Ben’s Red Two Quart Batch
- Thread starter Boommeup
- Start date
Ian
Notorious member
The soap is to bind the lube into a grease gel so it stays homogeneous when heated and the oil component doesn't fly everywhere or fall out in the bore. To understand how this works, first you need to understand what a grease gellant is (hydroxide compounds of sodium, lithium, barium, aluminum, calcium, and so on, i.e. "metal soaps") and the mechanism by which they turn oil into lubricating grease. Then you need to understand what "drop point" is and why it occurs. Then you will have a better idea of why lithium and sodium soaps are used to fortify bullet lubricants.
Some brief reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grease_(lubricant)
Some brief reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grease_(lubricant)
358156 hp
At large, whereabouts unknown.
There's always Lithibee. Glen Fryxell uses a version of it. Half lithium tube grease and half beeswax. Here's Glens take on it, from Ricks web site: http://www.lasc.us/FryxellLubeCastBullets.htm
Ian
Notorious member
Actually that's a really crappy article with some outright misinformation in a couple places and is very light to spotty on general information throughout, but it's a start. Nothing wrong with keeping it simple, in fact the simpler the better, but at the same time it's a lot better to say "I know" than "I believe....." and function from a scientific standpoint than a mystical one.
Ben's Red contains about 3% soap, by the way, the Lithium 12-Hydroxystearate kind.
A lot of good information in those articles from Glen. And the Los Angeles Shooting Club. Ian I don’t know squat!!! And I’m not a chest pounder!!! LOL I don’t argue with people, I just let them walk away. I’ve read everything I could find on Bens lube and his liquid lube. Seems like that’s all you need, until I mentioned black powder! Lanolin is in the mail just got a can of crisco! So that’s all under control!?!?
fiver
Well-Known Member
when we start in on lubes for bullets things can get murky real quick and it probably seems to the questioner that the answers and direction get fragmented, or super side tracked real fast.
part of the problem is lube tech's have their own form of ''lube speak'' and tend to use acronyms that are common to them but get real confusing until you figure them out.
it's similar to someone reading our little threads when the ww and coww and cow stuff starts flying around.
we all know,,, they are like WTH did they just say.
the truth is lubes and alloys have their own issues, fixes, and this and that doesn't always equal 2.
you see 3 oils in a lube and instantly think wet goo, then you see it in person and go this is just semi-sticky bees-wax with a green/red/black tint to it,,, what happened?
several things could have happened.
part of the problem is lube tech's have their own form of ''lube speak'' and tend to use acronyms that are common to them but get real confusing until you figure them out.
it's similar to someone reading our little threads when the ww and coww and cow stuff starts flying around.
we all know,,, they are like WTH did they just say.
the truth is lubes and alloys have their own issues, fixes, and this and that doesn't always equal 2.
you see 3 oils in a lube and instantly think wet goo, then you see it in person and go this is just semi-sticky bees-wax with a green/red/black tint to it,,, what happened?
several things could have happened.
I lurked for quite a while before I started posting. I believe I’ve got a pretty good handle on what I’m going to need and use. The sta-lube moly/ beeswax recipe looks to be a good moly lube. I hope!!! I know what you mean fiver about all the acronyms, can make things very confusing. Hard enough to keep the alloys in my head sometimes!!! LOL ( Laughing Out Loud )...
