Liquid lubes

Jeff H

NW Ohio
Bret,

This is what used with my last batch of BLL. It worked just as well as the the Johnsons product.


https://www.acehardware.com/departments/home-and-decor/cleaning-and-disinfectants/floor-polish/10074


".......waxes as it cleans............"
Makes me wonder what they're "cleaning" with, but if one knows anything about waxes typically used on woodwork, and knows a little about wood and finishes on woodwork, it should mean that they are simply using a suitable solvent to dissolve the old wax to "clean" (strip) it off to prevent a buildup of wax/dirt/ This would be a good thing for us lethey kept it simple and used an old fashioned volatile solvent.

".............It actually is our Paste Wax in liquid form.............."
This is a good thing - assuming there's nothing weird about their version of "paste wax."

I know there were discussions about a substitute, but I didn't pay much attention because I already had three or four cans of the Johnson's. The way I use tumble lube, a bunch of it will end up in my estate sale. I handed off a thousand bullets to my visiting brother a couple days ago and had to check again to make sure I'd actually lubed them. If I've done it right, I have to smell them to tell if they've been lubed. I leave a small note card in the container if I've only applied one coat. After the second coat, the note card is tossed, so if they smell like lube and no note card, they'd had two coats - point being that 45-45-10 or BLL goes a long way. I have to microwave my 45-45-10, and warm my bullets on the wood stove to get the coat as thin as I want it. BLL is MUCH more convenient to "make" as well as to apply.

I've failed on occasion to correctly mark which I've used, so I've inadvertently done some blind, objective testing. For the shooting I do, I can't tell a difference at the target.

Next time I mix BLL, if I ever have to, I'm trying Ian's 50/50 ratio and mixing it right in the Johnson's can. That Johnson's can is worth a few bucks on its own because it seals better than any other container I've used. LEE's squirt bottles don't hold up to repeated microwaving and the spouts don't seal well enough over the long period of time I tend to take to use four ounces of either lube. If I don't like the 50/50 as much as the original 60/40, I can just add the extra 10% and nothing lost.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Jeff, I went to 50/50 because it makes a lighter coat without warming the bullets or lube. It also doesn't build up as bad in the cool whip container. Shoots the same for me. Ymmv.

Fiver's mix with a little beeswax is good, too. I dislike Alox products so much that I've considered cutting BLL to 30/60/5/5 Alox/jos/beeswax/microwax, but powder coating keeps winning over doing that experiment.
 

Jeff H

NW Ohio
Jeff, I went to 50/50 because it makes a lighter coat without warming the bullets or lube..........
........I dislike Alox products so much that..............

The thinner, lighter coat was my first thought when I saw you post "50/50." Most of my casting is done when it's so cold I just can't do anything else, so that matters. Sometimes I have to warm BLL bullets, sometimes I don't, and it's easier in the winter if the mix is thinner.

I appreciate your perspective on Alox, but don't have the education to understand it because I've intentionally avoided it. My battery and my shooting has changed to reduce and simplify, so my shooting has changed also. I don't think I get into situations where Alox bogs me down much, so, good or bad, Alox is still cheap and easy as far as achieving what I need. Hopefully, when I mention it every time we discuss lubes, no one takes it as me singing its praises.

I'm glad you mentioned it, Ian. I don't want to mislead anyone who's getting started or just new to a particular aspect. I forget that what I'm doing is a little weird - working the opposite direction of what we normally see as progress. I'm working backwards to see just how little time and cash I have to put in to have guns and loads that are still effective. Not looking for converts either - just having fun with an experiment I've always wanted to do.

So, to anyone reading my posts who is curious about lubes - listen to the other guys, because I'm all about "cheap-n-easy" these days, going for the simplest, cheapest ("free-est" where possible) down-n-dirty way to keep shooting (reasonably well) regardless of the national economy or political climate. It's actually been a fun endeavor I've wanted to pursue for many, many years. My way imposes limits - lots of limits, but it's fun working around or within them.

