I don't believe in melting a soap based lube again after it's made. I feed my luber/sizer mechanically. If I have to empty it out I pull the ram piston out of the die that is in the machine and crank all the lube out as a long thread. Then I remove the die and clean out that cavity where it resides as good as possible then fill er back up again. This isn't offend that I have to empty it because I don't switch lubes often. If I'm testing a lube I hand lube. Just my two cents.

Well, the corrosion tests are at the 16 month mark, still no corrosion.
I bumped this thread, as a friend and fellow cast boolit member has recently requested to join me in making a batch of this lube, for tutorial purposes. No date have been set yet.

When ya make some...I want some...

Have been reading on this site about the BEN's RED concoction. I really am confused as to some of it's constituents. Transmission fluid. I mix abit in my cosmoline cleaning solutions.
Johnson's Wax. Again...don't understand the need or use of this.

*********************************************
{ooohhh... just found this...see below..
Thanks to Ben and others who shared how they make it, I decided to try it today. This is the basic mix:
50% beeswax
30% Red, Tacky Lucas High Temp Grease
10% Johnson's Paste Wax
5% Dexron II or Dexron III Trans. Fluid
5% STP Oil Treatment


But a forum member was nice enough to describe that in other units, and using a complete Red Tacky Lucas Grease:
24 ozs. = 3 cups - melted beeswax
14 ozs. = 1 3/4 cups - Red N Tacky , heat it..it doesn't really melt
4.6 ozs. = 2/3 cup - Johnsons Paste Wax - melted
2.3 ozs. = 1/3 cup - Dexron II or III ATF
2.3 ozs. = 1/3 cup- STP Oil Treatment

Note, 1/3 cup = 5 Tablespoons + 1 teaspoon
************************************************** ***

GEAR-- Comments on this solution? I found what I could about the recipe for your responses.

Nose Dive

Cheap, Fast, Good. Kindly pick two.

PS...just found this on this site...cannot verify accuracy...
***********************************
Johnsons Paste Wax
(From www.k-state.edu)
By weight: Isoparaffinic hydrocarbon solvent 75-85%, Paraffin wax 10-30%, Carnauba Wax 5-10%.
******************************************

I used to make HC Paraffin wax from crude oil before we made gasoline out of it. Used in COLD DRINK PAPER CUPS.
What is the 75%-85% HC Solvent shown above? we used naptha....ND

Gear hasn't been on loggin'd in to CB since April, so I doubt he'll see this.

I can't speak to Ben's Red.

the JPW is used for the paraffin and carnuba.
paraffin goes into full flow all at once under heat and temp it pulls the beeswax into working sooner and longer in the barrel.
the atf is used to widen the temperature window somewhat and leaves a film unlike the film from the mineral oil base of the grease.
Bens red does better with about 10% more B-wax added to the mix.

OK... I use paraffin...bees wax...some STP...Lucas red 'ticky tacky' grease and/or some old fashion Vasoline... and some red crayolas. My eyes are going bad and in some BOOLIT cavities, it is hard for me to see the lube after a few months.... i might try some food coloring...see what happens...

But...to me...adding aromatics to the mix will allow for drying and cracking and I age my boolits a few months before loading them.. My alloy needs time to, well, as Emeril says...'sit and get happy' before reloading.... I like to let'em sit for 90 days or so....

So...No BEN's RED for me... I might just make some and lube a few 45s or something...set them in the cabinet to see if indeed they 'boil off' and crack. I could be wrong you know. Once...Hmmmm...back in '68 or '69, if I remember correctly....I did make a mistake.

Nose Dive

Cheap, Fast, Good. Kindly pick two.


PS...the JW folds also add aromatics to their paste stuff... and I know,,,it does dry out and crack up...

*************************************
Johnsons Paste Wax
(From www.k-state.edu)
By weight: Isoparaffinic hydrocarbon solvent 75-85%

I cranked out 600+ NOE 360-160-SWC through the Star (SL68B) this morning and had to refill the reservoir. While gouging out chunks of SL68B from tuna cans with a modified/bent screwdriver and pushing them into the Star, isn't as easy as dropping in a solid tube, it's not so bad, it took about 4 minutes and my hands cleaned up easily with regular hand soap and the tooling cleans up with just a wipe of a paper towel. I love this lube. These NOE boolits have a large square lube groove, the Star and SL68B sure did a nice job

OK, still learning here.

This week, I'm working on a large batch of Lee 358125RF for 9mm (1500 of them).
As I emptied the Star of lube, before I refilled it, the way I did before, I pondered...

