if ignorance is bliss?

[Tom]

Why in the heck am I so miserable?
Reading about bll, it seemed like the magical do everything lube. I picked up a can last year of Johnson's one step and tried it on a few handgun bullets. It worked very well.
Now I'm wanting to try it on rifles. I have 3/4 can left, and find it's been discontinued. I saw that it was no longer available in canada, and started to panic. Oh well, that's just Canada. Now, I find that it's discontinued here.
I'm a bit late to the party, I guess. I spend most of my life on the road in a truck and can't park at most stores. I've got a couple of friends looking for another can or two, but can't do the normal shopping thing.
Seems like every wonderful thing I see is made of unobtainium by the time I see it.

 

[35 shooter]

Tom,
That 3/4 can you have left will lube a TON of rifle bullets with the 60/40 mix of BLL.

In the meantime, keep your eye out and eventually you'll probably run into some more.
It's scarce now for sure, but i found 6 or 7 cans a few weeks ago.

BTW, Bens Red works just as well for me, so all is not lost lol. I hope your friends run into some for you.

35 shooter

 

[Ian]

If you ever cruise I-10 out west of San Antonio I can hook you up with a spare can. My workplace is right off the interstate near an exit.

 

[Tom]

Thanks, Ian. I don't get south of I 90. Given how much I do, as opposed to how much I'd like to do, I probably have enough to last me forever. Do hope to get another can just to be sure. It'll show up.

 

[James W. Miner]

Lube is a mystery. Testing all for years has shown Felix works into rifles. But MML works better in my large bores but I have no recipe. You can go from 2" at 50 yards to one hole with a lube change. It is really that important. TL SUCKS as does a wax coating. I can show one lube to another with no other change.
Alox SUCKS in any form. It burns and leaves ash. No wax helps. The stuff was made to coat steel but fails because salt water gets under it and rots the car.
I had a new Chevy truck done with Rusty Jones and never had any rust at all. Sold it solid as new. Ohio rust belt. Like new after 20+ years.
You don't know boolit lube.
I TL and get no leading--- SO WHAT? is that what you look for? I don't get leading and 2" at 25 yards---WOW! How about 200 meters? Lube is so very important. Even old loads will not shoot as good as fresh loads. Action on brass? I don't know but lube is a key and is just sluffed aside.

 

[fiver]

Jim just do a search at the boolits site, I know Mike posted the recipe about 30 times.
you should also be able to find Satans lube or 666+1 lube.
they are both super similar to the MML.
my simple lube will mimic Felix lube in feel and performance but is about 300 times easier to make, since your not making a polymerized grease.

 

[Brad]

Just make sure it is the most current iteration. Over time I saw different recipes and it seems the number and amount of waxes ncreased with time.

 

[Ian]

There are two MMLs. One is "Mike's Magical Mystery Lube" and the other is Mike's Micro-Lithi. Both are listed on Ken's just the facts thread. I got screwed up on the micro-lithi recipe and made it with just that, like 50/50 microwax and Mag1 grease. Worked outstanding in the cold but not so much in warm weather, it purged and sprayed everywhere. MML has mostly beeswax, a little paraffin, and surprisingly little microwax in with some plain lithium grease.

 

[James W. Miner]

I tried a search, no luck. I have to check Ken's.
I think Mike was booted long ago and I can't find him.
He sent me lubes to test and MML was the most accurate in the .500 JRH. Even beat Felix and that is hard to do.
I have made hundreds of lube tests and is why I hate Alox. I can't explain why changing a lube can reduce group sizes so much but can with Ben's Red. Works fine in a rifle but it is too slippery in revolver brass, breaks tension too fast.
LBT Blue is too hard but Soft Blue works. I found any lube that does not spin out at muzzle exit will throw a boolit out of balance. If you recover boolits with some lube left, it is not right.
I still have some LBT Magnum lube and it works too.
It might be that a hard lube will lose grip in a revolver too, there is nothing to help hold a boolit, no rifling to engage. Very important to retard movement with slow powders.

 

[Ian]

I'd go search, but the CB site is blocked by my anti-virus software. Lookin "just the facts, lube recipes" sticky. Mike put up a couple of formulas somewhere around the middle of page 2 or 3 if you view at 40 posts per page, then there's a few more posts around page 5 IIRC where he did an edit for clarification of "Mike's Micro-Lithi", that's the recipe you want. Its like three pounds Beeswax, a pound of paraffin, half a pound of microwax, and a 14 oz. tube of Mag 1 lithium grease.

 

[Brad]

That is exactly what I find on CB.

3 # beeswax
1 # paraffin
14 oz lithium grease
.5 # micro wax 430

I have some from an older recipe without the microwax. It does get a bit soft in heat. It is, however, an excellent cooler weather lube.

