2 Stroke Oil and Beeswax as a Lube

[riverwalker76]

Has anyone used 2 stroke oil as an ingredient in their bullet lube?

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

no but it would probably work fine

[riverwalker76]

If 2 stroke oil would work ok ... do you think Bar & Chain oil would work better? Seeing as Bar & Chain oil is thicker.

[zxcvbob]

I think castor oil from the drugstore would be best.

[sc928porsche]

50-50 mix of beeswax and soywax mixed with allox works very good. You can use this mixture with both BP and smokless propellents.

[Edward429451]

Have you read about Felix World Famous Lube on castboolits board?
It's ridiculously easy to make. The board makes it sound complicated because they argue over it in the thread but it took me 20 minutes to done after I turned off the computer

[zxcvbob]

There's another recipe over there that looks intriguing. From memory, it's a 14 oz tube of cheap lithium grease, a pound of paraffin, and 2 pounds of microcrystalline wax. It's supposed to be good enough to use in rifle cartridges.

[FrankenMauser]

By the time you purchase all the ingredients and find the equipment to make this stuff, you could have just purchased some commercial lube and saved some time and money. It's not that expensive.


And.... petroleum distillates are likely to dissolve waxes. The mixture would turn into a nasty goo.

[riverwalker76]

I seriously wish everyone could agree on one 'Magic Lube' and be done with it. I have seen so many recipes for different lubes, and no one can agree on any one product.

After coming to a few conclusions I decided the following ....

It can't be that hard to make an acceptable bullet lube. There aren't any 'Magic Ingredients' as some might have you believe. Finally, The simplest of things are usually the best.

Am I wrong in making the above assumptions?

I was thinking of making a simple lube of the following ingredients and being done with it. I will use it for both my BP Cast Minies and my pistol and rifle cartridges. Tell me if I'm missing something.

2 lbs. Beeswax (Free from neighbor)

1 lb. Paraffin (free from wife's canning pantry. $2 a brick if I need more.)

1/2 lb. vaseline (cheap as dirt at Wally World)

2 Tbsp. STP oil Treatment (in garage and on hand)

3 crayons for color (Free from the kid's broken crayon bucket. They use them to make candles. )

Does this sound ok for .50 Cal BP Miniball, 9mm, and .308 Winchester ?

I'm looking for a HARD lube that I can lube my BP bullets with as well as not worry about running in my .308 target loads.

[snuffy]

I'm up for a good experiment MOST of the time. But messing with bullet lubes is not on my to-do list. It's too darn easy to order and pay for lubes that have worked well for years. My go-to lube is any maker of NRA formula 50-50 alox-beeswax. Current manuf. is Tamarack.

I DOwant to try the johnson's paste wax,(JPW), Lee liquid alox,(LLA), 50-50 mix for tumble lube. As soon as I can find a yellow tub of JPW. It's supposed to be less tacky than straight LLA. Even though the LLA is tacky when completely dry, I can and do live with it. I don't carry ammo around in my pockets, so it doesn't have a chance to pick up dirt.

[snuffy]

1 lb. Paraffin (free from wife's canning pantry. $2 a brick if I need more.)

1/2 lb. vaseline (cheap as dirt at Wally World)

2 Tbsp. STP oil Treatment (in garage and on hand)

None of those ingredients will work well with black powder or most of the replica BP. The reason is the petroleum products create a tar from the fouling, that is darn hard to remove, it WILL NOT dissolve in water! Use only natural oils, beeswax, any vegetable oil, or tallow/lard.

Thompson centers natural lube is Crisco and wintergreen oil, with yellow food coloring. It works well to keep BP fouling soft and remain water/soap soluble.

[Edward429451]

By the time you purchase all the ingredients and find the equipment to make this stuff

It took me awhile to chase down the ingrediants, so true. Luckily I got enough to make lube for years!

The equipment list is simple, a knife, cheese grater, measuring cup, and double boiler which is only one pan inside another. I did not build a lube mould from pvc. Instead I opted to just store my lube in mason jars and nuke it in the microwave to be poured into my luber/sizer.
Making lube is one of those things that sounds involved but is as simple as pie in practice. I'll prolly never buy lube again now.

[Unclenick]

Regarding Liquid Alox, White Label sells the same stuff as Xlox for $10.70 a quart, which will last a long time. As far as tacky goes, I bought some motor mica from Midway a long time ago. I use an old cup-sized aluminum salt seller to sprinkle some it over the bullets and roll them around in it. Dry enough handling for me. It kind of resembles Hornady's swaged bullet lube afterward.

[Rusty W]

I've been using the LLA mixed with JPW and mineral spirits. 45/45/10, heat the JPW in the microwave in a cup in a bowl of water sorta like a double broiler. Yes I'm single so I can get away with it..... Mix the JPW in with the LLA and mineral spirits and shake up the bottle. It's ready to go & yes it is much better when loading, there's no sticky bullets and it's helped a couple loads that was leading in a 357mag.

Now if I knew of a way to use castor bean oil like I used to use, say Klotz. I'd be hooked for sure.

[riverwalker76]

I also have a bottle of Lee Liquid Alox, but my main concern with incorporating it into my smokeless recipe was that it is really messy. If I added just a little bit would it stay firm?

Also, how about Beeswax and Crisco for a BP lube? I'm wanting something that I can allow to harden in the lube grooves prior to shooting. Will the Beeswax / Crisco mix do ok, and stay in the lube grooves?