fire log flux

[edsmith]

has any one used those paper covered fire logs to flux with ? I looked on the wrapper for what they were made out of,could not find any thing,seems to me they are made out of saw dust and parffin,next time I fire up the pot I will try it.kind of cold right now in the shop.18 degrees.burrrr.

[chris in va]

I think you could save money and just use sawdust...

[SciFiJim]

You could use one I suppose. How much do they cost? The sawdust I use was free for a bagful at Lowe's and the candle wax was 25 cents for a great big 3 wick candle at a yard sale.

I don't use them at the same time however. I use the sawdust to flux while smelting down WWs. After I have clean ingots I only flux with wax while casting to avoid getting any inclusions in the boolits.

[edsmith]

We burn the logs in our fireplace.

[blaser.306]

has any one used those paper covered fire logs to flux with ? I looked on the wrapper for what they were made out of,could not find any thing,seems to me they are made out of saw dust and parffin,next time I fire up the pot I will try it.kind of cold right now in the shop.18 degrees.burrrr.

Stand close to the smelting pot and you will still be able to feel your fingers !:kidding: the weather here hasn't been all that conducive to smelting either with the wind chill it has been around -50c (mucho cold) like freeze the Ba--- off a brass monkey cold and I have 5 five galon pails of w/w and 3 pails of range scrap that need to be smelted , May is a long way off!

[KennethF]

Has anyone tried charcoal briquets crushed for fluxing? Might be worth trying as they can be gotten in a couple different wood scents and they do not smoke. I will give it a try next time I do some casting.

[lwknight]

I tried the charcoal powder from the bottom of the bag. I guess it was OK to keep dross down while casting. It took a long time to coal off to ash. Was not very good for getting dross back into the mix and when I skinned , I got a lot of good stuff embedded in it till I let it turn totally to ash.
I still like plain old cheap candle wax the best except for the smoke that comes after the fire burns out and still has a little bit of unburned wax left.

[Bret4207]

Try a dry stick of some sort and just stir and scrape. Works better than anything else I;ve tried.

[Shiloh]

Has anyone tried charcoal briquets crushed for fluxing? Might be worth trying as they can be gotten in a couple different wood scents and they do not smoke. I will give it a try next time I do some casting.

Yes. A paint stick works better.

There are oxidizers in both Kingsford and a grocery store brand that I tried, that give quite a surprise when they ignite.

Saw dust works good but I don't have a supply, so I use Marvelux, old lube sticks, and a paint stir stick.

SHiloh