Trying to make a SPG substitute

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fingers284

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I bought 4 tubes of SPG lube about 15 yrs ago at a gunshow in preparation to give BPCR shooting a try. I never got around to using it so thought this year is a s good as any so I built a lube extruder for ease of making grease cookies to be used in conjunction with Powder Coated slugs ( no need for groove lube on them).

The price tag on those tubes 15 years back was $ 8 per, so cant imagine what it is now...so thought a home cooked recipe might be do-able.
My first try was a failure, I had some "soft candle wax" around, ( a leftover from some wax bullet "experimenting") that I thought might be pliable enough for a carrier for the rest of the ingredients suggested in the "other cast bullet" site vegetable -Crisco, canola oil & Lanolin . It wasn't, it was not a pliable texture at all, just crumbled into pieces, almost as pure paraffin wax did.
So off to the bee farmers establishment and purchased a brick of bees wax from him. hopefully that will produce some satisfactory results but before I give it a try( that $hit is expensive just by itself)...anybody else have any suggestions to add?
 
I mix 50% bees wax with 45% crisco and 5% virgin olive oil.
It works great, not quite spg consistency but close. Also you will want to heat/mix with a double boiler because if you don’t you run the risk of scorching the whole batch. I put a large pot on the stove; then fill half with water. Next I put a small grate at the bottom of the pot so my mixing container doesn’t touch the bottom of the pot. Then heat the water on the stove and place the mixing jar/container into the pot. Careful no water get into your mix.
All that’s left is to wait for it to melt and then stir the mixture until it’s all one colour. I then pour it right in my lube sizer and wait for it to cool.
Hope this helps
 
I use pretty much the same recipe as mean streak does. I tried the lube extruder too, but I find it much easier to make a lube cake instead. I find that my home made lube might go a bit rancid after time, so I don't make up big batches.
 
thanks boys. I did use a make-shift double boiler for my first batch and it worked well, basically a large reject kitchen pot (at least I think the wife said she wasn't using it anymore so it whent to the shop) with enough water in it to "float" the smaller inside pot.

I read on the other boolit bible site that using vegy Crisco as opposed to animal lard eliminates any rancidness, it keeps forever and softens up BP fowling as good as the animal fat lubes.

Rather than pouring into my lube extruder every time I need a refill, I made a 6-hole tube mold out of 2 2x6's of adequate length pinched together by 3 1/4" bolts and drilled 1" dia. holes 4.5" deep, centered on the board joints, took about an hour to build and worked excellent for the first pour.
 
Rumor had it Steve Garvey spent a winter sequestered on a ranch in Montana working out the formula for SPG . I dought he ever disclosed his formula , but the same rumor claimed his secret was peanut oil. I make a lube to soak up 1/8 hard felt that I then cut wads for cap & ball and 44-40 black powder loads for the cowboy shooting . The 44 bullets are lubed with the same commercial lube that I use with smokeless loads. Just put a lube wad and a card under the bullet. I can get through a days match without without leading and the fouling stays soft. Wad lube is sheeps talow , bees wax and a bit of lanolin. Sheeps tallow is a bit softer than beef tallow I think you could get it right to work through your ribbon extruder .
 
I have another recipe given to me by some long time shooters.I have a batch loaded and ready to go but have not tried it to see how it performs.I will say that after pouring off the excess lube into a storage container it is next to impossible to tell it from my SPG lube in appearance , smell and consistency .So much so that the next time I melt it to pan lube I will put a chip of candle dye in it so I can tell it apart.It goes as follows:3 parts bees wax ,1 part olive oil ,1 part coconut oil ,1 part peanut oil .Just remember 3-1-1-1.
 
Janeau said:
$29 at Rusty Wood for 1/2 pounds of SPG. For me it does not worth the trouble to make my lube.

Dragon Lube sell sizer ready Black Powder lube for 3.95 a stick. Canadian made.
Even more reasons not to mix my own at such a price.

http://www.dragonbulletlube.com/products.php
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I spent a few years trying different things and formulations. Most worked ok but none were SPG.

Dragonlube is THE way to go in my book! Always had great dealings with him. Good products, great service.
 
vagrantviking said:
I spent a few years trying different things and formulations. Most worked ok but none were SPG.

Dragonlube is THE way to go in my book! Always had great dealings with him. Good products, great service.
Click to expand...

That's an sure understatement to the rabbit hole I've led myself into the past couple weeks.

