Another Bore Butter Question

[paulvallandigham]

If you live in Oregon, you have bees, and where there are bees, there are beekeepers. Contact your local Farm Bureau Office, or the County Agricultural Extension Service office to find out where the nearest Beekeeper is to you.

The Folks who keep bees on their orchards to insure pollination of their tree blossoms often don't produce enough beeswax to spend the time to clean and filter it, so it can be sold in volume to the large buyers. It will probably cost you something to get beeswax, but it is worth the price. And, making a friend who has the stuff is worth the effort, IMHO.

Some orchard growers HIRE beekeepers to tend the boxes each year for them, rather than mess around with them on their own. My late Father-in-law had a small( 2 acres) apple orchard, and he had his own bees, and equipment to process the honey. He sold the honey, but I believe most of the beeswax was thrown away. He could not find anyone who wanted it( didn't ask me) and he didn't have enough for the big buyers to stop by his place to pick it up. They wanted him to drive 60 miles one way to deliver it. He figured that the price they were paying would not pay for his gas.

If you look at hobby stores, and even in most grocery stores, you will find beeswax for sale. Its very expensive, but you don't need a lot of wax to mix your own "butter". Its also available from many "suppliers" listed on the "Links" section of this forum. If you are ordering other parts, adding some beeswax to the order will not increase the shipping costs too much.

Look at the tin you will use to keep the mix for your range and field use. Figure out how many Ounces of anything it can hold. Then look at your formula you will use to mix the wax and oil. Almost all of them use more vegetable oil than wax.

For example, a "Sucrets" tin will barely hold an ounce of anything, because its so flat. But lots of shooters use them for that very reason. With a 3:1 Olive oil to beeswax formula, you will need only 110 grains of wax added to 3/4 oz. of oil to fill the tin. Want a softer lube? Increase the amount of oil, like BB's 7:1 formula.

Beeswax has natural Anti-septics in it, which keeps the wax, as well as anything made from it from "spoiling" from bacterial action. Beeswax is a natural "oil", without the tars you find in Petroleum products. Petroleum based oils, and greases need a HIGHER burn Temperature to consume all the tars, than you can get when using BP, or even the substitutes. If you leave a Petroleum based oil in the barrel, you will generate these gooey tars, that can only be removed by using alcohol to dissolve them, and flush them out of the gun.

If you are shooting a gun that has a "Patent-Breech" style powder chamber, with the small flash channel leading from the center of the powder chamber over to the nipple, or TH, its these tiny places that become clogged the most easily by the tars, causing misfires. The only way to avoid the misfires is to NOT put Petroleum based oils down the barrel, and in the flash channel AT ALL.

Even when you use vegetable based oils in the barrel, its a good practice to flush the oils out with alcohol, before going to the range and field with the gun. All oils dry over time, when exposed to enough heat, so why invite a problem? :hmm:

 

[dlhumphrey]

Capt,
I see you were in the Americal (23rd) Div. Which Bde were you in? 11th light Inf Bde here 1968-1969.

Like Roundball posted, I'd recommend you just buy a tube or two of bore butter and go shooting. One tube lasts me a pretty long time.

Rat Trapper,

Nice to run into another Americal vet. I was with A Co. 4/21 11th Bde. 1970-1971. Located another Americal vet here. His name is Charger.

The T/C Bore Butter is looking better. At least I can get locally.

Take care

 

[Pete Gaimari]

Bore Butter


Ingredients:
1 lb Natural bees wax
approx. 4 lbs Olive oil
about 2 teaspoons yellow food color (varies)
1/2 oz. Wintergreen oil
Procedure:
1. melt the 1 lb of bees wax in a thick pot slowly in about 2 or 3 lbs of oil. Remove from heat and let it get solid. I pour it into a microwaveable container.
2. Test poke with your finger. If your finger hurts, add oil.
3. Nuke for about 2 or 3 minutes or until it all melts, and stir. Let it get solid again. Go to #2 again until your finger doesn't hurt-- about 4 lbs. of olive oil.
4. Let it cool and pour into small 1/2 lb. containers. Makes about 5-6 lbs. depending on how loose you want your Bore Butter.

 

[bchannell]

I usually use beeswax and olive oil for lube and it works very well. I'm not saying there's nothing better, but it's pretty darn good and easy to adjust the consistency. As said before, call the farm bureau, or ask around, I bet you'll find some. If all else fails, and if I couldn't find it locally, I'd go online and buy enough to last me a while. Sometimes it's just easier. I mean you have to get parts and supplies online a lot of the time. I live less than 2 miles from MSM and still can't find all I need there.

As to heating beeswax in the microwave, be VERY careful. I saw a pic online of a guy who routinely did that and torched his microwave. Beeswax will ignite easily if taken too much above it melting point, and I would suspect that this is not good for it's integrity either. My wife gave me a small double boiler which is just perfect for making batches of lube, and I can't imagine they're very expensive, or she would have balked at parting with it.

 

[Pete Gaimari]

I found that on the interwebby and passed it on.

I use Mink Oil.

 

[paulvallandigham]

If you have a frying pan, and another can that is smaller in diameter, and will fit inside the frying pan, YOU OWN A DOUBLE BOILER! Just put water( about 1/2") in the frying pan to heat, and the can into the water in the frying pan. Put the beeswax into the smaller can. The wax will melt below the boiling point of water (212 degrees F.)

Use pliers to remove the can with the wax in it, and then add the oil to it, or put the melted wax in another container, and add the oil to the wax, Then. Do NOT put the melted wax into the cool oil, or you will have oil exploding all over the place( and you). Stir to mix the wax and oil together, and then pour the mix into the containers you want to use to carry the LUBE.

I have used Tuna Fish cans in a frying pan to do this kind of work, as the cans are made of STEEL, not aluminum, and can hold enough oil and wax to keep me shooting for several years. I have not yet settled on one particular type of container to carry the lube in so far. I have some shoe polish cans that are candidates for my next effort.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

take some toilet ring wax outside, put it on a piece of scrap metal and burn it.

See if there's a residue?

The problem is not what the stuff does when it burns in atmosphere at low pressure, but that SOME, not all, types of petroleum hydrocarbons will react with sulfur under the higher temperatures and pressures in a gun barrel, and polymerize into something like asphalt, rather like natural rubber reacting with sulfur and heat to vulcanize. Not all types of petroleum hydrocarbons do this, but it's been too long since I read what the Mad Monk wrote about it, and I can't recall which anymore. Then you still have to know what's in your particular petroleum-based product, or test it - and cleaning that asphalt can be a chore.

Regards,
Joel