Random Thoughts

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  • Last Post 29 October 2016
Eutectic posted this 28 October 2016

I have experimented with bullet lubricants for 40 years. The development of Alox 50-50 showed the possibility of finding a still better lubricant. I am a chemist and this is the cause of big problems. I can visualize numerous ways to create bullet lube ingredients which MIGHT work better.  Most I have tested have not worked, but some have and might have advantages except no one will use them. Why, because no one is going to pay 10 or 100 times the cost of a current stick of lube for MAYBE a little improvement. 

A lot of things are possible to make, however I did not have to make them myself, I bought many of them out of a catalog. However the prices would stop your heart, custom synthesis is expensive. So what do we do for our lubricants? We parasitize off of industry! We would not have Alox if it were just used as a bullet lube, or we could have it for $50 a stick. Industry uses it by the ton, so we can get a few pounds for our bullets. Face it, we are small potatoes. I was at the airport last weekend talking to a jet mechanic. Aircraft tend to use some of the most advanced technology. The wheel bearing lube they use is a totally synthetic lithium base lube.  Neat stuff it is a semi-soilid rub it and it becomes a liquid, stop rubbing it solidifies. It does not bleed or dry out, extreme temperature stability -65 to +350 F, not your typical NAPA auto product. Wow, I have to try this in my beeswax/lithium grease lube. Eighty dollars for a little tub! What was it I said about cost? I may have to rethink this. Aviation is small potatoes too. Fortunately the choices for lube ingredients today are growing. The industry of making candles has become a big business. Ingredients are available to make better candles, many have possible uses in bullet lubricants. Oil bleeding is a big problem for candle makers. So Vybar additives are offered at five bucks a pound to bind oils.  If you want to incorporate an oil in a lube and don't want it to bleed into the powder this may be the solution.   The push for “natural ingredients” to satisfy the tie-dyed t-shirt crowd has caused the production of soy wax for candles. Soy wax is on my test list, it may be a good replacement for Crisco or tallow. Soy wax is stable and does not get rancid, a big advantage. Unnoticed by the naturalists, making soy wax requires a high pressure hydrogen reactor with nickel catalyst.  Soybean oil may be natural, but soy wax is an industrial product, please don't tell them. I am using beeswax/jojoba oil lube in most of my shooting. It is two natural products, not beholden to big industry or chemical synthesis. The more I think about this, the more I like it. I may have to get me one of those t-shirts. Steve

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RicinYakima posted this 28 October 2016

Consider “Boelube” from Boeing missile tech, $15.00 ounce. 

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Eutectic posted this 29 October 2016

Ric

I have used Boelube, I helped build two experimental airplanes. Boelube is an excellent tap lube for aluminum as well as a thread lubricant. Nontoxic easy to use and expensive as all get out. On a per use basis it is cheap, you use so little, I think we used less than a small tube on one plane.

I never tested it as a bullet lube. Let me know how it shoots.

Steve

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RicinYakima posted this 29 October 2016

Steve, sorry I don't do any lube testing. No one has been able to demonstrate that any are better over ten 10-shot groups than NRA, Grey #24 or Micro-lube. And I probably have enough for the rest of my shooting life!;)

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onondaga posted this 29 October 2016

 http://www.castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=6924>Eutectic

The original Alox refinery is less than 10 miles from me and they use to give the stuff free to bullet casters in their parking lot if you brought a bottle to put it in.. They kept a drum with a hand pump on the loading dock just for bullet casters.

The stuff was developed to use as a high pressure spray undercoat rust proofing treatment for the automotive aftermarket industry and sold Alox under many names like Bardol Rustproofing.

There are superstitions and old rumors about the stuff and I have known people that worked the old Alox Refinery, including my brother. When the wind was just right from the North, the refinery smell would drift to my neighborhood. Personally, I believe the stuff is the slightly refined ooze tar from the LaBrea Tar pits in California and other similar deposits from dinosaur mass suicide sites from the last Ice Age 14,000 years ago. Alox is filtered  Dinosaur Bio-Waste.

Check out this old picture of what Alox was made for: https://www.lubrizol.com/Timeline/asset/timeline/19281.jpg>https://www.lubrizol.com/Timeline/asset/timeline/19281.jpg

Gary

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