I tried all the formulas offered up here in many different forms and they all will work as pan-cookie cutter options, but not one of them came close to the pliability of SPG for ribbon extruding. The Parafin wax was a failure right from the start so I switched to Bees Wax...better pan lube results but still no SPG. You can add more oil to the formula's to soften it up but it looses it's plasticity and goes from "crumbly" to mush almost instantly, no "happy in between".

Soo, a few nights ago I sat down and thought "what do I know of with the same consistency as SPG" and the only thing I could think of was bread dough. Flour & a moisture added. Water wouldn't work as bread dough made with water soon starts to dry around the edge very quickly...but what if I used straight oil, it wont evaporate...but will it make dough?

So off to the shop wit a 1/2 pound of flour from the old lady, all the 1/2 dozen different oils from previous testing & bees wax is already there. Now, all you "traditionalist & old dudes", don't knash your teeth and go drink coffee until you've read the rest (I'm old too).

The very first formula I tried was 1/4 cup flour, 1 oz (by weight) of olive oil and 0.7 oz Bees Wax. heated the BW to melting, added oil, stirred a bit then just dumped the flour in and stirred like crazy for a few seconds until all the lumps were gone (just like gravy making) and then let it set overnight. That stuff extruded almost identical to SPG, a bit colored by the BW but other than that almost identical to extruded SPG. That stuff has been sitting out uncovered beside some extruded SPG for 3 days and is still just as malleable as the SPG is.
I have since tried some of the previous failure mixtures by re-melting them and adding flour until I have a thick gravy consistency...after an overnight set-up, ever damn one of them are "extrudable"now .
Don't quit yet... more testing...I laid 3 of my concoction ribbons and a strip of SPG side-by each along with a chunk of the hard,original BW-oil in an old foil meat pie pan and held it over the stove for a second or 2. The SPG turned to a liquid the fastest but surprisingly the dough concoctions were fully into a melting condition before the SPG completely melted and long before the BW & oil chunk even started to melt.
The next test I tried was to lay another strip of all 3 concoctions & a strip of SPG in another pie plate with enough water to cover them and left them overnight. I expected the flour strips to dissolve into a mush but they didn't, still just as full-bodied as the SPG still is.

I don't know if Garvey raided his wifes pantry for his product but The big test will be the shooting & the reaction of the fowling of course.
 
I just made up a batch of Emmet's lube for blackpowder. It is really similar to SPG, and I have high hopes. I haven't shot it yet, but I am taking out my 45-70 rolling block on Sunday with some blackpowder cartridges, so I will update. The recipe is 50% beeswax, 40% Crisco, 5% canola oil and 5% lanolin.
 
That is exactly one of the formula's I cooked up a month ago and it may work as a "cookie cutter" pan lube as good as SPG, but it was no where near the final consistency of SPG that extrudes from a ribbon maker, it was much to "crumbly" to form a ribbon.

I still have a bunch of my previously offered "dough" concoctions still aging in some dish's before I try them...so far they are all still pliable and holding the consistency I want to achieve.
 
fingers284 said:
That is exactly one of the formula's I cooked up a month ago and it may work as a "cookie cutter" pan lube as good as SPG, but it was no where near the final consistency of SPG that extrudes from a ribbon maker, it was much to "crumbly" to form a ribbon.

I still have a bunch of my previously offered "dough" concoctions still aging in some dish's before I try them...so far they are all still pliable and holding the consistency I want to achieve.
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Hey Fingers, did you try adding a bit more oil to that crumbly lube?
 
ryan said:
Hey Fingers, did you try adding a bit more oil to that crumbly lube?
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Yes and it went from "crumbly" to a much too loose of a consistency almost immediately. I couldn't seem to find a "happy medium" at all. An industrial size quality mixer might be able to get a good mix but with small quantities of ingredients the margin for error is very small.
 
I think I figured it out. Try 60% soft beeswax(this is key. Not the hard crumbly wax) and 40% shea butter. Makes it almost exactly the same consistency as SPG. Flexible, stiff but soft when you squish it, and you can roll it into a ball between your fingers like playdough. I might do 50/50 for cold weather and 70/30 for hot summer shoots, but it seems really good. I'll try shooting it next week.
 
Right on man...Ive been to busy with other "summer stuff" to spend any time on continuing my quest so thanks for the info.

One question tho, is "soft bee's wax" a product of manufacture, as the bees wax I have is straight from a bee farmer in hard block form that requires melting before use in any formula.
 
I don't know the rhyme or reason to the beeswax. I have one chunk that will snap if you try and bend it, and the one I used for this lube bends. The bendy one is much darker than the other one, so it leads me to think it is less processed or maybe it is from older/reused comb. The lighter coloured beeswax and shea still makes a good lube, but it isn't as flexible.
 
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