Casting Parifan Wax for Flux

[detox]

I use small birthday candles to flux my lead, but the wick leaves too much trash in melt. So I casted some parafin ingots using a candy mold purchased from Hobby Lobby. I sprayed mold with no stick Pam then poured melted hot wax into mold.

Warning:
Flammable if overheated or exposed to open flame. Always melt Gulfwax by heating in a pan over boiling water, as in a double boiler. Never melt directly in pan over fire, hot plate or in hot oven

I made the mistake of melting without double boiler in single pot and wax got too hot (you can see slight tan tint in inguts). Parafin has a melting point of 99 degrees so it is very easy to get too hot.

Spray your mold using pam then pour melted wax into mold over level surface. Let cool about 30 minutes and remove ingots. Then repour. You get slightly over 3 pours using one box of Gulf wax into the candy mould i used in picture.

These small ingots are perfect size for fluxing melt. 192 inguts

[detox]

I have a friend who is a bee keeper and makes honey. I will try to get some bee wax from him to try. How do you process the beeswax? Or how do you remove all the honey for pure beeswax?

[Curlymaple42]

Filter Beeswax through cheese cloth. But, Beeswax is way more expensive than paraffin wax!

[detox]

Filter Beeswax through cheese cloth. But, Beeswax is way more expensive than paraffin wax!

I'll swap some primers for his beeswax. Lots of beeswax.

[detox]

I bet the little Beeswax ingots would sell verywell if the price was right.

[cbrick]

Casting Parifan Wax for Flux.

Paraffin or wax is not flux. Paraffin or wax cannot flux. It will reduce tin back into the melt but flux it cannot do. Fluxing means to remove undesirable components in the melt and the chemistry of waxes, oils etc means it cannot do that. If you wish to clean your alloy a true flux must be used.

I highly recommend reading chapter4.

From Ingot to Target (http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_textonly2.pdf)

Rick

[detox]

Casting Parifan Wax for Flux.

Paraffin or wax is not flux. Paraffin or wax cannot flux. It will reduce tin back into the melt but flux it cannot do. Fluxing means to remove undesirable components in the melt and the chemistry of waxes, oils etc means it cannot do that. If you wish to clean your alloy a true flux must be used.

I highly recommend reading chapter4.

From Ingot to Target (http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_textonly2.pdf)

Rick

The Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook book recommends parafin, beeswax, tallow, or bullet lube for fluxing. They even recommend that nasty stuff called Marvelux.

What is your (simple) procedure for fluxing ?

IMO alot of this casting stuff is over thunk. People can take something that is so simple and make it too difficult.

[detox]

I have tried saw dust and it leaves behind small particals also. Maybe i can cast some pine resin.

Parafin leaves my ladle very clean after fluxing. And veryeasy to spoon off dirt from melt, If there is a better more simple way I will try it

[cbrick]

If you will take just a little time to read chapter 4 in the link I posted you will see very clearly that this is not "over thunk". It is the metallurgy and chemistry. There is much in the Lyman book that is simply passing on old wives tales and much has been learned in recent years. The Lyman book is well worth while and I recommend it often but there are things in it that have been reprinted over and over since great grandpa's day and should be edited and updated.

The simple truth of the matter is that waxes and oils are not fluxes, will not, cannot flux. Chapter 4 describes what a flux is and what you want a flux to do and what to use to accomplish fluxing.

If you would like to learn something read the entire book but the subject of this thread is FLUXING.

Rick

[detox]

Could you brake that reading down briefly in simple to read terms. What is your way of fluxing? Bottom pour or ladle?

[cbrick]

Could you brake that reading down briefly in simple to read terms. What is your way of fluxing? Bottom pour or ladle?

62847

I did just that, read chapter 4. It is in very simple easy to understand plain english. It will explain what you want a flux to do, how this happens and why wax is not flux. It was written by a Phd in heavy metals and a life long bullet caster/hunter. It is only 4 pages in pdf format and a very easy read. If you would like to learn something read it, if not just continue to use wax.

I use nothing but sawdust for fluxing, it leaves no particles and does exactly what I want in a flux. I both ladle and bottom pour.

Rick

[btroj]

Wax does create a barrier from oxygen to prevent further oxidation of tin. It can, if ignited, crate a layer of CO laden air that Eli's reduce the tin oxides back to metallic tin.

Wax does NOT remove impurities.

