[LubeckTech]

I've been working on making my own lube pills from 50% beeswax and 50% crisco. How can I tell I have the right consistancy? I melted the crisco and wax together and poured it on a pizza pan to cool. Then (when cooled and hard) I cut about 140 pills with a .45 casing only a couple broke but there was alot of breakage around them when I did the cutting.

[Afy]

Pictures...

[Steve499]

I like the consistency of the pill better when it is a little on the hard side. The sheet does break more often between cookies when you cut them out but I just re-melt it all anyway. Sometimes I will heat my cutter a little, which makes it cut perfectly, but takes time. Mostly, though, I don't bother, I just cut'em out and then melt the broken pieces to do it again.


Steve

[rifle]

Equal amounts of beeswax,paraffin wax and mutton tallow make a recipe that doesn't break when cut. 4 ounce each of soy wax,paraffin wax and mutton tallow with 2 ounces of toilet bowl sealing wax makes a good recipe that doesn't break much at all. In cold weather adding a little extra mutton tallow keeps the pills from getting too hard in the cold. Not imperitive but helps. When the pancake of lube hardens from room temp then putting the pizza pan of lube in the freezer fer a short time makes the pancake of lube pretty much just fall out of the pan. Let it return to room temp and cut out the lube pills.
Go to the hardware store and get a piece of brass tube the size fer the caliber you want the pills to be. Cut a piece about an inch out of that and solder it into the end of the next size brass tube that should be about 6-8 inches long for something to hold on to. A pipe cutter makes a swagged ring on the end of the tube that can help with the beeswax recipe because if the swagged ring end is soldered into the next size tube and the swag where the pipe was cut is put on the end that does the punch cut it makes the pills a hair smaller than the inside diameter og the first section of tube so the pills can't stick in that first section. Of course the next section of tube that you hold onto is already bigger inside than the first tube so tyhe pills don't stick in there either. They come out the top in neat columns of lube pills. Slide the pills sideways to take them apart when loading.
Having a consistancy to the pills that is hard enough to handle but soft enough to squish between the fingers ia good. My wife "Junk Yard Dog" sells boxes of lube pills. pic below.... <a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1.tinypic.com/2i29cwg.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>

[pohill]

I have bought lube pills from Junk Yard Dog in .44 and .36 and they are da balls. I can never get the consistency right when I try to make my own, but JYD has it down just right. And, they come in cool little boxes...
(did I say it right, Wayne? Kinda hard to read your handwriting).

Just kidding...they are really good.

[Afy]

Do the plugs go over or under the ball? They look pretty thick to me.

[pohill]

I've tried it both over and under. Wayne recommends putting the pills under the ball, but I tried it over the ball, and, don't tell him, but he was right. Under the ball keeps the gun shooting cleaner alot longer.
The only bad thing about buying from Wayne is that he hand-delivers and charges you for the flight.

[Afy]

Well buying from Wayne is out of the question for me... since I am in France...the flight would be too expensive.

[rifle]

Hello Buds. I tried to post a pic but it ain't showing up on my puter. Yours? The pills can be made thicker or thinner. I like them thick but I've got Junk Yard Dog making them thinner now. About 250 44's and over 300 36's in a box. I'll have to send Pohill another free box of them pills. He lets people know they are good things. You gotta watch him though. His wit and sensibilities are at odds with each other. hee hee Yer funny Pohill. Anywhooo....thicker lube pills,I believe,make like gas checks and guns shoot more accurate with them not only because the barrels riflings don't get clogged but because they stopper up those little gaps between the balls and the rifling groove bottoms that are caused from the under sized chambers in the Italian cap&baller revolvers. I wonder....do the French have access to the Uberti Thurer conversions of the 1860 Colt? Uberti makes them but doesn't import them to the US. I figure they could be problematic but I want one in a bad way. I've always wondered if the cases are expensive and also I wonder if the cases are ejected from the cylinder well dispite the fouling.

