Thread: Lee Liquid Alox Unavailable. Any Simple Alternatives?

Although I've found Lee Liquid Alox to be a bit sticky and messy, it seems to work well on my home cast .357 bullets. I've just tried to buy some more and I'm told that it is no longer available due to a shipping classification problem.

I don't want to buy (or store) a bullet lubing machine unless I really have to. I've lubricated a lot of bullets by hand using a home-made bees wax and Prolan oil mix and it goes well... but it isn't as quick and convenient as tumble lubing. My current favourite projectile has a bevel base and I understand that bevel bases don't work so well in a lubing machine.

Is anybody using an alternative tumble lube containing readily available ingredients?

Thanks in advance for your replies.... best wishes from Nelson.

The only thing I can think of is powder coating?

I have had mixed results with Liquid Alox personally,it goes well for me in .45 ACP but thats it.

That's disappointing to hear, as it works very well at around 1000fps in 44 mag. I guess it's only the start of things to come. In days gone by, in another sanctioned country, we used beeswax. Very messy, pity to have to go back to that.

Originally Posted by Coote

Although I've found Lee Liquid Alox to be a bit sticky and messy, it seems to work well on my home cast .357 bullets. I've just tried to buy some more and I'm told that it is no longer available due to a shipping classification problem.

I don't want to buy (or store) a bullet lubing machine unless I really have to. I've lubricated a lot of bullets by hand using a home-made bees wax and Prolan oil mix and it goes well... but it isn't as quick and convenient as tumble lubing. My current favourite projectile has a bevel base and I understand that bevel bases don't work so well in a lubing machine.

Is anybody using an alternative tumble lube containing readily available ingredients?

Thanks in advance for your replies.... best wishes from Nelson.

If you Google "liquid alox substitute" you can research your eyes out for hours. First page will probably give you most what you need to know...

May be try powder coating and get away from lubes

Originally Posted by Tedz50

May be try powder coating and get away from lubes

I'm liking the HawkeRiver ones in my lever rifles.

Not sure if this helps, but you might be able to make your own.

Lee Liquid Alox. This is actually the same material used by the Ziebart Co. to rustproof automobiles, and is a mixture of 45% calcium soap and 45% mineral spirits (petroleum distillates). According to Alox/Lubrizol Corp. (www.lubrizol.com), who sell the product under the stock #606-55 in 5 and 55 gallon drums this material was intended to be sprayed on to protect naval machinery on the decks of ships against salt spray.

Homemade Firearm Related Products

I powder coat most of my boolits , tumble lube some and make my own lube. Powder coating is really easy and fast and will give you a higher performance as it becomes super slippery and acts like a jacket. To make a tumble lube for relatively low performance like as in your application you can dissolve carnauba wax in white spirits and add a dash of 2 stoke oil and a splash of baby oil. Get it right and it will dry and perform well. If I were you however I would go direct to powder coating. I powder coat a 158 grain swc and have pushed it at 1500 fps in a revolver and 1850 fps in a rifle.

Tectyl ! Thank you for reminding me of that name. Seems that a form of Tectyl is readily available.

Thanks everyone for all the comments, suggestions and links. What a good bunch.

One interesting thing to consider is that bullets with very little, or no lube at all, seem to have performed well for others. Here is a link to a thread that includes some significant results: https://forum.castbulletassoc.org/th...nd-if-so-when/

And while I've been unable to locate a NZ source of Lee Liquid Alox currently, it was only one supplier who told me that it was now unobtainable. Perhaps someone will import some again before too long.

Meanwhile, I see that Supercheap Auto stock Valvoline brand aerosol Tectyl.

Thanks again.

Driverman.... where do you buy your powder coating materials and how do you apply the stuff? Do you need to prepare the bare bullets in any way before applying the coating?

I apply powder coat to bare bullets that have been water dropped from the mold with no other preparation.I take the bullets from the water and when dry i put them in an ice cream container(2L), spoon in 1 teaspoon of powder,put the lid on and shake for about a minute. Up and down, sideways and all over. I then pour the bullets into a piece of shade cloth and wriggle around to get rid of excess powder. I have a mini oven that has been preheated to 400 deg F. You can buy non stick foil and if you stand your bullets on this(using needle nose pliers) and then put into the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes you will end up with fantastic bullets that glide through the sizer . If you are shooting 303 I coat 308 bullets a couple of times and get great results in my 303,s as the powder coating increases diam nicely. 7.62x39 shot in a Norinco has a sloppy bore and powder coating takes up the slack nicely. I get a 1 hole group at 100 m (except for the first bloody shot)
I powder coat 9mm 115g 124g 125g 150g. 38 (357) (I have 23 different molds) 32 cal 98g,102g,112g. 45acp 200swc, 240gswc. 303(.312,.314) 308 (.309,.310) and 7.62x39 (5 different styles)
I get my powder from the US but in NZ you can get TGIC PC from Resto supplies.

Thanks for that full reply Driverman. That is very helpful information for Kiwis who want to get started. Maybe I need to get with the times. I guess that a mask should be worn working with powders containing TGIC.

You have an awesome collection of projectile moulds. I've cast for .303Br and .308, but now I only have moulds to suit .357 magnum. I have two Lee moulds, and five CBE brass moulds. I enjoy experimenting with cast bullet loads, but now I need to focus on maybe three decent loads so that my rifles can be kept sighted for serious work.

The powder you need has to be non TGIC. I had omitted the word non from my post.

That is good news that you've had good results using non-TGIC powder. I thought that to apply the powder by the 'shaking around' method, the TGIC stuff worked best. Powder coating bullets has just become more attractive.

I bought an aerosol can of Valvoline Tectyl 506. I sprayed some on to a few lead bullets and shook them around in a plastic jar. The stuff looked like Lee Alox and it smelled similar too. It set to a tacky consistency. So today I loaded a few cartridges using Tectyl instead of Alox. I wiped the lube from the base of the bullet before loading. Once seated, I wiped the lube off the exposed part of the bullet to stop it collecting grit or dust.

I won't be going to the range for a while, but I am confident the the bullets will shoot well enough without major problems. I've recently experimented with using minimal lube and even shot a few bullets at low velocity without using any lube at all and I had no problems and no apparent 'leading' in the barrel.

I loaded an empty cartridge, then pulled the projectile to see how much Tectyl remained on the driving bands.... most of it seemed to have gone. I also did the same with bullet lubed with Lee Alox and there wasn't much on the bands of that one either. Just a few tiny patches were visible in the slight dents in the bullet. The lube rings still had a decent coat of the lube, but I doubt that much of what is in the rings gets smeared around the barrel.

While I've had acceptable to pleasing accuracy using a beeswax/oil/lanolin lube, my general observation is that an Alox type lube is more likely to give me better accuracy. So... if Valvoline Tectyl 506 works for me, I feel a bit freer to use the last of my Lee Alox.

I understand that Valvoline Tectyl is available in four litre and 205 litre drums.... in Australia. I phoned Valvoline in NZ and the person I spoke to seemed to think that we can only get it in the spray cans here. But that is fine... a spray can would last me for years.