Making your own lube recipe

[Wolfdog91]

So I see a lot of recipes out there....but not much on how to go about formulating your own .and before you ask why when there so many good ones ...well one why not ,two material updating. What used to be common man time isn't anymore, three special use and four......idk fun lol.
Anyhow how does one start making there own from scratch ?

[Winger Ed.]

It's sort of like getting into auto racing.
You have to ask yourself, "How much do you want to spend, and how fast do you want to go"?

As boolit speeds go up, so does the type and quality of the lube.

The really good ones that tolerate high speeds is more expensive and over kill
for slow hand gun loadings.
But cheap, slow moving hand gun stuff won't tolerate the heat and speed for rifles.

[Castaway]

For black powder, it’s hard to beat Gato Feo lube. By weight, 2:2:1, mutton tallow, paraffin, and bees wax respectively. Heat and melt all together in a double boiler. Works great as a wad lube for percussion pistols, and rifles. For cartridges, it’s hard to beat. Stays together in Florida heat and cold temps up north too. Originally Winchester used it for heeled bullets and sometime in the 40’s, the NRA published the recipe. Some guy that goes by Gato Feo resurrected it. It also works well in smokeless loads at upper end velocities. I pour mine in a mould made of PVC with a rod running up the middle to allow use in my Lubrisizer.

[GhostHawk]

Start by looking at the ingredient's for a known good lube, such as BLL.

Then try substituting 1 new material for something not as easy to find, or is more expensive.

Personally I started with BLL, then melted 1% of total weight of batch into the alox.

The next one was faced with opening my last can of Johnson one step.
Or, go off roadin into the weeds.

My next experiment was to try switching cheap dollar store rubbing alcohol for Johnson's one step.
But I grabbed the wrong one. Ended up with a 60% instead of 99%.

Also added about 1.5% Carnuba.

Mixed, and inside of a minute it was seperating. With the Alox/C/Alcohol on top. Water on the bottom.
Poured off the good stuff on top, put it in empty alox 4 oz dispenser bottles.

The rest I poured into a flat pan, left it to evaporate.

When it was dry I took 100 still hot .430 220 gr cast and rolled it around in the pan.
These lubed very well, bit thicker coat than normal BLL but worked well.

Just start thinkin and tinkerin and take copious notes!
Cause if you get stuck out in the weeds, chances are no one is going to find you. Have to be able to get yourself out.

But new stuff is invented this way all the time.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I'm sure you've already read through this thread, so I am just reminding you of the fellas that did do some formulating.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...lube-The-Quest

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Then there is the lube ingredient article from LASC, lots of good stuff to know if you are gonna do some formulating.

https://www.artfulbullet.com/documen...ngrediants.pdf

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Did you ever read my thread on SL68B ?

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...how-to-make-it

It's basically a soap grease.
Cooking a mix of about 1/3 wax, 1/3 Ivory soap, and about 1/3 Vaseline. Bringing these ingredients to about 460º will saponify the ingredients into a grease, which has a very high melt point temperature, but is still 'workable' at a very low temperature. It's not tacky to the touch, but when worked and handled with bare hands, it gives the feeling of hand lotion that just vanishes from your fingers.

[GregLaROCHE]

The Gato Feo type lube is what I make, with beeswax and mutton tallow.

[Gobeyond]

You need wax to carry and mix with an oil. But it should be sticky too, sticky and smooth. Lube doesn’t melt. Through centrifugal force and acceleration it releases onto the barrel. Formulas are good to know what ingredients work. And then you can pick what looks interesting and mix them yourself. Like Vaseline and beeswax, or microcrystalline wax and mineral oil.

[Land Owner]

There are many recipes in Castboolit stickies. I chose "6-6-6; Satan's Lube". Change what you want...:
==========================

Satan’s Lube

OLD PRE ALOX NRA FORMULA with some soap added

good, simple boolit lube

6oz vaseline
6oz paraffin
6oz beeswax
1 oz dried ivory flakes (double this in a hot climate)

Melt the vaseline & paraffin together

Add ivory soap flakes untill fully dissolved...the foaming stops, and the globular formations are gone

Remove from heat

Add the beeswax last after the mix has cooled to prevent "scorch".

Mix all in a pot bigger than you think you need...because the soap makes foam.
==========================

I upped the ingredients with excellent results to make a gallon of product. Now I have all three velocity regimes covered (traditional, powder coated, and jacketed).

[curioushooter]

I've switched to using carnuba blue for everything. It's the best all around lube and I don't have to make it. I found felix lube too hard though it performed well enough. Lainolin is too hard to get. Glen's 50/50 Beeswax/Sta-Lube Moly-graph black grease (get it from harbor freight) is easy to make and plenty available and works well but it stains things like fabric badly.