[Afy]

From what little research I have managed to do in France, since I am not a native... has been that the conversions are actually not available in France. Cartridge pistols are generally in two broad categories 1 and 4 for both you need prefectural authorisation. Hence it normally leads to buying modern guns.

Black powder is classified as the 8th category and generally considered about as dangerous as a stick. You just need ID to prove youre over 18 to buy as many guns and as much pwoder as you want.

[rusty from italy]

For Rifle, I write from Italy, and about Uberti Thurer conversion i have never heard that it makes, in Italy the conversion is on legality border (i have never seen) and if it makes is only for export very strange things it dont export in US his first market for number of replicas at year
In a next days of this week i will be in Gardone Val Trompia to visit some replicas manufacturers, probably i have to carry a old'51 to Uberty to refit barrel gap and other mechanical problem, i try to ask them something!

I' sorry for my bad english

ciao
Rusty

[Afy]

Rusty can we order from Uberti directly for shipment to France?

[rusty from italy]

If i'm right Uberti doesn't sell directly (like all the other factory in italy)
The Uberti factory is now inside the Beretta factory, Uberty is always more a "sign" o a "trade mark" of Beretta, the new '73 single action sell by Beretta is Uberti made:-)
Otherwise if can made a visit to them they havn't problem to fix small trouble on your revolver!

Rusty

[Afy]

Rusty... if you took pictures of your visit would love to see them.. :)

[oldelm]

Here's Rifles's / Junkyard Dog's mighty fine Lube Pills....

http://i16.tinypic.com/2iivhfq.jpg

[rusty from italy]

For snowy bad weather we have delayed the journey of one or two weeks!
I dont know il next time my job give me a day free:uhoh:
If yes, i'll carry a digital camera with me:)
I hope they let me visit the workshop area and not only the guest zone like the last time to Davide Pedersoli!
ciao
Rusty

[rusty from italy]

For snowy bad weather we have delayed the journey of one or two weeks!
I dont know il next time my job give me a day free:uhoh:
If yes, i'll carry a digital camera with me:)
I hope they let me visit the workshop area and not only the guest zone like the last time to Davide Pedersoli!
ciao
Rusty

[rifle]

Hello again. I know that Uberti did make the Thurer Conversion. Now being bought by Beretta I'm not sure if they do anymore. They may discontinue it like they are going to do with the Patterson revolver. Why they would discontinue it is beyond me. I heard it's slow sales. Well, slow means some still sell. Not doing the Thurer or the Patterson makes the collection incomplete. Uberti is known for having the most complete collection. I guess Beretta doesn't think that is important. I do wish I could get one of the Thurers conversions. At least if not the whole revolver at least the conversion parts and loading parts since they can be used on any Uberti 1860 Colt Army revolver. The tapered cases would have to be available too. The gun can be turned into a re-loading machine with the parts that go with the Thurer. The dang tapered brass casing would be hard to get if Uberti didn't make them. I understand the cases are available though. Strange. Even thought he gun loads from the front of the cylinder it's considered a cartridge revolver because of the brass cases used. Well, a person can't have a complete collection without the Thurer conversion.

[oldelm]

Rifle,......that Thurer Conversion is a mighty fine looking piece.....here's a pic that I saved. I wonder how much Uberti was charging for these?


http://i18.tinypic.com/4iftkrk.jpg

[biermkr]

Does anybody here know where you can find one of these (Thurer) beauties?

[dwave]

Finally got around to making my own lube pills. Got a hold of bees wax locally for 7 per pound and of course crisco only costs a few bucks. I melted mine around 50/50 (I didn't measure, just guesstimated). These things worked really well. After 24 shots the barrel was still pretty clean. Accuracy was decent too. I shot a 1 1/2 inch group at 15 yards. (15 grs. 777 with a .454 RB using #10 Remington caps with a Pietta 1858 .44) I like them more than the felt wads personally. Would have posted pictures but the digital camera was dead (batteries needed to be recharged).

