SL68 ...continued

[35 shooter]

Problem is, i haven't seen any really good reports from the custom chambers either so far with this bullet.
At least nothing in the 1.5" or less @ 100 yds. range that i strive for.
I was expecting more reports by now from the guys that have them....seems strangely quite for now?
Since i have the mould i'm still hoping a bit of run at the rifling will work somewhat...we'll see.

 

[Elkins45]

Oh my. Well, in that case, nothing I can say will help you.

I think almost everything you have ever posted has helped me in one way or another. I've learned a ton from all the stuff you have shared.

Back to the thread title: I left my two sticks of "Palm 68" on a paper towel in my very hot garage all weekend and there's no sign of a greasy spot on the paper. That's probably a good sign. I sorta expected that the palm wax would behave more like a straight chain wax than a branched one. I wonder what waxes are actually in Glass Glow wax?

 

[Brad]

Ok, here is what I have been using lately.

1 ounce 90 wt gear oil from NAPA.
3 ounces microwax.
4 ounces beeswax
6 ounces paraffin
3 ounces Vaseline
1 ounce Ivory. Pretty dry and crumbly
20 ml, 4 teaspoons, castor oil
5 ml, 1 teaspoon, Ester 100 AC oil
1/2 ounce cetyl esters

I heated everything to full temp except the beeswax and cetyl esters. Once the soap was fully melted I removed the lbe from the heat and stirred til it began to gel. I then added the beeswax, as a solid, and stirred until it was fully melted in. I then added the cetyl esters and stirred til it was fully melted. I then poured it into a foil pan and let it cool.

It feels a fair bit like Felix lube. So far it is working quite well for me. My GP100 really likes it as does the Win 94 in 375 Win.

 

[Brad]

Shot some of this lube in the 9mm today. Low smoke, no leading, good accuracy. Every time I use the lube it makes me like it more.

 

[Hawk]

What version of microwax are you using and where are you getting it?

 

[Ian]

Brad, that has really close to the same concentration of soap as FWFL. 1/3 paraffin and it's low smoke? You must not b using Gulf canning paraffin!

 

[Brad]

I'm using a microwax from Blended Waxes. I think it is a middle melt point wax. I will need to look when I get back home.

Ian, it is a paraffin from Blended Waxes. I bought 10 pounds when I got the microwax. If there is smoke I'm not seeing it. Maybe I need to shoot indoors a bit, smoke really shows up there.

 

[Ian]

Jon and I are getting back into this a bit, or maybe I drug him back into it! Reason being my concerns about seeing bullets corrode a bit when using my SL-68.0 (which is almost identical to Jon's except I used straight 180 microwax instead of the blend that he did). With SL-68.1 (2 oz micro 180, 2 oz wet Ivory, 1.5 ounces 140-weight GL-1 straight mineral gear oil, 1 teaspoon Castor oil) I wasn't seeing the corrosion much at all, but that formula isn't quite as good accuracy-wise as 68.0 is when really put to the hard tests. (too much oil, too little middle-modifier). What I'm after is figuring out if the high soap content is doing the evil deed, if it is and the metal protecting additives in the GL-1 oil are helping out, and what can be added to the lube to prevent this.

Bruce381 mentioned some things commonly added to lubricating oils and greases to prevent corrosion of base metals, I'll have to dig up those posts and see what can be done. Jon and I compared notes and his SL68B doesn't seem to be affecting his bullets much at all. I put up some test bullets on a shelf that only had straight Irish Spring packed in the grooves and they corroded badly in short order, while a whole row of bullets lubed with various other things did not corrode.

Another thing that annoys me with this lube is fired rifle cases start to get a few very tiny turquoise-colored specs inside the necks after a few weeks, and that's stored indoors, in a closed MTM box. No where else do I see any issues, and the lube does not seem to discolor or corrode iron, steel, aluminum, guns, or all the sizing equipment that's been slathered in it for a long time. Is it ruining the brass? No. I don't even see pitting, it's just like a few specks of dry, dark grey residue in the necks turns colors after a short while.

