Fluxing Question

[HEAD0001]

I just ran into 500 pounds of WW. I need to clean it up. I bought a Turkey fryer on E-Bay for $25(Brand new). A friend of mine is a welder and he is making me a stainless steel pot to put on the burner.

I have always used Marvelux to flux, and clean up my WW. But I normally did it 10-20 pounds at a time. I was getting ready to order some more Marvelux, and I could not believe the price. What else can I use to flux the WW and get the lead as clean as what Marvelux does?? For a cheap price?? Beeswax?? Thanks, Tom.

[Blammer]

get an old candle or some sawdust, whatever is free. It will flux fine for the smelt pot.

Most of the time when I smelt I don't even flux, just melt scrap off top and put in ingots.

[sundog]

Blammer beat me too it!

[Woodwrkr]

Find a local wood worker and ask him for some of his planer chips. He'll more than likely give you all you can handle and they'll work fine.

[wiljen]

transmission fluid, motor oil, any number of things have worked fine for me.

[yeahbub]

The most effective flux I've found that produces consistent and visible results is stearic acid used by soap and candle makers. It can be cut 1/1 with parrafin to stretch it quite a bit. Have a match handy to light off the smoke. Twenty dollar's worth is a year's supply for the alloy cleaning and casting I do. You might find it locally, but here's a link: http://www.chemistrystore.com/stearic_acid.htm

Many other things have been suggested to me as fluxes (actually, they're reducing agents) like used motor oil, charcoal, bearing grease, bee's wax, parrafin, old candles, etc but they were mostly old wives tales that produced a lot of smoke, stink and very little results. Candles might work, IF they contain some stearic acid, usually the no-drip variety. Before I understoof what it was all about, I wound up skimming off large quantities of tin oxide and antimony ($$$) until I found a reducing agent that actually worked. After fluxing there should be only brown/black dirt and steel clips on the chrome-bumper-shiny melt. If there's any metallic grey crusty material or silvery-grey pasty sludge on top, your reducing agent isn't doing it's job and your alloys will vary in hardness from one lot to the next.

[grumpy one]

Lots of things will work (some better than others) but most of them produce fumes that are somewhere between annoying and toxic. Mineral oils produce fumes that are said to be carcinogenic, particularly used engine oil. I'm unsure about the toxicity of fumes from candles and other waxes, but they certainly make me feel lousy. Woodsmoke is an eye and nose irritant, and may or may not contain dangerous chemicals.

At present I don't flux when smelting, relying on whatever crud is adhering to the dirty weights and other associated garbage to do the job. When casting I use wood chips, sparingly, on top of the melt, and put a cover over the pot to condense the volatile elements out of the smoke. I don't see much fluxing action from this but the ash seems to just about eliminate oxidation.

[yeahbub]

Good point, Grumpy. I was just thinking of the cyanide that's used in treated lumber, which is the reason the local Home Depot won't cut the stuff at the store. Using sawdust from that would be a bad thing. I never had any trouble from the stearic acid/perrafin mix, but I do this outside mostly. If I can see it, I don't want to breathe it.

I also use ashes on top of the melt to reduce contact with air. This greatly reduces the frequent need for fluxing to about once per potfull.

[DLCTEX]

Stir the pot with a good dry hardwood stick, worked great on the last batches I did. I also scraped the sides and bottom of thr pot with it. Dale

[Guido4198]

Used motor oil...Works GREAT, especially when you're doing that initial smelting/cleaning operation...hopefully OUTSIDE...!!!
Cheers,
Don

[454PB]

There's usually enough grease and other unmentionable crud on wheelweights to do the fluxing when smelting. Use your Marvelux when actually casting.