Making My Wads

[towboat_er]

I'm very pleased with them. Haven't used wads for quite some time. Give em a try.
SG's lube pills.
Parafin comes in a brick divided to to 4 like a stick a butter, I used a stick.
Then 1/4 of a Bolwax Toilet Seal Ring(Beeswax)substitute or beeswax or use with the parafin.
Then 8-10 Tablespoons of Olive Oil/soy oil
The Olive oil is the Lube the Waxes just carry it and keep the pill as
you want it.(consistacey/hard or soft...climate time of year)
And that made alot about 600 pills...about 1/8" thick for the most part.
Place the lube mixture in a small saucepan, place the small saucepan in a larger pan with water
boilin' the water and sorta poach the lube mix to a liquid.
level stiff heated pizza pan(or 7-9" heavy pie pan)is the best thing to pour your mix into...
so mix cools evenly(flat) .Place in fridge when it's set stiff(optional)
And worked good for me...you need to try your best guess and add/subract as you like them
for your use.

 

[arcticap]

Grease cookies are another name for lube pills.

Here's a couple of threads about how well they can work:

100 shots with lube pills

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=252458&

100 shots with lube pills, Chapter 2

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=321198&

These threads show different methods for cutting them. One shows a modified .45-70 case and another shows how to use a Colt barrel to mold them into a cylinder shape for easy cutting:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=421568&highlight=cookies

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=398669&highlight=pill

 

[unknwn]

Lanolin & coupons at the Duro-Felt site

I went to the DuroFelt site to order some supply and found two things that sent me back here to ask about.
Durofelt is marketing 7oz. containers of lanolin as an ingredient for bullet lubricant recipe. Does anyone know of a use for this stuff in Black Powder (or even smokeless) shooting?
At the end of a checkout cart there is a place to input a coupon code.
Who amongst us knows of a valid coupon code to use with an online order?

 

[Hammerdown77]

I ordered some lanolin to try in my black powder lube. It is most certainly ok to use it with black powder. Lanolin will make the lube stickier, or so I've been told. Good for adhering to lube grooves in bullets for pan lubing.

With the coupon code, I had to use one on my order because I was ordering some items from the clearance/closeout/specials page on the site, and it stated something like "get an extra discount when buying more than X pieces". I sent an email to Sahita about how I made sure that discount would be applied at checkout, and she emailed me a coupon code specifically for the discount applicable to my order.

 

[unknwn]

I called and asked the woman that owns the business about the lanolin and coupon codes. Discount/promo/coupon thing is a NADA.
She told me that some folks use the lanolin to substitute for ??? in the recipe, but she couldn't explain or steer me to the answers I was looking for.
I am waiting for some links to posts? that she said might be explanatory - but as of several hours since, its a no go.
I'll wait until tomorrow to research and find some answers before I order just the felt & fore-go this lanolin stuff in question.
There's just no sense to me spending the funds that would pay for the tallow that I KNOW should be included in the recipe.

 

[Hammerdown77]

There are TONS of links available for black powder and smokeless powder home brew lubes.

Lanolin is used a lot in both black powder and smokeless lubes.

http://www.theopenrange.net/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=59b3da0e025a42b90867cdc37675d8fd&topic=450.0

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=383905

 

[Gobblerizer]

duelist,


Do you punch the feltwads immediately after lubing the felt? I bought thick(1/8" Premium Felt at fabric shop & it's quite stiff, would this be ok?

Mario

 

[unknwn]

lanolin can be useful in lube, but not for wads ?

Well,I followed those links Hammerdown supplied and discovered that the shootist s who bothered messing around with lanolin feel that it imparts a higher degree of "stickiness" to thier lube, meaning that the lube stays adhered to cast bullets (rather than balls) grooves better than without it in thier mixture.
I'm uncertain that it will provide much, if any, benefit for lubricant soaked into felt wads.
I guess since I will be getting a roll of felt from Duro-felt I'll have them send a tub along. Since I plan on getting some molds & casting bullets eventually, having it on hand will mean that I'll be more likely to try using it in the bullet lube when the time comes.
If I remember right, it sells for about $7.00 for a tub,doesn't affect the shipping cost (free in the U.S. !!) and, like tallow, isn't going to spoil by just sitting on a shelf.

 

[arcticap]

duelist,


Do you punch the feltwads immediately after lubing the felt? I bought thick(1/8" Premium Felt at fabric shop & it's quite stiff, would this be ok?

Mario

I'm not saying that there's a wrong way to do it but most folks cut their wads first before soaking them in lube. Cutting them first would:
1. conserve lube
2. give one the option to save some dry wads to try out
3. the small pre-cut wads may be easier to soak in the hot melted lube individually than a larger piece of felt
4. the dry material may be easier to handle during cutting sessions, especially if not cutting out them all at once.

Check out ClemBert's thread titled Do-It-Yourself Felt Wad Making:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=643854&highlight=wads

...The last step is to lubricate your felt wads with your choice of lubricant. The easy way may be to use Bore Butter like the Wonder Wad brand uses. My concoction is a mix of beeswax and Crisco as explained above. There is always Gatofeo Lube #1 or your own personal mix depending on your environmental factors.

With the lubricant in a melted liquid form it is just a matter of dipping/soaking the un-lubricated felt wads in the solution sufficiently. Remove the soaked felt wad while the lubricant is still dripping hot and let cool. Some of you have complained that you didn't think that lubricated Wonder Wads had enough lubricant on them. Here is your chance to make some wads that are really loaded up with lubricant.