Last time I used the bent screw driver and gouged chunks...I ended up using about 1/2 of a tuna can, to fill the reservoir. It was a bit messy.

So this time, I cut 1/2 the lube out of the tuna can, and formed that 1/2 disk shape into a tube shape. SL68B is more firm than molding clay, but it can be formed with your hands. This made refilling the reservoir as easy as putting a commercial made tube of lube in there...I don't know why I didn't think of this before.

Forming a tube wasn't messy at all, compared to pushing gouged out chunks of lube into the reservoir...which would cling to the sides...also knowing the amount it takes to fill (or almost fill) the reservoir is fairly important, because over filling is troublesome and messy to correct.

that's why I pour my lube out of the pan into a 3/4" deep cookie sheet then cut the lube into strips.
this makes a 3/4X about 1" square about 12" long.
I roll those strips over onto themselves and shape them with my hand into rolls about 1" around and cut them into 6" lengths that I store them in a cup with a lid.
I can then tear off the length I need and shove it into the star sizer.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by runfiverun

the corrosion was from a different stearate.
stearic acid was substituted for sodium stearate.
it will do the same thing but has a tendency to retain and pull in moisture much like glycerin does.
it also changes the ph of the lube just a titch lower.

---

I somehow doubt stearic acid is the cause of corrosion. Paraffin wax as used in candles had stearic acid in it. It is added to raise the melting point.

Quote:

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Paraffin wax initially suffered from having a low melting point; however, this shortcoming was later remedied by the addition of harder stearic acid.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraffin_wax

Stearic acid is good flux and can be used for soldering copper and brass. Perhaps it's the stearic acid in candle wax that makes it usable as a flux for casting.

What kind of gear oil is that used?

Also I am trying to source out micro crystalline wax? I have found some from craft sources for microcrystalline modeling waxes and blended waxes doesn't list your melt temps.

API GL-1 Mineral Gear oil is the old timey formula with no additives.
You can get it at Napa or most any tractor dealer.

For the past few months, I've been planning to make a bunch of this lube as I was almost out (the last batch was made in 2015). Well that finally happened yesterday and it was a BIG Lube day...I may have made enough for the rest of my life?
I did 10 batches, which is 20 tunafish cans that are 3/4 full.

I had one batch flame up, right after the beeswax addition/stirring, I got a little enthusiastic and splashed some on the burner, that was scary, as I didn't have a cover handy. My quick thinking was to move the pot off the heat and hold it under the picnic table tightly to the underside, to snuff out the flames, because I had to save the batch :) After the flames were out, I poured it in the tunafish cans. Now, a day later, while that batch is a little darker, I actually think it has a better feel to it, if I ever make more, I may consider a flambe' finish, LOL.

The Big Lube day was about 5 hours(from setup to cleanup), once setup, a batch takes about 15 minutes.
While I'd like to make larger batches, I just don't think it's feasible, mostly due to the beeswax addition and crash cooling.

Here is the updated recipe.
...ever since I made the last batch, the Lube guru's offered a bit of advice to "tweek" this recipe. So, as per their recommendations, I added some paraffin and reduced the castor oil. and I re-wrote the instructions.

SL68B (I'm not changing the name)
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons 90-wt GL-1 gear oil
2 tablespoons generic white petrolatum
1 tablespoon heavy mineral oil (laxative grade from pharmacy)
1 teaspoon castor oil
2 ounces fresh Ivory soap (soft, damp).

Waxes:
0.5 ounces 175º MW
0.5 ounces 185º MW
0.5 ounces 190º MW
0.7 ounces pure beeswax
0.2 ounces paraffin

Instructions:
>Melt everything except the soap and BW, I use a thick heavy wide (aluminum) 4 qt sauce pan on a gasoline camp stove.
>Then add half the soap (which should have been previously sliced into slivers, I use a kitchen scissors) Stir, it will foam up, when foam starts going down, add remaining soap,stir, and squish soap clumps.
>Stir until the mix becomes a light clear amber liquid with no gel or foam or clumps of soap remaining.
>It should be around 460F and smoking but good, I choose not to use a thermometer, it just complicates things.
>I move the pan off the heat and add the pre-melted Beeswax, stir.
>If the mix Gels up, put pan back on heat, stir until it becomes liquid. Usually this isn't the case, if it isn't, I just pour the HOT lube into tunafish cans that are sitting in a container of Ice water (or snow) to "crash cool" the lube.

Measuring/cooking setup under the open garage door.
Attachment 215301


Crash cool setup (Hammer/2x4 for busting wax)
Attachment 215302