Homemade fibre wads

[Tad-blody]

Hi All,

I'm in the process of making some Homemade fibre wads in 20 bore from 9mm builders fibreboard. I have seen mentions on this forum and others of lubricating said wads with heated beeswax and/or vegetable oil. My questions are - how hot should the wax/oil be ? and for how long should the wads be dipped ? Thanks in advance.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Hand carved bespoke wads, now that's a first!

[sitsinhedges]

Much as I like to make all I can you have to ask if this is really worth the trouble. I doubt you will get the performance of a bought wad and by the time you've got all the necessary bits together it wont be any cheaper either.

 

By performance I mean that a bought wad will compress to a degree when loaded and so aid in getting a good component stack height and crimp but a lump of insulation board will have been squashed tight when punching the wad out and may not work so well.

 

Wads are only tuppence each.

[Floating Chamber]

Muzzleloading friends of mine have been using that stuff for years. The wads are 'fried' in a mixture that contains tallow*. I would consider them safe for Blackpowder but I would not use them with nitro. Diana fibre wads are specially made from vegetable fibre and impregnated with a suitable lubricant. They have stood the test of time.

 

*...and they STINK!

[shakin stevens]

i still do this for my 4b wads, you can buy the bars of wax from off good old fleabay, just heat it over a cooker ring in an old cigar tin or something like and when its hot give the wad a roll, if you don't make many cartridges i think its worth the time, but if you are doing loads it seems like to much effort when you can buy them done, the wax is not that expensive i believe bullets have been done in the same way.

[Underdog]

I melt candle wax and add olive oil untill when cooled it is as a paste. I use it on my muzzle loaders to prevent rust, patch lube and also add it to fiber wads by finger.

 

I have melted beef fat and added olive oil to make a lube and beeswax and olive oil. They all work well.

 

Take care when letting wads soak alot of lube, it increases their weight and can actually cause doughnut shaped patterns!

 

U.

[Tad-blody]

Thanks, all for your replies. To be honest I hadn't factored in the time as I was blinkered by getting a pile of broken fibreboards (the type they use for expansion joints) for free. I've had a shank turned down on a wad punch by a mate and was going to cut them out on a drill press. Hmmm, gonna have to have a think on this.

[Andy H]

If you go ahead using the fiberboard only give them a very quick dip in lube as a full soak completely saturates the wad and it cannot compress as it is full of wax lube.

[Tad-blody]

If you go ahead using the fiberboard only give them a very quick dip in lube as a full soak completely saturates the wad and it cannot compress as it is full of wax lube.

Thanks Andy, this doesn't seem as straight forward as I first thought. Do the wads have to be lubricated to work?

[Vince Green]

I cut down wads for my M/L pistol from bigger shotgun wads using a punch but its slow and if you can buy them from Siarm its not worth the trouble.

 

Years and years ago we used to cut wads from ordinary cardboard but in those days we had no money to spare.

[Underdog]

Thanks Andy, this doesn't seem as straight forward as I first thought. Do the wads have to be lubricated to work?

Nope.

 

 

I cut down wads for my M/L pistol from bigger shotgun wads using a punch but its slow and if you can buy them from Siarm its not worth the trouble.

 

Years and years ago we used to cut wads from ordinary cardboard but in those days we had no money to spare.

Most my muzzloader shotguns just use a few thin cards as a wad. There is no need for a wad other than making up length to suit a cartridge case closure.

 

U.