Log for posting versions of SL-68 and SL-68B

[Barn]

It would be great to have a thread in which we could post version numbers of the lubes we are working on. I am not sure what to call a version of lube I am working on or if someone else is calling their lube the same thing.

Example:

SL-68.2 or SL-68.2.x - Barn

This would reserve this version for me. Next person would know to reserve SL-68.3 for themselves.

Posting the actual recipe would be optional.

 

[Ian]

Barn, let me post what's in my book already regarding that, and if you want to adopt the system I'm using feel free. SL-68.5 is open, and all the subsets of SL-69 (straight beeswax for wax base) are "open" as well as subsets of 70 and 71. I would ask of anyone using my nomenclature and discussing on this forum to please post their recipes. SL-68 is distinct in that none of the formulas contain beeswax, any that use a blend of micro and beeswax I think deserve the "B" designation that JonB gave his recipe, and possibly subset numbers (SL-68B.1 etc. as you've already done).

SL-68.0 (beta)

2 ounces fresh Ivory soap (soft, damp),
2 ounces 180F micro-crystalline wax from Blendedwaxes,
2 tablespoons 140-wt. mineral-based gear oil, GL-1 spec.,
2 tablespoons generic white petrolatum,
1 tablespoon heavy mineral oil (laxative grade from pharmacy),
1/2 tablespoon (1.5 tsp.) Castor bean oil (also from pharmacy)


SL-68.1

2 ounces fresh Ivory soap (soft, damp),
2 ounces 180F micro-crystalline wax from Blendedwaxes,
3-1/2 tablespoons 140-wt. mineral-based gear oil, GL-1 spec.,
1/2 tablespoon (1.5 tsp.) Castor bean oil.

SL-68.2 (stiffer version of .1)

Reduce gear oil to 2.5 tablespoons.

SL-68.3

Same as .1 but replace castor oil with same amount of Maxima K2 synthetic ester two-cycle pre-mix oil.

SL-68.4

Same as "beta" version but substitute Maxima K2 for the castor oil. Has not been made or tested yet.


Anyone is welcome to add to this and go to version .5 etc.


SL-69 as I have it is strictly for testing beeswax with no other waxes. I think a wax blend is still the best route to pursue, but there is room for playing with oils to a degree here. This was a pretty good lube with my limited testing, it's just difficult to make properly. Any improvement I believe would come from adding microwax, and then it would fall under the SL-68B umbrella.

2 ounces beeswax
2 ounces Ivory soap
1.5 ounces Vaseline
1.5 tsp castor oil

SL-68B I think should focus on various beeswax/microwax blends, but that's Jon's baby.

SL-70 is same as 69 but used straight Yaley candle paraffin for a wax. This recipe sucked royally, I abandoned it further testing.

SL-71 is same as 68.2 but used paraffin/microwax blend instead of straight microwax. Any subsets should focus on oil substitutions.

 

[Barn]

Thanks Ian. I will contact JonB for versions of SL-67B lube.

 

[JWFilips]

Man, I just got to tell you guys that this is just like being in chemistry class again!!!
I JUST LOVE IT!
This place is top notch for all kinds of learnin!

 

[Grump]

Just what I wanted!

A scorecard to keep track of the players.

Thanks to ALL who have contributed!

 

[JonB]

Thanks Ian. I will contact JonB for versions of SL-67B lube.

Barn, I pop in here from time to time ...trying, at least to keep up on my "watched" threads, even if I don't post.

For the record, I have only made two recipes of soap lube.
My first was SL-68 ...which, I see, is now more thoroughly called "SL-68.0 (beta)", although I didn't have the exact same brand of MW as Ian used.

I then made SL68B (for my own purposes, I prefer this name be short and sweet with no dash)
I will be staying with the SL68B recipe, til it fails my needs ...here is the short story to explain why.

After I made my first batch of soap lube (SL-68) and I liked it. BUT, I knew I had three different high melt temp MW samples (about 1 lb samples) from different sources...none of which, I may be able to get more of. Worrying a bit that when I ran out of the MW I started with and switching to one of the others may change the lube's performance, I started thinking of altering the recipe and blending equal portions of each MW into the recipe, making a 'possibly' more desirable complex wax base, and prolonging my stash. Discussions with Ian and others on that thought, also brought up beeswax...and that could add more/different benefits of wax complexity as well as stretch out my stash even more. That's the reason why.