Almost forgot, I made mine a little thicker to act like a filler because I was using such a low charge. Not a lot thicker but enough to take up some extra space.

[Afy]

Ah crap... Asked the wife to buy Beeswax, Prafin and Crisco... since I travel Mon-Fri...
And I have Some sort of veggie oil/margarine, parafin... and bee's wax based furniture polish....:rolleyes:

Can I just mix parafin and the veggie margarine type of stuff? Or should I just make it out of parafin.

[BP Tess]

Hey, those are some nifty lookin' pills. Are you takin' orders? I would be interested in buying some from you ifin' they are for sale! Please let me know! Teresa:)

[dwave]

I make my own, they work wonderfully. I am not going to be making any more felt wads. I have ran 58 rounds through the gun without cleaning it, and the action is still pretty good, and the barrel looks very good. I am going to get some pictures of the gun soon. I am not cleaning it until I hit 100 shots, just to see how well they do. I fired 58 yesterday, and the rest today, or tomorrow. I am using 777 so I am not worrying about rust. More than 2 or 3 days then I would be. Hope to have pictures tomorrow.

[rusty from italy]

Yesterday i'm going to Uberti wiht some friends!
Thurer convesion was made by Uberti in ten pieces some year ago, one piece is in the personal collection of Giacomo Merlino, the chairman of Uberti, nine were sold.
May be in the future they'll produce some piece more, actually sure no!
Visit Uberti is better than Disneyland i hav'nt enought eyes for everything, i have take some photo but are of horrible quality, my camera is a junk one the telephone camera is lot better, i'm waiting for photo take by a friend whith is cell telephone, better quality than mine:mad:

The first one, two engraved army the second, henry and '66 the third some single action, fourth photo isn't from Uberty but Pedersoli, Sharp, pump action and rolling block in the factory showroom
i'm sorry but the photo taked in the workshop area of uberti isn't good to show:mad:

ciao
Rusty

[hildo]

Bought beeswax and will try too cook up something myself.
I see the lube pills pictured as nice round flat circles and start doubting if I can get them this good. Does it make much difference if they fit perfectly inside the cylinder bore?
Say I would just place a square, or otherwise non cylinder bore fitting, piece (pieces) of lube pill on top of the power before the bullet is seated.
What would happen?
My guess is that when the powder charge ignites it will be so hot the lube pill will melt instantly anyway so it should not matter what a lube pill looks like, or how it fits the cylinder, before you fire the gun?

[dwave]

I have found pieces of the lube pill that had hit my target, and they had the groove marks from the rifling on them. I make mine thick because to take up extra space in the cylinder seeing as I use light loads in my .44 (15 grs. 777).

I use a .38 special shell to cut my .36s and a .45 ACP to cut my .44s. Seem to be the right size

[Steve499]

Rusty, thanks for the pictures from your visit to the black powder Disneyland. I'll be looking forward to seeing more from the other camera if you are able to post them here.

Hildo, I don't think it would matter if the lube pills weren't round. I think, though, that making them round is probably the easiest way it can be done. My pill cutter is made from a .44 or .45 shell case and a piece of brass tubing I saved from a really,really old toilet tank. One can buy brass tubing at hobby stores in different diameters so you aren't out of luck if there's no old toilet tank in your front yard.:eek:

I cut the shell casing off and used the thicker part of the case wall, the end closest to the rim, as the cutting end. That way the inside diameter of the cutter is smallest at the cutting end, then gets bigger and frees up the pill stack as new ones are cut. I soldered the shell case to the inside of the brass tube with only enough overlap to make a good bond. I sharpened the cutting end with a case mouth chamfering tool. That's it.

