Have Been Using A Different Approach Making Felt Wads.

[Tenring]

Every time I pour my lube mixture over the sheet of Felt in the low wall pan it’s a pain to pick it out because it wants to stick. So for the last year I have been using Parchment Paper or Wax Paper under the Felt sheet when I pour and it picks right up after cooling.Then I put the sheet on the plastic cutting board set it on an 12” Anvil and pound them out, I get 221 pieces .44 cal wads using a 7/16‘s punch with half a sheet of Felt. Then when you go to pull them apart the backing comes right off almost always that’s why the toothpick is there. Ha Ha…

 

[Thomas.bill92]

I just cut out a bunch of wads, melt up a bunch of lube in a little quart pot and start adding wads until the lube is all soaked up. Dump it all out on some parchment paper and cool. I tried lubing the felt before cutting wads but I just made a mess and the beeswax was getting expensive... That felt holds a lot of lube in the offcut pieces. Happy shooting Tenring!

 

[Tenring]

Yes the offcut piece that gets chucked out still holds a lot of lube and that always did bother me it is such a waist. I know what you mean.

 

[Ed C.]

I punch out the wads and dump them into a 50/50 beeswax/olive oil melt, pick them out with a small needle nose and let them cool on a piece of tin foil They come off very easy when cool. So does the extra hardened lube which you can return to the container for future use. No waste and works great in all my revolvers, even in the Florida heat.

 

[M. De Land]

I just cut out a bunch of wads, melt up a bunch of lube in a little quart pot and start adding wads until the lube is all soaked up. Dump it all out on some parchment paper and cool. I tried lubing the felt before cutting wads but I just made a mess and the beeswax was getting expensive... That felt holds a lot of lube in the offcut pieces. Happy shooting Tenring!

I do the same with precut wads of 1/8 inch Duro-felt in melted Beeswax. I didn't add any oil to the lube mix as I don't want it to soak into the powder grains when compressing the load together. It seems to work fine without the oil addition so far.

 

[Tweeter and the MonkeyMan]

Yes the offcut piece that gets chucked out still holds a lot of lube and that always did bother me it is such a waist. I know what you mean.

Next month I'm making 1/4 inch thick lubed wads for my .36 cal 51 Navy. Just for fun I'll do a material balance and calculate the % Scrap of Felt & Lube. I'll start a separate thread showing the calculations and % Yields and % Scrap and the Costs of Felt Offcut and the lube in the offcuts. I'm picking up the felt tomorrow and the lamb tallow and beeswax I'll get next week. That'll be fun

 

[TDM]

Wax paper is definitely your friend when lubing wads.

 

[Ed C.]

Next month I'm making 1/4 inch thick lubed wads for my .36 cal 51 Navy. Just for fun I'll do a material balance and calculate the % Scrap of Felt & Lube. I'll start a separate thread showing the calculations and % Yields and % Scrap and the Costs of Felt Offcut and the lube in the offcuts. I'm picking up the felt tomorrow and the lamb tallow and beeswax I'll get next week. That'll be fun

Lube the wads after you punch them out. Return the unused lube to the frig.. No lube waste.

 

[Tweeter and the MonkeyMan]

Lube the wads after you punch them out. Return the unused lube to the frig.. No lube waste.

I find punching the wads out dry to be a royal PITA even with the punch I got from TOTW, I find them easier to punch out after the felt is soaked in the lube and I'm not handling wads multiple times 1) Punch out dry 2) Soak in Lube 3) Lay out on tinfoil to dry and put in tin.

Besides that the numbers got me curious

 

[Tenring]

I find punching the wads out dry to be a royal PITA even with the punch I got from TOTW, I find them easier to punch out after the felt is soaked in the lube and I'm not handling wads multiple times 1) Punch out dry 2) Soak in Lube 3) Lay out on tinfoil to dry and put in tin.

Besides that the numbers got me curious

I feel the same way, who wants to handle them more than one time. What am I loosing maybe two tablespoons of lube mix in the thro away I think I can afford that.

 

[Old-Duckman]

Next month I'm making 1/4 inch thick lubed wads for my .36 cal 51 Navy. Just for fun I'll do a material balance and calculate the % Scrap of Felt & Lube. I'll start a separate thread showing the calculations and % Yields and % Scrap and the Costs of Felt Offcut and the lube in the offcuts. I'm picking up the felt tomorrow and the lamb tallow and beeswax I'll get next week. That'll be fun

Your idea of fun eludes me!

 

[Ed C.]