One of my requirements for "Extreme Bullet Lube" is long shelf life without fear of things going south in the night. The soap lubes have always made me nervous in this regard knowing what little I know of chemistry and galvanic corrosion, and until I'm super-cozy with a formula I'm not going to consider any of the SL-68 series of lubes 100% ready to go.

 

[JonB]

Looking for corrosion, I really couldn't find any.

These were recently lubed and have similar depth lube grooves to show color.
There is a slight yellowing of my SL68B in the lube groove. Oxidation/aging of the lube
to the air? and hopefully not the alloy.



These 316299's were lubed in January. most of the 50 I have stored didn't have the
dark ring along the bottom edges of the lube grooves. and most pronounced by the GC.
at first I thought this could be corrosion staining, but after looking at the enlarged
digital photo and seeing a ring in each lube groove, I am confident these were cycled
more than once in the lube sizer, to completely fill the lube grooves of the boolits that
didn't get fully filled with the first cycle...I do that. I suspect the dark staining is
alloy particles.



316299 PB ...also lubed January 2015



In case I am wrong about the above theory of alloy particles staining the lube and
it's a case of reacting with the copper and/or alloy...that should show on these
in 6 months or so.



These TL style 41 Ranch Dog's recently Lubed have a slight greenish hue. That
could be from the Sage brand Alum GC made from used 0.010" Lithograph plate with
coating on the outside...It was the only combination of many GC's sample Sage made
for me, that worked with this boolit. No standard Commercial GC worked.



Here is a Ideal #1 with a brass reservoir, it has had SL68 in it since January, no visible verdigris or other corrosion.
A few years ago, I had a bear grease/beeswax lube in this sizer, I never gave verdigris a thought,
well, at about the one year mark, I went to refill it, and it had developed vertigris, serverely around
the brass sleeve of the pressure nut.



These were lubed in January, this batch show the yellowing more than other boolits.

 

[Ian]

I see no brass or copper corrosion going on there at all, Jon, nor any of the darkening or white crusties on the bullets themselves that I've seen in a few instances with my formulas. Your 68B is likely the better moustrap we'd hoped it would be. I'm going to set up a semi-formal corrosion test with the two main soap lubes I'm using and see what happens.

 

[Brad]

I have had little spots of verdigris in case mouths after a period of time when I used a higher soap lube. I tend to think the soap residue is the culprit.
Now, how much soap is enough to cause issues, that is the big question.

 

[JonB]

I am a little bit OCD ...if anyone can be a "little bit" OCD
about lube on my fingers and hand cleanliness when sizing/loading, (as well as when I'm at work wiring panels, co-workers go out for a smoke, I go wash my hands)
Maybe why I'm not seeing any issues on the bullets ?

I wonder if I should lube some bullets and leave some "SL68B" finger prints on them ?
for a corrosion test ?

I'm not sure why I'm asking ? I will to that.

 

[JonB]

I haven't seen anything on fired rifle cases, but I'm a bit OCD about that too...I hand clean and deprime and neck-size them right away.
and Pistol cases will get tumbled right away, unless I don't have enough of a batch to clean.

 

[Barn]

I made a trip to our NAPA store today. I got a jug of GL-1 90 weight gear oil. YIKES! The stuff was only available in a gallon jug. I think that I may have a life supply. Got the micro wax ordered. As soon as the micro wax arrives then I will be trying some SL68B lube. I will see how the .30/30's and .357's likes it.

 

[Ian]

FYI, an old tractor repair shop will likely have buckets of the stuff, might beg a pint or so off of someone for the price of a friendly chat. As an aside, one can also use the same oil to make Felix lube and several others, it's a good, non-slippery plasticizer for the hard, microcrystalline waxes and fills a gap in the Vaseline nicely. If you use the 90 wt there's likely no need for the pharmacy-grade white mineral oil.

 

[Barn]

Made some lube Saturday. I will call it SL-68B.x (the lube guys will need to tell me the value to use for “x”). I only used one grade of micro wax which was MW-180. I used some Ivory soap which is over 10 years old and is drier than this little missive. I also put the soap in with the other stuff which I believe doesn’t make much difference. I reread JonB’s instructions only after I made the lube.

