Made some lube today

Spindrift

Well-Known Member
Needed some more lube, to get a new pan going for my .44 bullets. I have had good results with a lube I made, mixing equal parts simple lube, Glens black and 666+1 lube. The improvements in accuracy I saw, might be attributable to the lube, but can just as well be due to improvements in casting/reloading og shooting skills. I just don`t know.

The ingredients are listed in the order they are added. The sequence of the ingredients is important, as some constituents may have melting points that exceeds the poof-point of others. * signifies optional ingredient. The most important thing, don´t rush it. Don´t go to the next step until the previously added ingredients are completely dissoluted. If you get smoke, turn down the heat- there should be no smoke.

Ingredients:
ATF, 2 tablespoons
2-stroke oil, 2 tablespoons
Grated soap bar, 100 grains
* 1 tablespoon high-temp grase, I use propeller shaft grease
75g/3oz moly grease
75g/ 3oz lithium grease (cheapest you can find)
250g/ 0,5Ibs Beeswax
50g/ 2oz paraffin wax
*(I had a few lumps of wax from Babybel cheese; microwax. Threw them in, they are the red lumps)
* 1 tablespoon Lanolin

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1) Put the oils in the pan, add soap and stir til completely dissolved. It will foam a bit. Takes a few minutes. You will then get this pink foamy thing. Now you can add high-temp grease, if you like.

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2) Add the lithium- and moly grease. Stir till completely mixed.

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3) Add the waxes. Melt and mix completely. Turn off the heat, stir in the Lanolin, if you like.
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This lube is quick and easy to make. It has worked well for me from subsonic to 2300 fps (fastest I have tried, so far).
 
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Spindrift

Well-Known Member
Had an opportunity today, to test the lube in «reasonably cold» weather. Nothing crazy, 22F. Both barrels freshly cleaned. I finished the cleaning session by passing a patch saturated with lube down the bore (attempt at preconditioning). Shot with cold, clean barrel.

Groups shot at 100m from prone, with support on a bag. Target increments 30mm (~1MOA). The first shot was in the group with both rifles, and accuracy as expected (I found out today, the 15grs of n110 in my new 6,5x55 barrel is probably a little under the sweet spot).

The performance of this lube has discouraged me from further lube testing, for now. I have found no conditions yet, where it has let me down. I have not tried it for extreme HV shooting, though.

One thing I have found, is accuracy deteriorates at about 100 shots if you don’t clean the barrel (at least with the combinations I tried)

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fiver

Well-Known Member
take your initial temperature with the soap up higher.
you can add some mineral spirits
the spirits will start to smoke at about 350-F letting you know your getting to the starting point of the soap making a polymerization with the oils and will take the lumps out.
they will also just evaporate out of the mix after doing their job.
but another 50-100F after that smoking starts will totally break the soap down and allow you to make a homogenized mix before hitting the pan with the grease to make the other oils and the soap part of their matrix.
 

Spindrift

Well-Known Member
One more observation to add. I have just aquired my first lube-sizer!
It is an old Lyman 45 (I think). Someone took good care of this. I have invested in a grand total of one size die (.310).

The lube flowed well without heater, even in my slightly chilly basement in february :)

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Ian

Notorious member
It's been repainted with Chevy Orange engine paint but does look to be in great shape. One thing to watch very carefully on these is the top punch to die alignment. Due to the nature of the set screw forcing the H-die toward the reservoir, alignment is inevitable. Over-torquing the set screw stretches the frame around the hole the die fits in, causing an egg shape and further misalignment. Several of mine require strips of shim stock at the back of the H-die to correct this and one of them is so bad I may have to push up some metal at the back with a sharp punch and fill with strong epoxy to align the die body and close the gap.
 

Spindrift

Well-Known Member
Thanks!
Ian, I think you’re right about the repaint. The finish is nice, but does not look original. Which does not matter to me, as I am not a collector.

In had anticipated a bit of trouble shooting with this lube-sizer. But so far, it is working well. I removed the old lube, using a heat gun. Popped in the sizer. Poured in melted lube.

Now, it is filling the lube grooves nicely, without squirting lube anywhere else (like floor, bench). The bullets come out perfectly round, at .310, with no apparent damage. In a while, I’ll see what professor Target has to say :)
 

Ian

Notorious member
If you lower the ram until the top punch just starts to enter the die and look at it from the side with a light, you can easily see if there is any significant misalignment between top punch and die. If there is any and the punch fits the bullet well (such as MP punches do), the bullet will be forced to size at an angle and that's no good for base squareness or nose alignment. As you say, Mr. Target will let you know if any misalignment present is significant or not.
 

Spindrift

Well-Known Member
I shot the first groups today, with bullets processed with the Lyman 45. Just below freezing, no wind. Shot at 100m, lying om my belly with support on a bag. Schultz & Larsen 30-06 hunting rifle.
Prof. Target had no objections to the lube-sized bullets. 1MOA is good, for me.
The bullet was the MP312-159 hunting, with HP. This bullet simply shoots in all my .30- cal barrels.
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Spindrift

Well-Known Member
Thanks, guys! I don’t think so either, Fiver. Very pleased with these results; more or less looks like my groups with quality jax :)
 

Ian

Notorious member
It's always good to get the final answer about things and let the equipment tell you where you need to improve your processes and what things are plenty good enough.

I might have to pick up one of those MP Hunter HP moulds.
 

Spindrift

Well-Known Member
I’m certainly very happy with the MP Hunter. I’ve mostly shot it with lube, so far.
The mould comes with two types of pins; large HP, and flat nose. It would probably be useful if it also came with some shorter, smaller HP- pins like the SIL-bullet.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
you might be able to swap the SIL pins over?
I bet miha cuts the pin channels and body's all the same diameter.