I find punching the wads out dry to be a royal PITA even with the punch I got from TOTW, I find them easier to punch out after the felt is soaked in the lube and I'm not handling wads multiple times 1) Punch out dry 2) Soak in Lube 3) Lay out on tinfoil to dry and put in tin.

Besides that the numbers got me curious

Whatever makes you happy. So many ways to do things in this hobby. The advantage of soaking after they are cut is that you have lube on the sides of the wad which IMHO will better lube the barrel. Being retired I have time to fiddle around with stuff. Time now to go use up those wads!

 

[Tenring]

Whatever makes you happy. So many ways to do things in this hobby. The advantage of soaking after they are cut is that you have lube on the sides of the wad which IMHO will better lube the barrel. Being retired I have time to fiddle around with stuff. Time now to go use up those wads!

Think about this , I really don’t want to fish out a hundred or so wads out of a cat food can with needle nose pliers why put your self through that time consuming hell. Dip the sheet and punch ‘em out.

 

[Thomas.bill92]

I find punching the wads out dry to be a royal PITA even with the punch I got from TOTW, I find them easier to punch out after the felt is soaked in the lube and I'm not handling wads multiple times 1) Punch out dry 2) Soak in Lube 3) Lay out on tinfoil to dry and put in tin.

Besides that the numbers got me curious

For anyone using a wad punch that has not sharpened it, I would recommend putting it in a drill, drill press is best, and using files and stones or fine sandpaper to get it sharp as possible. I have seen people get these punches razor sharp to the point that a hammer isnt even needed to cut wads, just a slight push. Sharp tools tave a ton of time and effort (goes for digging shovels too)!

 

[M. De Land]

Think about this , I really don’t want to fish out a hundred or so wads out of a cat food can with needle nose pliers why put your self through that time consuming hell. Dip the sheet and punch ‘em out.

I just made 250 last night and found that I did not have to pick them out individually. What I did was poured the hot melted lube into a tin pie pan, dumped in the pre-cut wads which immediately soaked up the lube then tipped the pan up and poured the excess lube back into it's mason jar while still melted. The wads stayed stuck to the pan bottom while the hot lube drained off. The wads were dumped on the parchment paper until cool then picked up in mass (no tweezers picking) and stored in a small plastic capped pill bottle.
I added about 25 percent by volume bear oil to the bees wax this time to try a new lube recipe. Hope the bear oil does does not migrate into the powder charge. If it does then I will need to add a milk carton wad under the lube wad.

 

[Bad Karma]

Whatever makes you happy. So many ways to do things in this hobby. The advantage of soaking after they are cut is that you have lube on the sides of the wad which IMHO will better lube the barrel. Being retired I have time to fiddle around with stuff. Time now to go use up those wads!

”you have lube on the sides of the wad” wow! Now you’re really picking fly specks out of the pepper shaker!

 

[Bad Karma]

For anyone using a wad punch that has not sharpened it, I would recommend putting it in a drill, drill press is best, and using files and stones or fine sandpaper to get it sharp as possible. I have seen people get these punches razor sharp to the point that a hammer isnt even needed to cut wads, just a slight push. Sharp tools tave a ton of time and effort (goes for digging shovels too)!

Sharpening your tools in almost every case makes the job easier! The only real exception might be the draw knives used to chase rings on the back of an osage stave or scraping hides.

 

[Ed C.]

Think about this , I really don’t want to fish out a hundred or so wads out of a cat food can with needle nose pliers why put your self through that time consuming hell. Dip the sheet and punch ‘em out.

"TIME CONSUMING HELL" LOL! I was actually having a good time doing just that! Sorry, I didn't know I was suggesting anyone go through hell.

 

[Ed C.]

”you have lube on the sides of the wad” wow! Now you’re really picking fly specks out of the pepper shaker!

Sounds good if you say it real fast. Just making my case.....the wannabe lawyer in me. But I did just run 4 cylinders through my 1851 Navy using those wads. No fouling, no stoppage. Also, as a nice aside,not one misfire or cap jam. Nice running gun.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Every time I pour my lube mixture over the sheet of Felt in the low wall pan it’s a pain to pick it out because it wants to stick. So for the last year I have been using Parchment Paper or Wax Paper under the Felt sheet when I pour and it picks right up after cooling.Then I put the sheet on the plastic cutting board set it on an 12” Anvil and pound them out, I get 221 pieces .44 cal wads using a 7/16‘s punch with half a sheet of Felt. Then when you go to pull them apart the backing comes right off almost always that’s why the toothpick is there. Ha Ha…

Tip put a second sheet of wax paper on top of the felt let cool then punch the wads and leave the wax paper on the wads.