My lube making experience is as follows:

Friday I put a cake pan half full of water in the freezer. Saturday I took the pan out of the freezer and lined it with foil and returned it to the freezer. I put the beeswax in a double boiler on a hot plate next to the Camp Chef. I cut the Ivory into slivers and added the rest of the stuff. I then fired up the Camp Chef and started cooking the lube. First the vasoline melted and the micro wax chunk started to melt and the brew started to foam as I was stirring. The mixture stopped foaming and the foam dissipated into the mixture. The soap pieces had disappeared and the jell turned into a liquid. I took the pot off the flame and went and retrieved the cake pan from the freezer. I dumped the melted beeswax into the pot and started stirring. Things went together very quick and the mixture started to jell. I put the pot back on the fire and stirred until it went liquid again which was quite quick. I then dumped the mixture into the waiting foil lined cake pan. The lube temperature dropped to about 150 degrees in a minute. I must have done a bunch of things wrong because the lube went together very easy.

The layer of lube in the cake pan ended up to be about 5/16” thick. Color is a light brown and a little darker than the beeswax. It turned out a bit softer than 6661 lube. My 6661 lube is a bit softer than my FWFL.

I took some of my fleet of .30/30’s out to try the lube today. Load was Eagan MX3-30AR at 166 grains and sized to 0.312” with of BHN-20 (mostly linotype and water dropped). 26 grains of 4895 over WLR primers.

Winchester Hi-Wall with 24” Douglas 12 twist barrel.

Remington 788 with Douglas with 24 ½” 10 twist barrel.

Martini Henry with Pac-Nor 24” 12 twist polygonal barrel.

First I shot 15 with 6661 lube followed by 15 with the SL-68B lube. The second set of groups is almost always larger that the first set because I like to shoot fast. Fire, check location through the rifle scope, eject, orient next bullet and fire again. 15 shots in less than 10 minutes. Targets are at 100 yards.

The Hi-Wall was not happy today. It shot both lubes with above average group sizes and shot both lubes about the same.

The 788 shot the SL-68B lube better than the 6661 lube.

The Martini shot both lubes about the same. Except for a high and low shot the SL-68B would have been much better that the 6661 lube.

I realize that this is not a very large sample, but I am encouraged enough with the SL-68B lube to give it a very serious try.

 

[Brad]

If it is working then you did something right. Making the lube isn't really difficult, it just gets hairy when the smoking really starts.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Ian]

These high-soap lubes go together just fine for everyone who is willing to study what's been written to understand the basic concepts of what to do, and does a little proper prior planning, which you did in spades.

I'm just glad someone else is actually making the stuff, seems most want to talk about it and ask a ton of questions, but few actually get after it. I like how the holes are all smudged the same, indicating pretty consistent CORE.

Most of the lubes in the SL-68 series have been mediocre to good in the accuracy department compared to lubes fine-tuned to a specific purpose under specific conditions, but where they shine is consistency. Cold, hot, rapid fire, extremely low velocity, extremely high velocity, and anywhere in-between. Also, the accuracy is usually quite predicable with a wide variety of lube groove designs and bore conditions, be it Loverin or Keith, pitted or chrome-lined. Hot storage is also no problem, the lube won't melt outside of an oven or direct flame. These formulas also shoot very "dry", which is a plus with suppressors and gas-operated self-loaders. I'm not trying to "sell" this to anyone, just pointing out that the lube was engineered to be all things to all people, and as such, makes a slight compromise to some. We're awfully close to getting a final formula.

Speaking of formulas, Barn, would you mind disclosing your exact recipe?

 

[Barn]

DUH! I forgot to include my recipe.

1.5 ounces MW-180
.5 ounce beeswax
2 tablespoons 90-wt GL-1 gear oil
2 tablespoons Vasoline
1 tablespoon mineral oil
1.5 teaspoons castor oil
2 ounces dry Ivory (1/2 of a big bar)

Next time I will consider omitting the 1 tablespoon mineral oil.

 

[Ian]

Yes, my first thought was delete the white mineral oil to firm it up a bit. The second was cut the castor oil down to 1 tsp maximum for so small a batch. 50:1 ratio for the castor does fine, get down to 30:1 and I start seeing flyers.