New Guy Questions

[4296]

Hello! I am new to the forum and have yet to cast my first boolits. I have however melted 290lbs of WWs into muffin pan ingots. Now I plan on alloying these with 2% tin and ladel casting with a 20lb Lee furnace. While I used candle wax for the WWs, I have purchased Frankford Arsenal (Midway) flux for the Lee. Has anyone used this product? Any advice on it's use would be welcome. THANKS!

[NVcurmudgeon]

Welcome, newguy. I have not used Frankford Arsenal flux,but you willl find that posters on this board use an amazing variety of fluxes. I like candle wax because there are always a lot of candle stubs around, and her ladyship likes the smell. Others use Marvelux, bullet lube, motor oil, canning paraffin, etc. there is even one caster here who stirs his pot with a pine stick! Flux with whatever is cheap and doesn't smell bad, as long as you flux whenever the dross builds up and skim thoroughly.

[beagle]

I haven't used the Frankford stuff as flux either.

Maybe a dab of beeswax or candle wax.

TonyB gave me some NEI flux which looks like dried pain chips. I'm kind of partial to it. Gives off some smoke and the smell is kind of a mild pinesol smell that keeps the "management" off my back while I'm melting./beagle

[Willbird]

Also on those WW, you may not need any tin, or not 2% even to make things flow nicely, Try it as it is, and add just a tiny bit of tin until you find the magic amount, (2) tiny 6" long strips of lino in a 22 lb pot make a huge differance, the metal goes from runny soft serve ice cream to a nice liquid....BTW the runny soft serve fills pistol molds nicely. This is all at 850 degrees.


Bill

[44man]

4296, If you bottom pour the flux is OK. I, however have been casting for 50 years and have never been able to get good boolits from the bottom pour spout so I use a ladle. I flux after every 15 boolits with paraffin or beeswax. I use an old teaspoon with a long wood handle rivited on to stir. Never stir with the ladle and try to keep the spout out of the lead. Keep the hole in the spout clean and wipe the nose on a rag every so often. I can run boolits until I run the pot dry with only 1 or 2 rejects.