Need advice on simple lube

[GSPguy]

Ian,
Thank you!!!
That makes sense to me now.

So the castor oil in FWFL is actually lube?

 

[Brad]

Yes it is.
Castor oil is the lube. The mineral oil and hearing helps keep it is the lube instead of bleeding out. The soap makes the oil into a grease. The wax is the carrier.

 

[GSPguy]

Brad,

Thank you!

So a new batch of FWFL it is. I am planning to add the microwax too.

Thank you all for the education.

 

[fiver]

adding soap to mineral oil will cross link it into a grease.
it's the oddest thing if you really up the soap percentage [25-30%] it turns into a mushable solid,,, I called it a Gel, but it's more solid than a gelled substance.
maybe think of like a number 5-6 grease.

 

[L Ross]

He wants a lube that stands up a little better in the heat than FWFL. BR isn't it.

Brad gave excellent advice above about bumping FWFL with some microwax. Soy has its place but not for what we are trying to do here. Two-stroke oil eliminates the need for the soap, but has the opposite polar effect of Castor. Believe me, castor oil and soap, together with the paraffin-based viscocity modifiers, is what makes FWFL work its magic. If you substitute the castor oil out, you change the whole essence of the lube.

My problem with FWFL was that bullets stored long term with lube on them seemed to start to get attacked by the lube. They developed some weird grey oxidation or something. Never went there again.

 

[JonB]

So FWFL it is. I do have some soy wax on hand, will that work? I do see microwax on Amazon. Is there a certain type to get?

..SNIP

Randyrat is planning to start selling Microwax.

I want a lube that stands up to heat a little better than the original FWFL. I guess I could just add paraffin or some carnauba to “thicken” it up but I can do the same with simple lube too.

Besides PC, Nothing stands up to Heat like a soap lube. Ian and others have posted several variations, as have I. SL68B has been working great for me.

 

[Ian]

LRoss, I never had that happen. About ten years ago, William Jennings (Wiljen at CB, the LED flashlight guy) did a group buy on Felix Lube components and I participated. Instead of Ivory soap, the chosen item was stearic acid (beef triglyceride) because it would melt in easily at a low temperature. Well, there's one oroblem with that.....stearic acid isn't sodium stearate, it's the acid half of the soap without the sodium hydroxide base component, so it is essentially an unreacted fatty acid in the lube. Beesax also contains a variety of free fatty acids. The end result was lube that shot ok but had a lower melt point and turned gas checks and case necks green in short order. It did not, however, seem to affect the lead alloy much.

 

[fiver]

animal fats will oxidize copper.
even lanolin will get some deep dark green out of a small flake of copper.
I'm not sure if they accelerate/promote the oxidization or if they just show off the green from it happening better.