A while back someone suggested using 2 cycle oil to lubricate spruce plates. I was in Lowes soon after and bought what will likely be a lifetime supply, I think it was a 2 oz. bottle, and it was less than $3. It works great for spruce plates and I have started using it for other lubricating chores as well.
Question #1: What is the magic about this stuff that makes it work so well?
Question #2: Has anyone else tried it for other applications?
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I use Qtip to apply thin coat of 2 stroke oil. Any 2 stroke oil will work. Keep oil away from cavity.
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I also use a Q tip and then wipe the surface of the mold and sprue plate with a rag which removes most of it. I put too much on one time and it got into the bullet cavities.
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I also use a Qtip to make sure I don't put too much.Bottom of sprue plate,top of the blocks being very careful not to get too close of the cavities and alingment pins.I know my mold is up to temp when a little smoke comes from the oil burning but you don't have to relube .Good for 500 to 700 bullets.
With my Master Caster,it is a little different since the rate of casting is a little faster;I will relube every 100 strokes or so just to make sure I won't smear the top of the blocks.I've found that any brand of 2 stroke oil works.
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I have used it to lube guns worked quite well . I think what the magic is that it lubricates as it burns in the engine cylinder but I am not an expert on this. We would need a mechanic to weigh in on this.
Fred H.
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It doesn't leave carbon deposits as it burns up.
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A little on a q-tip makes it easy to lube alignment pins every couple hundred bullets while casting and the top of the mold minimizes wear on the mold during long casting sessions.
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Has anyone tried it as a bullet lube ingredient?
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I think this is it, it burns off mostly clean and as they advertise all the modern 2 stroke oils as “ashless”.
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I have those little bottles that Al puts in with the mold. When they get empty I intend to refill them with a tiny bit from the orange bottle of Husqvarna 2 stroke Oil. Really get plenty for molds. I mix the gas and there is always the dregs in the little bottles.
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The oil I use is the Stihl synthetic, does it matter if regular or synthetic?
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Has anyone tried it as a bullet lube ingredient?
There was guy named Bull Shop that made lube with it called Speed Green, I think. Three parts bees wax and one part oil, I don't know what brand or type of oil. Some sort of 2-cycle oil I'm guessing. He did one time send me some .224 bullets from a custom mold that he had lubed with his lube and they shot great in my Sako .222 Rem Mag.
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Ashless oils are oils that don't have any metallic additives in the oil. To name one zinc. It doesn't have anything to do with leaving carbon. It has to do with emissions and the enviroment.
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"Synthetic two-stroke oil is chemically engineered and boasts more refinement than conventional oils. This results in better lubrication properties and cleanliness. Synthetic oils often burn cleaner, which can reduce carbon deposits and smoke." from engine learner dot com
Ashless oils are not necessarily two-stroke oils, and vise versa.
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Maybe two cycle oil is just more heat resistant than other oils, but this is only a guess. The air/fuel mixture in a two cycle gas engine gets drawn into the crankcase before it enters the combustion chamber so the majority of the lubrication occurs before it is burned. I have no idea why it works so well as a sprue plate lubricant, much less how a two cycle engine can survive at 12,000 rpms with only the atomized air/fuel mixture keeping the engine from seizing and the fuel only containing a 50:1 ratio of fuel to oil. It must be some really good oil!
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Carl Pegg I know on 2 cycle motorcyle engines the crankshaft has ball bearings instead of the bi-metallic bearings as in an automobile engine. This plus the fact that there are no cams, valves, valve springs, lifters, or pushrods, enables them to spin up really fast. Ball and roller bearing don't require as much lubricant as the automobile bi-metallic bearings. Now if you are a really long straight away and you have the throttle on your two stroke engine (like on a motorcyle) you can seize your piston. A trick if you had to run flat out like that was to crack your choke a little to put more lubricant in there.
As to why it doesn't it keeps the cast alloy from sticking I would have to say just for the same reason taking a number two lead pencil and penciling up your sprue plate does. That is it doesn't let the alloy adhere. You know in soldering that the pieces you are soldering my be very clean bare metal and a flux must be used to get the solder to adhere. Back to the sprue plate the number two pencil lead or the 2 cycle oil work in reverse of flux.
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for 40 years i raced 2 strokes in toy cars ... we achieved over 10 horsepower per cubic inch ... with only atmospheric pressure at the intake. that would be 3500 horses in your daily driver F100 pickup ...
quite stressful on components, you might correctly surmise ... needs very good oils. since we ran methanol alcohol, we found our best lubricant was about 5 per cent of a special grade of castor oil that my company imported...
but then about 25 years ago a very good grade of jet turbine oil was found to behave great as a 2 stroke oil and made much less of a mess than the castor oil. ... and as it was found that only 2 or 3 per cent miracle oil is needed, this leaves room for more Nitro ...
2 stroke oil mix well with gasolines, which standard auto oils may not. also they are highly detergent, which probably helps them wet a greasy bullet mold surface.
as far as burning with little carbon ash, it would be interesting to put a drop each of 2 stroke and regular oil on a sizzling hot mold and see if there is a detectable/meaningful difference in residue.
just some random trivia ... people say i am full of it ...
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MP1886: I believe you are on to something with your “reverse of flux” comment. I have had a theory for years that bullet lubes act as an “anti flux”. Consider this: how many of the concoctions that we use for bullet lubes are really good lubricants? If the propellant gases blow past the bullet, picking up lube and then contaminate the bore ahead of the bullet, might it keep the lead from adhering?
Ken Campbell: Where can I get some of this jet turbine oil?
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for 40 years i raced 2 strokes in toy cars ... we achieved over 10 horsepower per cubic inch ... with only atmospheric pressure at the intake. that would be 3500 horses in your daily driver F100 pickup ...
quite stressful on components, you might correctly surmise ... needs very good oils. since we ran methanol alcohol, we found our best lubricant was about 5 per cent of a special grade of castor oil that my company imported...
but then about 25 years ago a very good grade of jet turbine oil was found to behave great as a 2 stroke oil and made much less of a mess than the castor oil. ... and as it was found that only 2 or 3 per cent miracle oil is needed, this leaves room for more Nitro ...
2 stroke oil mix well with gasolines, which standard auto oils may not. also they are highly detergent, which probably helps them wet a greasy bullet mold surface.
as far as burning with little carbon ash, it would be interesting to put a drop each of 2 stroke and regular oil on a sizzling hot mold and see if there is a detectable/meaningful difference in residue.
just some random trivia ... people say i am full of it ...
Ken it's a little confusing. As I explained the ash is from any metallic additives in the oil, not the general carbon produced from combustion.
You bet castor oil is messy. I'm sure your read why the pilots of those WW1 planes that were two cycle wore scarfs. It was to wipe the castor oil off their glasses. Here's a tiblit: castor oil is among a few that flows towards the heat, not away from it.
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So with castor oil I can lube my bullet molds and my digestive tract? Nice.
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