Has anyone ever used toilet wax rings for lube before?

T

TruthTellers

New member
Saw a video on youtube recently and the guy was buying toilet wax rings at Home Depot for cheap and using the wax to make his own bullet lubes at home. In the comments some said that they use it for their black powder guns and I was wonder if anyone else has tried this? What was your formula?

Bottom line, is this a better, more cost effective way to shoot percussion revolvers than with T/C Bore Butter?
 
When I read about cap and ball in the 1960s Gun Digest,the Lube de Jour was Crisco.I have no experience with it.
It might matter if its for a range session or to stay loaded for a few weeks or till needed.
The rings are beeswax. Folks come up with their own recipes. Beeswax,lanolin.tallow,I think some use Vaseline.

You get to decide if bore butter suits you. I;ve seen bulk lanolin and beeswax on E-bay.
Petroleum based products are avoided.Something about turning to asphalt.

Depending on the local temps.melting point might matter.
 
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Like mehavey said toilet rings are no longer made from beeswax. It might be that they're not refined enough to be a problem but I'm not going to try them to find out. Crisco and Bore Butter are good over ball lubes in cold weather but are extremely runny in summer heat. Lubed wads or lube pills under the balls are the best way to go.
 
Not sure, but everything I've ever seen that talked about using toilet bowl rings was in the context of making a lube mix for the lube grooves of cast bullets -- to be used in loading cartridges. IMHO, that's not a suitable application for Crisco, and you don't use patches or wads under the bullets in metallic cartridges.
 
Cap and ball revolvers and BPCR are two different things.I don't have a cap and ball. A concern with C+B is flash over. There are two camps. Some say just having an interference fit ball to cylinder is best, Some smear it over with some form of grease or lube. Crisco is an old classic.Its also an old classic for round ball patch lube. I'm not saying "Its best" .I'm saying it was the choice at the time.
AB,you might do a little research on shooting BPCR. Any number of wads and grease cookies have been and are used between the bullet base and the powder with Black Powder Cartridge loading. There are dies for extruding beeswax ribbon to cut with the case mouth. Milk carton and waxed paper wads are common.Felt wads Read Elmer's "Hell,I was there" and he talks of deer tallow wads in his Sharps. Explore Venturino,Paul Matthews,and Ned Roberts. And the SPG bullet lube booklet.

There is a lot to learn.
 
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Alternate lube

I was recently told to use GOJO as a lube for black powder, but I thought it was a petroleum product so I did not try it. Has anyone used this before?
 
Has anyone ever used toilet wax rings for lube before?
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No, not that. I have used paraffin wax (canning wax), beeswax (cheap holiday themed candles after Christmas), Crisco, Johnson's Paste Wax mixed with other lubes, lithium soap (white grease cake), and mixes of above with traditional/commercial bullet lubes.
 
I'll toss something out there for the bold adventurer. Up front,I have never tried this.
Plastic injection molds have temp control water running through them.Sometimes its pretty warm,like 140 or 160 deg f.

There are close fitting moving parts in a mold,grease may be a good idea. Galling is a bummer.

Often there is a requirement for food service grade grease. I'm making a guess here,but it may be animal or vegetable enough to use as or in BP bullet lube.
Or it may be synthetic

https://www.schaefferoil.com/food-grade-lubricants.html
 
Howdy

I read about using toilet rings years ago. Never used them myself.

Back when I started shooting Cap & Ball revolvers in 1968, the standard was to gob some Crisco over the ball in the mouth of each chamber. I found this was less than ideal because while shooting during the summer months, the heat of a round going off in the chamber at battery would melt the Crisco in the next chamber, the next one to be fired, and the melted Crisco would mostly run out of the chamber.

YES, covering a ball with lube absolutely will help prevent a chain fire. In the event that there is a small crease or other deformation in a ball, when it is seated the ring of lead shaved off may not be a complete ring. There may inadvertently be a void in the seal between chamber and ball, allowing a path for a loose spark from a round being fired to find its way to the powder charge in another chamber. Back in those days I had a chain fire with my old 44 caliber brass framed 'Navy' and I never did figure out exactly why it happened. I always suspected the melted Crisco may have run out of a chamber and allowed a spark to find its way past an imperfection in the seal of ball to chamber.

Many years later, I discovered lubed felt wads. They were marketed as Wonder Wads and as far as I know they are still available. I would position a Wonder Wad between the powder and the ball. No, the lube did not adulterate the powder. A 1/16" or so felt wad between powder and ball made a much better spark arrestor in case of a poor seal to the chamber, than a thin ring of lead.

You don't really need a lot of lube in a C&B revolver. The lubed wads are fine. And they help scrape out fouling left behind in the bore from the last shot.

Yes, lube for Black Powder cartridges and lube for a C&B revolver are different. Years ago I used to make up my own lube for bullets from a 50/50 mix of beeswax and Crisco. I pan lubed all my bullets with this stuff.

Years later I switched to SPG sticks in my Star Lube Sizer for the Big Lube bullets I used to cast.

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I do use toilet-bowl ring wax to pan-lube my cast bullets in 45 Colt. It works for me; it always has. It's stickier and messier than the hard-lube used on commercially cast bullets, but it works. Seals out moisture, too, as that is what it is designed for. I wipe the bullet base clean before seating each bullet and wipe any excess off the finished ammo after the batch is all crimped.
Didn't I say it's messy? Don't do it. You wont like it. I have my own routine and it works for me. The finished ammo is as clean as any other and is good for long-term storage and shoots as accurately as any other in my guns.
 
Years ago when just entering B/P sports. I did melt a couple wax toilet rings. (new store bought ones) Reason being there wasn't that many business places selling B/P products in my neck of the woods._Made patching lube and modern {bullet lube from}. Rb patching lube was easy to make. Modern pistol lube. Mixed with liquid alox and powdered graphite than poured into a homemade stick mold so's to slide into my bullet lubber {RCBS 2} Results were smokey but worked well as anything that can be bought today. Although since those long ago times. Time has gotten valuable._I don't have to be frugal these days on purpose. 1/2 hr ride to either Cabela's or TOTW lay down a Saw Buck or two on the counter >"I'm good to go."

As I recall Randy Rat sold bee's wax. Might want to check and see if he's still doing.?
 
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