So, as far as I'm concerned, feel free to use whatever name/number for your formulations as you wish.

 

[Barn]

SL-68B.1 My attempt to make some of JonB's SL68B using a single grade of micro wax.

1.5 ounces MW-180
0.5 ounces Beeswax
2 Tablespoons 90-wt GL-1 gear oil
2 Tablespoons Vasoline
1 Tablespoon Mineral Oil
1.5 teaspoons Castor Oil
2 Ounces Ivory

Mixed everything except the beeswax together and brought it to the liquid stage. Dumped the melted beeswax in and crash cooled it over ice.
The lube is a little softer than I like but it shot great.

SL-68B.2 I wanted something firmer than SL-68B.1 so after consulting with Ian I reduced some of the oils.

1.5 ounces MW-180
0.5 ounces Beeswax
2.5 Tablespoons 90-wt GL-1 gear oil
2 Tablespoons Vasoline
1 teaspoons Castor Oil
2 Ounces Ivory

I used the same procedure as per above. I like the firmness of this lube.

 

[JWFilips]

This is probably the wrong thread to post this question but I hope you guys will humor me:
So The "SL" stand for soap lube?
Is this just one road in the "Quest"?
Is SL type lubes better than, let's say, Ben's Red or Simple Lube,etc?
Not rocking the boat or anything.... Just trying to understand.
It this just part of the "Quest" for the "Ultimate Lube" Or are you just diversifying to obtain the Ultimate lube for the type of shooting you do?
( It would be good to know before I get the urge to start melting down my wife's tupperware)
I find this all fascinating and just trying to understand it all
Jim

 

[Brad]

This is all part of the quest. SL does stand for soap lube, or at least as far as I know.
Better is dang tough to determine. Better in one application may not be better in another. We have found excellent handgun lubes that fail horribly in a rifle.

One advantage to some of the SL series has been low smoke. For handgun shooting in still conditions that is a good thing. Hard to hit what you can't see. Some lubes are almost like shooting BP!

A big advantage to the higher soap content of the SL series is that they are not affected by heat. Ian loves just north of Hell and he doesn't like lubes that go soft in his summer temps.

 

[JonB]

snip...
Is SL type lubes better than, let's say, Ben's Red or Simple Lube,etc?

I've never used Ben's Red or Simple Lube...But I will say this, I think SL-68.0 and SL68B are better than "etc"

1. It's soft, so whatever is left on the bullet, when it exits the barrel, flings off, so as to not make the bullet unbalanced.
2. It's flows through a lubesizer without heat.
3. It's soft, but not tacky like a Speed green type of lube. When handling lubed bullets, obviously I try to avoid touching the lubed areas, with lubes like speed green, I've found it to become a sticky mess, lube finger prints on everything. Now a bullet lubed with SL68B, when the lube area is touched, it feels like lotion and my fingers are is easily wiped on a rag or trousers to become clean...it doesn't become a mess. I'm kinda anal about hand/finger cleanliness, so this was important to me in a soft lube.
3. Accuracy-wise, It shoots clean, leaving the inside of the barrel in a state where it doesn't create cold barrel flyers.
4. Messiness-wise, It shoots clean, I've tested it with revolver ammo, and after shooting a box of 50 rds, the outside (as well as the inside) of the gun just had a light haze of soot and NOT greasey like many beeswax based lubed (where the lube is 50% or more beeswax and the other portion is mosty oil or grease.)
5. Smokiness-wise, it shoots pretty cleanly, mostly, humidity and the type of gunpowder kinda dictate part of smokiness.
6. It doesn't melt or weep oil out in the extreme heat of a parked car(windows up) in the summer sun.
7. It's been successfully shooting tested in extreme heat of Texas and extreme cold of the Rockies and hasn't had any serious issues.

One potential downside ...corrosion. Others have had evidence of verdigris and other corrosion, I have not (my stored bullets sized/lubed for as long as 6 months, including Minnesota humid summer as well as some loaded ammo, I pulled apart...no corrosion evidence), but I set up an long term experiment and will report on that, in my "SL-68 continued" thread.

