Whitespider
04-23-2008, 07:54 AM
Well, been castin’ my own for about a year now. Learned quite a bit from y’all but nothin’ teaches better than making your own mistakes. My stockpile of alloy makin’s has grown to about ½ ton, molds are up to eight, made my own ingot molds and ruined at least half-a-dozen pairs of jeans. Fun ain’t it?
Anyway, my observation.....
When I’m smeltin’ I’ll add more raw WWs to the pot while the ingots solidify. I’ve noticed that they seem to be self-fluxing. After I skim the clips, stir and skim the dirt I have a nice shiny surface and what appears to be a clean alloy (I flux with sawdust anyway, just because). I’m thinking that it’s coating of crap on all the WWs that does the fluxing. Here in Iowa we have crushed limestone gravel roads, the WWs are covered with limestone dust. Limestone contains ancient, trapped carbon dioxide in vast quantities, could this be doing the fluxing? What y’all think?
Anyway, my observation.....
When I’m smeltin’ I’ll add more raw WWs to the pot while the ingots solidify. I’ve noticed that they seem to be self-fluxing. After I skim the clips, stir and skim the dirt I have a nice shiny surface and what appears to be a clean alloy (I flux with sawdust anyway, just because). I’m thinking that it’s coating of crap on all the WWs that does the fluxing. Here in Iowa we have crushed limestone gravel roads, the WWs are covered with limestone dust. Limestone contains ancient, trapped carbon dioxide in vast quantities, could this be doing the fluxing? What y’all think?