Beeswax Lube Recipe

[EMC45]

Here's the deal; I have a bunch of beeswax and a Lyman 4500. I have tried a recipe that called for vaseline, parifin and BW and it was terrible. I want something that will flow with my heater and also will harden a bit in the lube grooves. I am currently using Lyman Moly lube (that's all Grafs had when I called) and do not like it at all. It stays soft in the groove and it comes out when I LLA the finished bullets. Any help? Thanks, Evan.

[VTDW]

Try making Felix Lube. There is a sticky here and folks are well pleased with the formula including me.

Dave

[VTDW]

Try making Felix Lube. There is a sticky here and folks are well pleased with the formula including me.

Felix Lube formula

2 Tablespoons mineral oil
1 Tablespoon castor oil
1 Tablespoon Ivory, or homemade soap (grated)
1 Tablespoon Lanolin
Beeswax - Piece approximately 3 1/2" X 3 1/2" X 1 "

Heat mineral (baby) oil until it starts to smoke.

Add castor oil, and stir continuously for 1/2 hour.

Sliver the soap, and stir into the mixture a little at a time, until melted.

Add the beeswax before the lanolin, and then when that is melted, reduce or remove the heat and add the lanolin, thus not running any risk of burning or scorching the lanolin.

1 teaspoon of carnuba wax can be added to give a shiny bore. This can be found on the seal of Makers Mark whiskey, or the red wax on cheese from the supermarket.

Once made, let cool. This can be remelted in a microwave, and poured into the lubrisizer.


Dave

[Bullshop]

Speed Green is about as simple as lube making can get and the resulting lube is second to none.
If I read your post right you are LLA lubing your boolits after lubing them in a lube sizer, why?
Speed Green
3 to 1 by weight, beeswax to Bull Plate, so one 2 oz bottle of Bull Plate mixed with 6 oz beeswax will yeald 1/2 lb Speed Green boolit lube.
Blessings
BIC/BS

[MT Gianni]

I had good results with LySupermoly when I started with bought lubes. Bullshop lubes and Lar are both great. I would expect the Sprmoly to come off if tumbled to apply LLA. The alox isn't needed with any of these IMHO. Gianni

[Steelbanger]

I have 2 lub/sizers and one of them is used for a 50-50 alox-beeswax mix and the other is for low velocity loads and is a mix of parafin, beeswax and vaseline. This second mix is 1# of each of the waxes and 12 oz. of vaseline. It always stays in the lube grooves and doesn't require heating to use. What were your proportions with these three?

[hunter64]

Bullshop: How much is 1/2 a pound of speed green, 2,3 sticks of lube? I have some of your Bull Plate lube and it is excellent. I bought 4 bottles of the stuff a couple of years ago and I haven't even got thru 1/4 of one bottle so I was kind of wondering if I could make lube out of it.

[mtgrs737]

hunter, most of the hollow stick lubes sold are in the 1.25 to 1.5 oz. range. so you could make around 6 of the sticks with one bottle of bull plate.

[Bullshop]

Our hollow sticks are 1.7oz so apparently contain a bit more than average. At 1.7 oz should yeald 9.4 sticks per lb.
BIC/BS

[hunter64]

Thanks for the info guys, I will mix up a batch and have at her.

[EMC45]

Good replies fellas. I am intrigued by the Bullplate lube. I have one last question, can you make lube for the 4500 with BW and LLA? I have quite a few bottles of this stuff and was wondering if you could cut it with BW.

[Ricochet]

Yes, you can. Remember that the hardness will increase and the stuff will shrink as the solvent evaporates.

[lar45]

I have Alox 350 in 1quart cans if anyone needs any. My regular price is $9.50, but give the forum a break at $8.50. It holds about 2#.
www.lsstuff.com/lube

[utk]

Good replies fellas. I am intrigued by the Bullplate lube. I have one last question, can you make lube for the 4500 with BW and LLA? I have quite a few bottles of this stuff and was wondering if you could cut it with BW.

"Been there - done that"...

I can verify what Ricochet says. First it will be soft and nice but when the solvent eventually evaporates it will be rock hard and crack.
I don´t know how long it will take, I made a small quantity out of curiosity and then forgot all about it. When "rediscovered" later (1-2 years?) it was as described above.

Out of curiosity (again), I decided to try "boiling-off" the solvent in a double boiler, weighing the stuff every hour or so to record the loss of the solvent. And it took many hours......
The final substance was a very hard paste, as expected.

