Homemade Cast Bullet Lube

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After the casting workshop, I've accumulated some WW lead and some Range lead. I got a lubrisizer and a pot today in the mail. I think I'm ready to go.

I'm gonna start off with some mild .357 loads as my first casts. I don't have much in the way of cast lube, just the small amount that came with the RCBS lubrisizer.

My inner MacGyver compelled me to come up with a home grown recipe for lube using components I have in the house and can easily get. I was doing some experimentation using Duke's recipe as a baseline. After screwing around a little I came up with the following (largely based on what I had in house).

2 parts Beeswax (sample from the workshop) - Waxy base
2 part Parafin Wax (need this for smelting too) - Hardens the mix
1 part Bag Balm (petroleum jelly & lanolin) - Adds Pliability to Lube
1 part Butchers Bowling Alley Wax ( carnauba wax and petroleum distillates) - Slippery
It all melted together well and cooled with no separation, its very slippery but stiff enough to stick. Also seems like it would have good flow characteristics. I only made 1/4 cup of it....I'll cast a few and see how they work...or maybe Ill just polish some furniture with it.

Not sure if this would fall under the "bad idea" category, but the worst I figure is that it just wont work well (leading)?
 
Last edited:
Sounds like it MIGHT work fine.
Remember the lessons from the workshop, and size your bullets .001 over your barrel slugged diameter, or .001 over what normal jacketed bullets are for your gun.
As long as your lube is slippery enough to do the lubrication, and hard enough to both stick to the bullet, and not melt on a hot summers day............ That's the tricky part, coming up with a lube that behaves properly in a temperature range.

Let us know how you testing goes! I'm delighted that you took the plunge and not only casting bullets, but also making lube right off the get go.... NICE!!

After the casting workshop, I've accumulated some WW lead and some Range lead. I got a lubrisizer and a pot today in the mail. I think I'm ready to go.

I'm gonna start off with some mild .357 loads as my first casts. I don't have much in the way of cast lube, just the small amount that came with the RCBS lubrisizer.

My inner MacGyver compelled me to come up with a home grown recipe for lube using components I have in the house and can easily get. I was doing some experimentation using Duke's recipe as a baseline. After screwing around a little I came up with the following (largely based on what I had in house).

2 parts Beeswax (sample from the workshop) - Waxy base
1 part Parafin Wax (need this for smelting too) - Hardens the mix
1 part Bag Balm (petroleum jelly & lanolin) - Adds Pliability to Lube
1 part Butchers Bowling Alley Wax ( carnauba wax and petroleum distillates) - Slippery
It all melted together well and cooled with no separation, its very slippery but stiff enough to stick. Also seems like it would have good flow characteristics. I only made 1/4 cup of it....I'll cast a few and see how they work...or maybe Ill just polish some furniture with it.

Not sure if this would fall under the "bad idea" category, but the worst I figure is that it just wont work well (leading)?
 
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