 

[Ian]

Funny how I can remember some things perfectly and others not even close.

 

[fiver]

I didn't remember it having that much B-wax.

 

[James W. Miner]

OK, help you old farts.

 

[Barn]

My notes agrees with Brad on the MML except needs a large bar of Ivory for the final version.

 

[James W. Miner]

I wondered about the soap since he told me it had a lot of stearate.

 

[fiver]

wasn't that the MML+1 with the soap.
I think we hashed that one out with him in the quest thread, and decided 5% Ivory was about right after he gave it a couple of tests.

 

[JonB]

I'd go search, but the CB site is blocked by my anti-virus software. Lookin "just the facts, lube recipes" sticky. Mike put up a couple of formulas somewhere around the middle of page 2 or 3 if you view at 40 posts per page, then there's a few more posts around page 5 IIRC where he did an edit for clarification of "Mike's Micro-Lithi", that's the recipe you want. Its like three pounds Beeswax, a pound of paraffin, half a pound of microwax, and a 14 oz. tube of Mag 1 lithium grease.

Below are Mike's last few posts in that thread (141,142) from March 2013

post 141, 03-29-2013

K.I.S.S-Modified Lithi-bee
will cover 95% of what anyone could want from a lube. It can be as easy as the following:
by weight:
4.5 to 5 ounces (cheap caramel colored lithium grease)
1/2 to 1 ounce grated ivory soap
10 to 15 ounces of good ol yeller American beeswax for an NRA50/50 like consistency or up to 20 ounces for an Orange Majic consistency........ (adjust to you and your guns liking)

Melt the grease over direct heat, when it is fully liquid and smoking a bit add the ivory soap slowly until it is all gone.....remove from the heat and let it cool a bit. When it is starting to look like grease again put it back on LOW heat and add the beeswax till that is gone........thats it and you are done. If this was too complicated you can always skip the Ivory soap as it is not 100% required, but it does help with accuracy/handling and raises the melt temp slightly.

post 142, 04-05-2013

Was diggin and sorting stuff under my bench from my lube spear-a-menting a few years back while moving to a newly made bench and found another good recipe along with it's test targets and lube sample in a baggie. This was a good lube and was accurate in my rifles and ss pistols at normal and normal plus castboolit velocity. I am calling it "Satans Mix" because of the way the balance of the ingredients worked out to get me where I wanted to go. I was trying for a semi soft yet flexible lube that did not need the microwax that most my lubes contain and the ingredients shook out in a balanced yet evil way.

Lube is about the hardness and texture of NRA 50/50 or maybe just a touch stiffer.

Melt the vaseline/paraffin and add the ivory soap flakes into it til fully dissolved, remove from heat for a bit and then add the beeswax last.

EDIT 3/14/14...It is very important that you melt the ivory into the vaseline/paraffin mixture as a whole....If you melt it into just the vaseline and then add the paraffin the temp change will cause the ivory to precipitate out of suspension and cause you some grief getting it back into the mix.

6oz vaseline
6oz paraffin
6oz beeswax
1 oz dried ivory flakes (foodprocessor)

That month (March 2013) is about the time mike sent me a sample he called "MML+soap". In our PM's he never said the exact recipe...and because of the timing of him sending me that lube sample, I'm wondering if it has no MW and is a version of post 141. which was probably the last batch of MML before he started making 666+1

It's kind of funny timing that this has come up here. I have two lyman 45 lubesizers left, after selling most of them a few months ago. One has SL68B and the other has MML+soap, and Mike sent me a fairly good sized amount. I am casting some NOE 460-405 RF for a CB member, and figured I'd use up the MML+soap on those. Since I was doing that, I figured I should dig up the recipe for that person.

 

[Barn]

I rechecked my notes. Adding Ivory is the warm weather version.

 

[Ian]

I didn't remember Mike doing a dual stearate lube. Interesting. 666+1, "Simply Accurate Lube" (the one that contained orange oil), and the recipe Brad confirmed above are the ones I remember the best.

Someone on that thread posted a good recipe and pm'd me about it, I never went down that road but it was similar to KISS lube. Basically it was red lithium grease fortified with Ivory soap, and beeswax. I don't recall the member's handle at the moment but he was one of the masters-level guys.

All of those recipes are good and surprisingly versatile. Making a soft, non-slippery lube that has a very broad melt phase and holding it all together with a lot of metal stearates seems to be the whole secret. Lots of ways to do that. Honestly, the best thing I've seen yet is basically SL-68B or a variant that has a lot of different micro, paraffin, and natural waxes from squishy to brittle all mixed in with some paraffin oils and 5-25% sodium stearate, then adjusted for slickness with castor bean oil.