Curiosity got the better of me and I have designed a series of experiments intended to develop a recipe for making liquid bullet lube. First, I need to know if it’s excessively dangerous.
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Here’s the basic idea:
1) I’ve read that Lee’s Alox contains calcium soap, oils, and calcium sulfonates, and solvents. Calcium soap is a hydrologic lubricant, so that’s all I’m after at this point.
2) The 45/45/10 mixes microcrystalline wax & Carnauba wax with LLA, giving a drier coating. BLL is similar, but I think there’s a polymer that replaces the wax.
3) So if I can get calcium soap, microcrystalline wax, and Carnauba wax dissolved into solvents, I will have a liquid lube. This is where the danger may be.
4) Calcium soap is soluble in benzene and warm turpentine. For now, I’m only considering turpentine.
5) Sodium soap is soluble in microcrystalline wax, which is much easier than dissolving calcium soap. So I plan to dissolve as much lab grade sodium soap as I can into microcrystalline wax, and then dissolve that pair in turpentine.
6) Since I have Felix lube with microcrystalline wax, I decided to dissolve that in turpentine for an easy initial feasibility study.
I got kinda nervous here, so I’d like to get your thoughts on just how risky this may be.
….a) I place a few kernels of FWFL in a 4 oz glass mason jar, placed that jar in a sauce pan with water, heated the pan on the stove until the wax melted. The water did not boil. Wax dissolves into solvents better when things are warm.
….b) I took that pan & wax outside and placed it on the ground, in the sun. It was 30 degrees F outside.
….c) When the wax showed first signs of solidifying, I poured as little turpentine as I could into the mason jar. The turpentine was about 60F. Some turpentine spilled into the hot water.
….d) I held my breath and stirred the wax & turpentine, until I needed to leave and breath.
….e) I went inside and came out ~5 minutes later. The turpentine was hot and billowing off the water. So how dangerous are these fumes? Is there a good respirator for these fumes?
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I took a shower and looked at the mixture. It looks like some wax dissolved into the turpentine. I’m leaving it outside in the cold for the day, and I’ll see if it’s hard or sludgy in the morning.
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So how do you address the safety concerns of heating turpentine or mineral spirits?