Home brewed bullet lube

blacksmithden

blacksmithden

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I live among the creatures of the night (Edmonton)
Inspired by another thread.

Today, I was looking at my last 2 bottles of Lee liquid alox. I was wondering to myself, what am I going to use for lube once these two bottles are gone ??? The stuff is getting expensive, and it's not really available anywhere around me.

SOOOOOO.....what are your home made "witches brew" for bullet lube ???
I'm not interested in "eye of newt" or "boiled beef tendon" recipes. If I can't buy the components at a hardware, drug, or grocery store, I'm not really interested. If it's easier to buy alox, I'll just do that. Commonly available components only please :D

I've used 75% bee's wax and 25% bacon grease before, but it's a pain to apply. It's pretty hard, and really bunches up too thick on the bullets if you melt it and dip them in it. It's a great working lube, but still too much like candle wax.

Any suggestions/recipes are welcome. Thanks.
 
If you are serious about casting it would be worth getting a sizer lubricator,As it puts the lube were it should be , In the groove not the base or nose.
I use Jakes products out of Peoria Illinois, works out to 2 bucks US a stick, enough to do about 1000 bullets. I order 10 sticks at a time, more than enough to last a long time.

For that price I don't bother with brewing up my own mix, plus jakes makes a good product.

My 2 cents worth.....
 
For years I've been using "rooster Lab" hard lubes. I buy the commercial sticks (appox. 7 hollow sticks equiv in each) melt them in a can on the wood stove or place them on the lead melter when it is warming up and pour it in the lube/sizer as needed. These run about $4.50 US each, so delivered and exchange they run about buck each per hollow stick. I stocked up when the dollar was par plus. As "brnolvr" says get a Lyman 4500 with the heating element or similar and mount it over the lyman heating pad. I run one of those old Midway adjustable heating pads which allows me to tailor the heat to my needs. Although "411's" pinko commie ### lube sounds interesting I just don't have the time or patience, but some of the recipes sound like great treatments for constipation should you lick your fingers while cooking:p
 
For black powder cartridges, I use 1/2 bear grease and 1/2 bees wax. Fairly soft and works well. I presume any animal grease would work in place of bear grease

cheers mooncoon
 
Actually some lube will work for case sizing esp. mixes with lanolin, but the lubes talked about here are really meant for bullet lubing. I tried different lubes incl. ones with moly and alox and they worked marginally and were very messy, and really fouled up my lube sizers. I make and market only 2 lubes now, for smokeless loads I use a mixture with beeswax and Carnauba wax among other ingredients. The best lube I've used, and for Bp lube(no petro-products!!!) Beeswax and Lanolin, with BP lube it is more for dealing with BP fouling then anything else.
 
I have heard of using Crisco and even bacon fat in the recipes, but I wouldn't use any such product that had salt added to it. Seems like asking for trouble.
When I started I saw a mixture of beeswax and beef tallow. A little side note said that was what the buffalo hunters used, so I used it and it worked well. The basic ratio was 1:1, but could be adjudted to make it harder or thinner, for different temperatures of shooting.
 
For BP 45 -70 loads I used Bees wax, Crisco, part bottle of Lee Alox, and a small slice of paro wax, and of course winter green extract!!! It has to smell good.

Add more crisco to soften it as needed, and you will get something close in texture to SPG.
 
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