To lube, use the double boiler method. A used pet food tin works great. The felt wads will soak up all the melted lube they can on their own....

 

[Hammerdown77]

Well,I followed those links Hammerdown supplied and discovered that the shootist s who bothered messing around with lanolin feel that it imparts a higher degree of "stickiness" to thier lube, meaning that the lube stays adhered to cast bullets (rather than balls) grooves better than without it in thier mixture.
I'm uncertain that it will provide much, if any, benefit for lubricant soaked into felt wads.

Correct, I don't know that it would be much benefit to the tallow/beeswax/paraffin mix for felt wads. But guys swear by it as the final piece of the puzzle for black powder cartridge lube.

 

[rodwha]

Finally went by Harbor Freight and picked up that cheap set (9) of punches. Tried the 1/2" punch on my 1/8" thick wool felt and had to pound and pound and pound, and still couldn't get a clean punched wad. These things should work on leather?!?! It couldn't even make it through felt!

I'm not sure if I should just attempt to sharpen it with my cone shaped grinding attachment or return it and spend a more on a single punch.

 

[unknwn]

I followed an eBay listing for a .45 wad punch and sent a pre-bid message with a question about whether this was a factory sized/sharpened tool (seemed too cheap) -or- if it was produced from the oriental-knockoff punch set that had been resized and sharpened,
The reply was that it had been made in the Midwest, but then when I tried to bid on it, I was shut-out of that seller's goods.
So much for asking questions about the stuff being sold.

As far as resharpening those Harbor freight punches, I think you would be better off using an abrasive drum smaller than the punch hole size, and slowly sand around the inside of the punch to bring it to size (the 1/2" punch is already too big for .45 caliber wads.) and after you have got it to an acceptable diameter (.455" or so), then spin the punch and sand/polish the outside so that you get a sharp cutting edge.
If you try to do the whole business on the inside only with a cone shaped grinding stone you will mess up the punch and not be able to use it at all.

I'm going to try modifying my 7/16" Harbor freight punch & see if it will get the job done. If it doesn't "cut the felt" to my satisfaction I'll be ordering the pricey ready-made punch from Buffalo Arms
http://www.buffaloarms.com/Detail.aspx?PROD=157366&TERM=.45 punch
come Monday.
Since I've got most everything else to make the proper wads (felt, tallow, ect.) it seems as if I'll be learning whether that cheap punch alternative is worth my time, or if I need to quit screwing around and just buy one of those properly manufactured tools so I can get down to business of making my own inexpensive(??) wads.

 

[rodwha]

I was advised to give a fellow on another forum a holler as he makes stuff like that. I'll see what he charges. I've read that using 1/2" wads is a good thing in a .45 cal pistol. I like that idea as I intend on buying a .50 cal rifle if I'm not well enough behaved to get one for Xmas.

I'm not too sure about messing with the punches I have. Were I to ruin it or still not be happy I'd be stuck with them.

 

[roundball]

ARCH punches seem pretty hard to beat...cost a little more...but are razor sharp, and I can just go back and forth arcoss a piece of Duro-Felt punching out wads with a single tap each as fast as I can reposition the punch.

 

[unknwn]

lubed wads manufacture & usage questions

I couldn't decide whether to start a new thread with this string of questions, maybe someone would let me know if I should still do that...

I've taken the dive and started collecting all the ingredients for the "Immaculate BP lubed wads" (mutton tallow, 1/8" rock-hard felt, beeswax. parrafin) and come up with some "devil-in-the-detail" grade of questions, and while some of these are probably addressed in the many lube/wad/lube threads, I lose my place and patience trying to track down the answers to some of these niggleing particulars, so here goes...

Is the answer to what is the proper size punch to be left with a .45 caliber wad? 11mm? or resize a 7/16" punch to ???
The punch size results in that particular hole diameter, but we are concerned with the disc size (which is certainly NOT the stated punch size).
The higher price of a good tool doesn't worry me so much as getting the proper size punch to produce the disc (wad) that I am looking for ( .45 caliber -or- ?.455" to .457"o.d.? depending on whether I'm shooting the Rugers or my Italian revolvers or lever guns).
How much do the felt discs swell up when after they have soaked up the lube?
Another question: If I figure to use felt wads in bp cartridge loading (.45 Colt), will I stick with the same size wad? -or- am I needing to produce some smaller wads for that application?
Do you smoosh the lubed wads to squeeze out any excess? lubricant? -or- Is there instance to add a barrier (milk carton cardboard) disc to isolate the powder from the greasy stuff?
I realize this isn't rocketry, but if I'm going to the time , effort, and expense to make hundreds (thousands?) of these I really want to get it right.

 

[rodwha]

A punch from that fellow (retired machinist) will be $10 plus shipping ($5 something)! Wished I would have done that from the git go!
I'm going to go ahead and try sharpening the one I have anyway and keeping them. It's just not really worth the time to take 'em back.

 

[rodwha]

unknwn: From what I understand a wad can be a little larger than the bore. It will compress. I think a 7/16" punch (43.75") will be too small unless it's merely to take up some space. I've heard the 1/2" wads make great .44/.45 wads.

From what I understand there isn't anything to squeeze out. Once you let it cool it somewhat hardens a bit.