Lessons of the Extreme Lube Quest, says me.

[KHornet]

Yep! PC can also mean Pure Crap!

 

[Elkins45]

One minor nitpick with #12: a simple vaseline/cornstarch mix was an excellent performer when tested in a 35 Whelen up to around 1600 fps. When I tried to make the leap to 2K it all flew apart, but for general plinking it shot every bit as well as a 'normal' wax or grease-based lube.

 

[Brad]

Interesting. Did you apply by hand or did it flow they a sizer?
That is the kind of simple mix that appeals to so many. Cheap, easy to make, and if it works well then what more could a guy want.
Ever try any in handguns?

Thanks for trying something different.

 

[Pistolero]

Cornstarch and water is a non-Newtonian fluid. Wonder if this effect works
with Vaseline and how that may impact the performance as a lube/seal. Seems
like it may act like a solid for the short bore residence time.

Bill

 

[Ian]

Cornstarch, like most of the other solids, gets left behind in the bore under high-pressure conditions. I tried it with several things, including lithium grease. I won't say that it makes a "non-Newtonian" fluid, but it does get rather rubbery. The best analogy I can come up with for the effect of pressure and heat on organic thickeners like that is wringing out a wet dish towel. Once the liquid is gone, the dry fibers remain behind.

 

[Elkins45]

Interesting. Did you apply by hand or did it flow they a sizer?
That is the kind of simple mix that appeals to so many. Cheap, easy to make, and if it works well then what more could a guy want.
Ever try any in handguns?

Thanks for trying something different.

I applied it by hand and sized with a Lee push thru. The Whelen was the only gun I tried it in. It smelled like burning pie crust when fired. I think maybe Ian has a good explanation for why it failed at higher pressure. I got busy and didn't get back to the experiment once it went bad, but I wonder if I increased the amount of vaseline in the mix and stiffened it with a bit of wax if it might still work at 2K?

That's another project for when I retire.

 

[Ian]

It would likely work better at 2K if you just used wax and Vaseline. What attributes were you trying to achieve with the solid filler? Heat tolerance?

 

[Elkins45]

I wasn't really trying to achieve anything other than amusing myself to see if it would work. There was a mention of trying solids in the thread over on CB that prompted me to give it a try. My hypothesis was that the fine corn starch particles might behave like the solids in radiator stop leak, plugging up the channels created by the gasses blowing by the base.

I did think it would be interesting to see if I could create a functional wax free lube using only stuff I could buy at the supermarket.

 

[Brad]

I like the reasoning. Even more than that I like the fact you tried it to see what happened.
I do hate to say it but you really aren't a lube nut until you have a late night run thru snow with flaming lube, or so I hear.

 

[Ian]

Elkins, those were all EXACTLY my lines of reasoning as well, that's why I tried so many different things. Somewhere in my garage there is still a blender whose insides are coated with Viva paper towel dust. THAT little experiment just almost worked like a charm, but failed when used in revolvers due to the lube being blown ahead of the bullet and ripping away lead as it was run over. Made some stellar groups with my .270, though.

Someone like you might just come along one day and discover how to make wood flour or powdered paper work like a charm in everything, and it would be totally awesome if you did it with grocery-store ingredients. I gave up early, too many things to test. Might revisit it one day like I did with the polypropylene thickener.

Brad, I'd reckon that you aren't a true lube nut unless you have scars, or have actually bailed out of the rack at 3:00 AM to go fire up the hot plate and test an idea that came to you in a dream.

 

[Elkins45]

Somebody posted a recipe that used silk. There were a bunch of questions and when the OP finally came back to the thread he said he made his own powdered silk from old shirts with a blender.

I'll bet asbestos would be GREAT but you would have to shoot wearing a full respirator,

 

[Grump]

I learned in law school that a years-before summer job involving cutting asbestos off of chemical plant pipes and putting it into plastic garbage bags *might* have been not quite legal when the bags went into 55-gallon drums, capped with ordinary lids, and the barrels were kicked off the flatbed truck into the regular old landfill without any special treatment. No chance of that stuff EVER getting into surface water or groundwater though, where there would be no question...

Is it true that the latency period from atmospheric exposure to friable asbestos is 30 years??? Not sure where I read that but if true, I get to worry about only the regular cancer risks of an old fat man. At least I still got both eyes and don't try to collect bounties on guys with names like "Lucky".