So, to have a time-stable lube you would first have to get rid of the solvent, then use something to make it soft enough to use in a lubesizer.

IMHO there are better (simpler) lube recipes "out there". The batch I made with Alox350 + BW is still soft, must try to get some more of it, though...

[robertbank]

+1 for Felix lube. Works in everything I shoot. Easy to make, & inexpensive. I just reheat it in the microwave and pour it into my lubricator when I have to go for a refill.

Take Care

Bob

[Ricochet]

So, to have a time-stable lube you would first have to get rid of the solvent, then use something to make it soft enough to use in a lubesizer.

The stuff to use to keep it soft and sticky (but very slick) is anhydrous lanolin. This is basically what I'm doing now. I leave the can uncapped to let most of the solvent evaporate.

[lar45]

I have a small piece of 50-50, that I made about 3 1/2 years ago, that is sitting on a piece of paper next to my computer. The paper stayed clean for about 2 years, then started to get a slight amount of oil discoloring on the paper. The lube is still soft and has the same consistency as the stuff I made last week. I also have a small piece of my Carnauba Red that has been there for almost 3 years and is still soft. They are both open to the air and just sitting on a piece of paper.

There is one thing that I do when makeing lube that I think makes a big difference, and that is long cooking times. I keep the temp just below smokeing for atleast 12 hours before I pour any off.
You need to be careful and not start a fire when leaveing it unatended.(safety disclaimer)

I also agree that putting LLA on an already stick lubed bullet is not necesary.

When you are playing with different mixes, make small batches so you don't end up with 10 # of lube that isn't what you want. Start by mixing it stiff, then add more of your (oil, Alox, grease...) to bring it to the consistency you want.
I use ziplock snack bags and write the ingredients on a post-it note to keep a small sample in. Then you can go back later to review what you've already tried.

For the Alox lubes, I have mixed up to 3 parts beeswax to 1 Alox350 and still got a good lube. It needed a heater to flow though.

I personally haven't found any good use for parrafin in a lube. That's too bad as the wife bought 3 cases of it for makeing candles and then started on a different project.
Some guys use it as a stiffener and say they get good results.

The most important thing is to have fun. That's what we are here for isn't it? To have a relaxing enjoyable hobbie.

[felix]

Yes, the longer the lube "cooks", the better it will be. Most especially if polymerization is taking place. A fully polymerized lube need no more cooking. Keep in mind, though, most applications do not require the FINAL realized "formula" to create exemplary performance. The smaller the bore, the better the lube has to be. ... felix

[Char-Gar]

No comprendo amigo! Why would you want to lube a bullet and then put that Lee gook on it? I don't get it.

I have been using a mix of 60-40 beeswax and Vaseline for almost 50 years with complete satisfaction. I used it for handgun and rifle loads up to about 1.9 or 2 K fps. Above that I like something more sophisticated and go with Felix lube.

My handguns and rifles all shoot cast as well or better than comdom bullets and deliver more accuracy that I can utilize.

I don't have a heater on the machine. I have never used a heater on a machine. I have never felt the need to do so. I have never had the lube melt and run in the hot Texas summers. I have never had it roll snake eyes in a Texas Panhandle winter blizzard.

Maybe I have just been clueless for the past 48 years of casting, lubing and shooting, but I really don't think I could be that stupid or unaware. Maybe I am and just happy in my self induced ignorance. But I would think that better than a half million rounds of cast bullet down the barrel would have taught me something.

Some of the stuff posted on this board is a real puzzlement to me. It truly is!

[carpetman]

The title is Beeswax Lube recipe. Don't say what you are lubing,so I'll post a couple of mine. My wife bought a small tin of beeswax lip balm. Stuff was hard and it didnt seem like you were getting anything on your lips. About like rubbing a marble,then rubbing your lip. She didnt like it,so I got it. I put maybe 1/8" of water in a pan and placed the small tin in it and turned on the heat and melted it. While melted,or would that be while it was molten????? Not sure---but when in liquid state I added some vitamin E oil and now the stuff is softer and you can apply it. When my shoe wax gets about half empty or is only half full--depends on how you look at it----I melt it in the same manner as described above. To this I add a chunk of beeswax and some liquid lanolin,anhydrous lanolin and neetsfoot oil. Makes a pretty good shoe wax.