Um ,,,Ian, have I forgot anything ?

 

[JWFilips]

Wow I'm lean'in!...JonB Is this mostly for handgun ( Not rifle?)

 

[JonB]

Both rifle and pistol.
the extreme hot and cold tests were with Rifle.

one lube for everything.

 

[Paden]

How cold is "cold"? -20, -30...?

 

[Brad]

For me zero is enough. For others -20 is more realistic. Ian probably stops shooting at 30 F.

I find that most lubes that work well at 30 are fine to 10, I don't shoot when it is colder than that. Many lubes will start showing issues around 40 F with cold barrel flyers.

I do find that larger diameter, heavier bullets are less affected than small, light bullets. My Marlin 32-20 is very sensitive.

 

[Paden]

For me zero is enough. For others -20 is more realistic. Ian probably stops shooting at 30 F.

I find that most lubes that work well at 30 are fine to 10, I don't shoot when it is colder than that.

Thanks. JonB's above summary was a pretty appealing sales pitch, but I was really curious what "extreme cold of the Rockies" equated to on the thermometer. I'm striving for something that performs well from +75ish to -25ish. Tho I don't care for sticky any more than JonB does, and a lube that feels like hand lotion sounds awesome, I'll deal with sticky if it's necessary to get the cold performance.

+30 and snowing here today; the longest season of the year is on its way.

 

[Ian]

JonB and Brad pretty much covered it, thanks guys.

JWP: The Soap Lube series was just one angle of the Extreme Lube quest, one I personally took on long before that quest was formally begun and have been on-again, off-again for about five years now. Essentially I was trying to replicate the best lube I've ever used, the one made by Starmetal. It's very, very similar to LBT Blue Soft, also, but I think in some ways better. If you want to know more about what the concept that Brad, Runfiverun, and myself had for what is "Extreme Lube", go to the Castboolits site and read the first page of the Extreme Lube Quest sticky, that pretty much puts it all out there. Along about version 67 I did some work with waxes and oils and discovered one of the keys to getting the lube to work is the combination of branched-chain wax and linear-chain oils. Since then those of us that have fooled with the stuff have just been making small tweaks. Once I made SL-68 and started shooting it, I shot it until all five ounces or so were gone, then mixed a couple versions of 68.1 together and have been using that for over a year. There's a little room for improvement and I'm still paranoid about corrosion issues in the long term due to the soap, but generally this stuff is excellent.

Paden, SL-68 has been tested from 105'F in rapid fire strings, high-velocity, low velocity, down to -7'F (ammo, gun all allowed to normalize to that temp), and has been tested to nearly 3K fps for accuracy by Larry Gibson. Accuracy, fouling, cyclic purging, and cold-barrel flyers were the main points of observation. It's also survived the whole summer in the loaded ammo in my "car" pistol and spare magazines where the temps reach around 150F daily, for at least six hours. It's the closest thing to "Extreme" I've found yet, and it does what I want it to, so I just keep shooting it.

 

[JonB]

Thanks. JonB's above summary was a pretty appealing sales pitch, but I was really curious what "extreme cold of the Rockies" equated to on the thermometer. I'm striving for something that performs well from +75ish to -25ish. Tho I don't care for sticky any more than JonB does, and a lube that feels like hand lotion sounds awesome, I'll deal with sticky if it's necessary to get the cold performance.

+30 and snowing here today; the longest season of the year is on its way.

Maybe we found someone to expand on Eutectic's extreme cold testing?
Has Eutectic joined here ? my attempt of a search for this name comes up empty.

 

[JWFilips]

Is there any place where one could get smaller amounts of this micro-crystalline wax instead of a 10 lb slab and still be sure it is the correct stuff?
I may like to try my hand at making some of the SL-68.0 (beta)

 

[Ian]

I'm sure there is. In the past I've googled up about a dozen candle and cosmetic wax suppliers that sell in smaller quantities.

 

[Barn]

JWFilips - If nothing else works out for you I could make some MW-180 available to you. The shipping cost really hurts. I have a 1.25 or 1.75 pound piece available that would fit into a SFR box. I have $5.50 per pound invested in it which includes freight to me.