The only trouble I have, negligable really, is leveling my molten lube so it cools in an even sheet. I make my pills fairly thin but if I was shooting light loads, I'd pour the lube deeper and cut pills thick enough to fill the chamber space to the right depth for ball seating. I don't believe you could get too much.

I used to put lube over the ball. Since I began putting a pill under the ball I think the guns shoot more freely, longer. I do put a card wad between the powder and lube pill if I'm intending to leave one loaded for any great length of time. That may not be necessary but it makes me feel better.

Dwave, I have had a card wad cut a perfect hole, right beside the bullet, on a 100 yard target I was shooting at with my .451 Volunteer target rifle. The only thing I can imagine was that the wad stayed against the base of the bullet, only separating from it a short distance in front of the target. I also had a home made, lubed felt wad follow a ball to penetrate a hog's skull. The shot was taken from about 20 feet. The ball penetrated completely through the skull but the wad stopped at the rear of it, behind the brain.

Steve

[rifle]

Howdy Pards and Pardettes, I'm glad to see some interest in people using lube pills in their cap&ballers. Steve499 has the right idea fer making a lube pill cutter. Nice to have a longer tube to have something to hold onto. If ya get a good recipe "the pills" do a fine job. Just make em hard enough to handle and soft enough to squish between the fingers. The brass tubes at hardware stores come pretty neat in the fact that each preceeding size is a perfect fit inside the next bigger size. Makes soldering a snap. The recipe using equal amounts of bees wax,paraffin wax and mutton tallow cut real nice when the short end soldered into the long wider tube has the lip left on the cutting edge by the little pipe cutter(hardware store too) used to cut the brass tubes. The lip cuts the pills a bit smaller than the short section of tube which in turn is smaller than the long section it's soldered into. That means the pills go up into the cutter and are a hair smaller right from the beginning so they don't stick in the tube since they are a hair smaller. If a person makes the recipe with 4 ounce each of soy wax,paraffin wax and mutton tallow and 2 ounces of toilet bowl sealer wax(hardware store) then filing the lip from the pipe cutter off the end of the cutter end cuts better. Soy wax recipe can crack some. Works very well though. The soy wax has good lubey qualities. Anywhooo.... In my opinion the pills being round and at least close to the chamber size would guard against chain fire. The pill can be a hair loose in the chamber and squish against the chamber walls when the ball is seated. The lube pills don't completely melt when the chamber fires. They ain't in there long enough once the cap ignites. They melt enough though to spray lube on the barrel walls before the powder gets it's fouling there. Anywhooo.....I melt my recipe ingredients separately in mason jars and then pour it into a measuring pitcher with a spout to get the right number of oz. Then I pour that ,once I mix it up good, into a pre-warmed teflon pizza pan that I level on a level surface. It doesn't matter if the pills are all the same thickness exactly to the .001's of an inch. Once the lube in the pan hardens from room temp I stick it in the freezer for 5 min. or so. Until the sheet of wax comes out when the pan is turned upside down. Then when the sheet of lube returns to room temp I go to punching out the lube pills. I think it's kinda fun. Gotta remember that wax gets hot. The jars are hot when they come out of the micro wave.
HEY BP TESS, Junk Yard Dog will sell ya some pills if ya want to try them. 740-824-5566.

[BP Tess]

HEY BP TESS, Junk Yard Dog will sell ya some pills if ya want to try them. 740-824-5566.
Thanks for the #, I think I will try them before I make a total mess of the kitchen. I've used the lubed wads before. I want to see if there's much difference with these pills. Teresa;)

[rifle]

BP Tess, glad to be of service. I'll get Junk Yard Dog right on makin up some nice fresh ones. You gonna be shootin in the cold? If so I'll add a little extra mutton tallow to the "recipe".

[dwave]

Don't forget to post how well they work and how well you like them.

[BP Tess]

Thanks for the#. I'll be gettin' back with ya soon. Was out of town for the weekend so I'll be makin' that call soon and i'll let ya know how they worked.THX Teresa:D