Would It Be Possible?

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
I guess I throwing this out to our LubeMasters here:

Would you think it could be possible to Take a "Proper Lube" like Simple Lube and dilute it with a volatile solvent to create a "Tumble Lube" version of that lube? IE: tumble to fill the grease grooves and then dry the volatiles to leave the "Proper Lube in the grease grooves?
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Ben is correct, give it a go. Find a solvent that works and see if it pans out.
I have no idea how well it will work, that is only because I never tried it.
Might need a mix of solvents unless you find the right one. Try mineral spirits to start, maybe add a touch of acetone or MEK if faster drying is needed.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Might even try hearing bullets to 200 F or so and adding a small amount of lube to some hot bullets and swirling them. Let heat be the solvent so to speak.
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
Might even try hearing bullets to 200 F or so and adding a small amount of lube to some hot bullets and swirling them. Let heat be the solvent so to speak.
Well I actually have done that! Worked ok for less that 1400 fps
 

Ian

Notorious member
I did it with Felix lube many years ago, there's a thread on CB about it. You end up with what you start out with, a sticky coating of lube. Not viable IMO.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
So it seems it needs to be a lube that can dry to a non-tacky finish. Sounds like it needs a fair bit of hard wax, like paraffin or carnauba to me.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Solvent-carried tumble-lube coatings have been and always will be marginal cast bullet lubricants at the very best. BLL is the best one I've tried. What I would be looking to as an improvement on the concept is incorporating a solid lubricant like hBN, graphite, carbon black, or molybdenum disulphide or organic moly compounds into a hard, polymer wax coating in a solvent carrier such as acetone. Johnson's One Step and hBN might work.
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
Let me tell you where I'm going with this: I recently started shooting the long nose bore riding 105gr .243 boolit from NOE.
Because I only pan lube in Ben's Red, I end up with some pretty messy boolits when they are cut out especially if I don't get the lube level in my pan just right. Not to mention those like to fall into the lube a lot. I have been noticing if I go straight from the cutting to a good tumble in some BLL The mess goes away ( Except for the base of the gas check which is easy to wipe off when they are dry. The BLL seals in the BR in the lube grove and on the long nose it appears like there is only BLL left instead of the sticky mess....that my mind working
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I think what happens is that the BR gets dissolved, or at least caught up in, the BLL. The BLL then dries and seals in the film of BR that remains and this gives a non-tacky coating over a very tacky under layer.
Think of paint that is dry on the surface but quite wet underneath.
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
What I think the lube would have to be is a harder but slippery lube so when it dried after the solvent evaporated it would not be sticky.
Yes, maybe a polymer coating of a sort

? hBn ? whatsit?
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I just seen this thread.
back when 45/45/10 lube was first being worked on I was working to make a substitute for the lube used on 22lr ammo.
what I forst come up with was 3 parts beeswax and1 part jpw.
this was applied melted and to heated bullets.
it left a thin wax coating very similar to the 22 lr coating.

when J.D. contacted me for some help with developing the 45 lube i had something similar already worked up.
but I was using bees-wax and lanolin in my version. [ I still do]
the simple lube could be cut down with mineral spirits and mineral oil at about a 65-75% to solventize the lube into a solution that could be applied like a tumble lube.
you need to get the boolits hot and use the lube sparingly but it will leave a coating of lube on the boolits and work like alox does [actually a bit better]
if you apply the lube to a smaller amount of boolits and swirl them you can fill the lube grooves if you use the lube at not quite a melted stage.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
What I think the lube would have to be is a harder but slippery lube so when it dried after the solvent evaporated it would not be sticky.
Yes, maybe a polymer coating of a sort

? hBn ? whatsit?
HBN is hexagonal boron nitride. A good dry lubricant. Supposed to be way better than moly.
It ain't cheap but a little goes a long way.