Back to Ian - Powder coating......... yeah, I'll have to go there eventually and for a specific reason. Been watching and reading your and others' posts on that for a long time.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Jeff, that's a really good post. I can forsee changing over to powder-coating almost entirely, and will if it proves as effective as other methods. Pc solves too many problems, with too few side effects to ignore. Like you said, for my purposes, and not to claim it is the best solution for eveyone.

Like you, I'm starting to look at streamlining and paring down the whole handloading game, and further, to develop truly universal loads for all my (or friend's) guns in each caliber. So far I have .38 Spl. and .45 ACP nailed down and carved in granite. .45 Colt and .308 Win are next. So far, PC has been a huge part of that.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
good luck on the 'universal' 45 colt load.
if all your friends have guns made after about 2000 it could happen, unless one goes and buy's a Taurus made Rossi model 92 or a second gen colt or an old model Ruger Vaquero then your back to two or three 'universal' loads.
 

KHornet

Well-Known Member
Got 4 full cans unopened, probably last 2 lifetimes.
More than likely Brad will inherit most of them.
I lube and size with a variety of lubes, but I give
most all of them a single coat of Bll. I consider it
to be an encapsulant. On multi groove blts, of
the lovern and ranch dog styles, have gone to 2
coats of Bll, and on most plain base bullets the
same.

Paul
 
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popper

Well-Known Member
Started with LLA, made a batch of Recluse - still very smoky. Read the thread on lubes but don't like cooking so I tried peanut butter. Then veggie oil. It works really great but sloppy, messy (full house loads in 30/30 & 308W - no leading and excellent accuracy + a fine 'mist' at the crown, no real 'smoke'). Read about PC, it works. Once I figued out tumble coating, HF gun collects dust. Then HiTek - works too (don't like it for HV rifle - application can be a PITA). Made some BLL I occasionally use. I have not found any limitations to PC! Cheap, fast and accurate. Easiest to 'recover' from a botched job - just overcoat with BLL. Moulds work, PC works so I started tinkering with alloys. But that's a different thread.
 
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Gary

SE Kansas
Question: Has anyone used Ben's BLL admixture to lube Pellets? I have a .22 cal pellet rifle and am always looking for ways to increase the fps. OR would this be considered a form of "dieseling"?
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
dieseling is from compression.
you actually compress the air in the barrel and the oil on the leading edge of the bullet is where the dieseling occurs.

IMO I would try a HBN coat.
 

35 shooter

Well-Known Member
Question: Has anyone used Ben's BLL admixture to lube Pellets? I have a .22 cal pellet rifle and am always looking for ways to increase the fps. OR would this be considered a form of "dieseling"?
Actually my brother called me a year or so ago when we both got back into airgunnng, and told me he tried that very thing.
He reported increased accuracy, but said nothing about velocity or diesling.

I have plenty of JLW on hand and use BLL almost exclusively in all my cast loads now..... but lol, I refuse to use up my supply in my Airguns.
I think he has stopped doing it too.
I think he was just using one coat on his pellets.

I might , however, consider trying the Lundmark Wax alternative for the JLW a try for that. In fact, I may do that very thing.
 

Gary

SE Kansas
I went to a small town hardware store last month and found 6 cans of the JLW @ $9/can. I think I'll go pick them up next time I'm going that way.
 

35 shooter

Well-Known Member
I went to a small town hardware store last month and found 6 cans of the JLW @ $9/can. I think I'll go pick them up next time I'm going that way.
Gary,
Great find on the JLW! Mixed 60/40 as per Ben’s original recipe, it’s a fantastic cast bullet lube.
 

Gary

SE Kansas
You're probably right; I knew Vaseline would. I would like to lube my .22 cal pellets with BLL but didn't want any dieseling. Thought there might be someone on here that has already had that experience. Guess I'll give it a try and see what happens.
 

Gary

SE Kansas
Gary,
Great find on the JLW! Mixed 60/40 as per Ben’s original recipe, it’s a fantastic cast bullet lube.

I've been using BLL for some time now and it along with PC'd bullets makes up 100% of my lube armamentarium .
 
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Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Sonofagun man! That's a word and half! I had to look it up. I thought only Deppity Al had a vocab with big honkin' words like that in it!
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
you'd think Allen would have learned to use small words long ago so he could get those reports typed up quicker.