Sawdust is the better flux, hands down. It also burns, creating the CO that helps reduce the oxides back into the melt. Where sawdust excels is in creating a charcoal that is excellent in its ability to adsorb impurities. It has numerous microscopic pores that bind to and hold on to things we don't want. Little bits of dirt, grit, oxides that didn't reduce, and all the other garbage we don't want. Wax does not create a substance that does any of that.

Yes, Lyman promoted wax for flux. They also say micrgroove barrels don't shoot cast well over 1600 fps. We all know how well that worked out.

[detox]

Thanks guys,

Have you guys ever used wood flour. Wood flour is used as a filler in epoxies. I have some mohogany flour that I have been trying for flux. Maybe i can mix this in my parafin or beeswax for the best of both worlds. Wood flour can be collected in your orbitol sander collector.
http://store.raka.com/hardwood.aspx

[btroj]

I wouldn't use the flour. First off, it may contain grit from the sand paper. I also don't know how well it would burn as compared to sawdust.
Wood with a fair bit of resin seems to work best. Pune is always good.
Some produce what they need with a hunk of pine and a spade bit. Makes lots of fluxing material fast.

I am using up the remains of a bag of rodent bedding from the daughters hamster.

[detox]

I just may cut up some pine board (very slowly) and collect dust. Thanks

[btroj]

A table saw with a wide dado blade would make a bunch, fast.

[detox]

A table saw with a wide dado blade would make a bunch, fast.

Do you think course works just as good as fine saw dust for fluxing?

[btroj]

Yep. Think of plane shavings too. You want surface area but not so fine that it sits on the surface and doesn't combust well.

[cbrick]

Do you think course works just as good as fine saw dust for fluxing?

Coarse sawdust will work just fine. What you want from sawdust is the carbon it burns into, coarse will take a bit longer to burn to the carbon but it will and it will work. It is a true flux and will remove impurities yet reduce tin that you want into the melt. Waxes will reduce tin & everything else back into the melt, it cannot remove the impurities that almost all scrap lead alloys contain.

Rick

[gray wolf]

Just use the darn saw dust ( small Animal bedding--More of a small flake than dust "
like small plane shavings. Pine works great, has the pine resin in it. I got a sealed bag of it bigger than I could carry for 6$$ years ago. I will still have it 20 years from now.

[detox]

Lyman mentions fluxing needs to be done at lower temp. I hear tin begins to seperate from lead above 750? Is there a certain temp you guys use when fluxing? And how often?

I hate to sound like a broke record. A simple sticky would be very useful. Titled "Simple Fluxing"

[geargnasher]

Rick has been admirably patient with you, and provided a link (all of two pages reading) twice for you to read for the answers to your questions, I don't understand why you keep asking for something other than what he gave you. He wasn't doing that for his own health or education, he was doing it for yours. That link is to a brief article that is as close to "Fluxing for Dummies" as it gets. Go read it.

Gear

[cbrick]

I hate to sound like a broke record. A simple sticky would be very useful. Titled "Simple Fluxing"

As a matter of fact there is just such a sticky and in two different forums, both here and in "classics and Stickies". Here is the link to it so you won't have to search for it.

From Ingot to Target: A Cast Bullet Guide for Handgunners (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?110213-From-Ingot-to-Target-A-Cast-Bullet-Guide-for-Handgunners)

You might want to read chapter 4 on fluxing but I recommend the whole book.

Hope this helps,

Rick

[detox]

Walmart sells a small bag of Pine Shavings for bedding $2.23. This is cheaper than buying a small piece of Yellow Pine at Homedepot. I forget my local Homedepot stopped selling Yellow Pine.

I have read that online book you mention, but I just wanted to know what you guys do in simpler form. I will reread.

Thanks All :)

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

I used sawdust for a while and it worked great but I was getting small particulates in the melt.
I switched to planer shavings crumpled up and since they burn a bit slower, I add a small chunk of paraffin as well.
The combo works well for, the parafinn accelerates the burn on the bigger wood chips.

I found a smaller version of the OP's candy mold this morning, and made some "flakes" today, easy

[detox]

I used sawdust for a while and it worked great but I was getting small particulates in the melt.
I switched to planer shavings crumpled up and since they burn a bit slower, I add a small chunk of paraffin as well.
The combo works well for, the parafinn accelerates the burn on the bigger wood chips.

I found a smaller version of the OP's candy mold this morning, and made some "flakes" today, easy

Fun Fun Fun. This is allmost as fun as melting down wheel weights and casting perfect 2.5 lb inguts