Bullet lubers and Saeco Molds
ALL bullet luber designs were originally designed long before WW2 to use SOFT lubricants of beeswax, candle wax and and automotive and railroad greases with some exotic ingredients sometimes thrown in.
California Saeco kept secret the use of automotive STP in their Green lube formula that I also kept secret until long after the death of Bob M the founder..
The lubers were made of cast iron and the Star luber was sold to Magma company that makes it of cheaper aluminum castings and they modified it for commercial use and added a heater for Hard lubes.. The commercial bullet casters I know are unhappy with it as a used Original Star luber is considered better than a new Magma Star luber copy that needs gaskets to keep from leaking lube. It also eats the gaskets in changing caliber dies
As far as I am concerned the hard lubes stay on the bullet and do not melt to coat and protrect the weapon barrel. The hard tubes to me are only a benefit to the lube sellers and some commercial cast bullet makers as they are not sticky in shipping the bullets during hot weather.
Home bullet casters only need to line up neatly the bullets coming from their lubers and to cool them in their fridges before loading them which solves the problem of stickiness particularly with the STP formulations.
It took some time for our ancestors to realize that use of graphite in their weapons and bullet lubes allowed the graphite to absorb moisture and when in a weapon caused rust and pitting. Our bodies are surrounded by an envelope of moisture from our breathing and sweat so graphite should not be near our bodies.
I also liked as second best the decades old NRA approved Tamarack Co. formiula of 50/50 Alox 2813F and beeswax and still have a supply of them in my bulletcasting collection.
The current Saeco molds are second best to the originals in my collection as the originals used Meehanite Cast Iron that is too expensive for current mold makers today and the metal is mainly used for the bases or foundations of computer controlled CNC machines. Also Bob did the unheard proceedure of sending his molds to a space age machine shop to have the mold tops perfectly mated to the sprue bottoms by "Blanchard Grinding" and the current company only uses a spring washer to hold the sprue down..
The original molds made the most identical weight bullets ever made that have won the most matches since 1947 of any molds and the originals are multi lifetime molds. Every one of the thousands of molds I sold decades ago are still in use. They can be recognized by having no name stamped on them other than the mold number on the sprue and with patterned gunstock walnut mold handles in a white California Saeco address box in old timers reloading rooms.
I can identify which company made any Saeco name mold if asked and their quality. Any mold made over 4 cavities with the Saeco name is Junk.
The current younger generation does not know the difference as current products are made "On The Cheap to still sell at high prices.
Paul Jones
Retired and Loving It
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