flux

[dragonfire]

I plan on turning my ww's into ingots ,do i need to flux if i'm just making ingots? ,i have bar solder i plan on adding at a later date ,i'm new to this so any info is most helpful ,thanks.

[wiljen]

It is a good idea to flux as you smelt so as to remove as much crap as possible. I'd rather remove the stuff early when working in a dutch oven than wait and try and get it out of my casting pot. Anything carbon based will work. I've used waxes, transmission fluid, sawdust, and recently have been stirring my pot with a 1.5" diameter dowel. Commercial fluxes work fine too, they just tend to cost more than sawdust, wax, etc and don't necessarily do anything the homebrew varieties don't do just as well.

[dragonfire]

How much wax would you use to flux a 4 quart dutch oven?

[Bret4207]

Welcome to the clan Dragonfire. It's not a matter of how much flux is needed to do a certain amount of alloy, but rather how much will it take to clean the alloy you have. A really dirty batch will take a lot more than a really clean batch. Essentially you flux and stir and skim the crap off the top. Then you flux some more and keep going until the batch seems clean. Be advised, there will be a dull gray almost oatmealy type of stuff that floats to the top at first, once you're past the real dirt stage. Get the mix hot and try fluxing this back into the alloy. Stir with a wooden stick and keep stirring. A lot of this stuff is tin/antimony alloy and will remix. Some is dirt and dust and lead oxide. Fluxing a batch of WW into usable alloy will take 20-30 minutes more or less. It takes time to get the stuff hot enough to flux well and then time to get whatever will remix back into the alloy. You will probably find specks of black stuff that keep floating into the mix from someplace. I think a lot of that is rust from the cast iron pots we all love. Since I went to a stainless pot I get a lot less of that, at the cost os a little less efficient heat transfer, or so I'm told.

[dragonfire]

So i just need to take my time and eyeball it ,i have worked with the solder baths at work so it shouldnt be to hard for me ,we didnt have to flux those , the fluxing has got me kinda looped but it seems simple enough ,with a little practice and the help of good people on this forum i just might become a decent boolit caster yet,thanks

[Wayne Smith]

The few times I've done it the ww were so dirty with oil and grease that they were self-fluxing. One or two experiences will tell you all you need to know.

[Duckiller]

What Wayne said. Never clean wheel weights, the oil, grease ,etc is self fluxing. Never hurts to add a little sawdust to the mix and stir with a wooden dowel. Really clean ingots are a joy to cast with. Have never heard of anyone overfluxing. Enjoy and avoid the smoke and bad smells. Duckiller

[crowbeaner]

I use pure beeswax and flux the H*** out of the first melt and stir until the flames go out(watch your gloves). After that I flux when the tin scum floats enough to make getting a clean dipperful difficult. The flame from the flux actually raises the melt temp anyway; at least on the top. Type of flux varies by whim, and the beeswax doubles as a film lube for my SG slugs. If you have a heavy tin mix you'll have to flux more often depending on the casting temp. CB.

[Froogal]

I use sawdust when melting down range scrap. Just sprinkle a small handfull on top of the molten lead, wait for it begin smoking, then throw a lighted match onto it. When the fire goes out, skim the crud off.

[rcslotcar]

I flux when making ingots. I will use saw dust/chips and some times use candle wax after. I will also flux again when casting slugs.

[lightman]

Has anyone else thought of using old dirty tumbling media as their casting flux?

I've played around with several different types of sawdust, dry leaves and shredded paper. My best results have been when using pine sawdust. I'm guessing the resin is what makes the difference.

I would think that your used media would work but not as well as other stuff.

I use sawdust when smelting scrap, followed by some type of wax. I only use wax in my casting pot.

[Dusty Bannister]

Check this thread. Site search is very handy and informative.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-as-flux/page2

[gwpercle]

Smelting in a large pot is the one place I find the use of Marvelux commercial powdered flux the best thing to use , it doesn't flash and erupt into a ball of fire .
Tossing in a big chunk of beeswax and having an unexpected flash fire is unnerving to say the least!!!
Gary

[Martin Luber]

I like the fire from using paraffin...adds extra heat to help melt the load.

[lightman]

Back to the original post, yes you should flux it. The better job you do making ingots means cleaner material in your casting pot. I use pine sawdust and flux a few times followed by some type of wax. For a Dutch oven I probably would use a coffee cup of sawdust followed by an inch or so cut off of a candle. You can light both of these with a lighter to reduce the smoke.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Has anyone else thought of using old dirty tumbling media as their casting flux?

agentwolf,
Welcome to the forum.
When smelting WW, you want a flux that will quickly become carbon. Media may take a while to burn up, into carbon. Another issue could be introducing more Junk, whatever is in "old dirty tumbling media", into your smelt pot...as the media burns and turns to ash as you stir the smelt, that Junk could become airborne. Typically the Junk contains some Lead Oxide from used primers ...and that is something I would prefer not to breathe in.

I use saw dust as a flux. I prefer pine/fir saw dust.
During smelting, I also use a tiny bit of paraffin wax to reduce the alloy, right before pouring into ingots.

[robg]

I use some boolit lube and stir with a piece of wood seems to work ok

[kevin c]

I tried it with walnut hull and corncob, both clean (I also worried about contaminants). They worked ok, but not as well as pine sawdust, and a bit better than pine needles. Pine wood shavings from a planer also worked well.

From what I’ve read, carbon containing materials have two benefits for us: they produce carbon monoxide as they burn, which helps reduce the oxides, and they act as an adsorbant to take impurities out of the alloy. Extra heat from the burning material helps both processes.

I’m thinking that sawdust and wood shavings have more surface area and burn faster and hotter than granular media. The extra surface area helps adsorb more contaminants, and supposedly the resin in pine wood helps too. There’s also that I find the burned wood shavings a bit easier to skim out of the melt than the walnut hull bits.

I also add generous chunk of paraffin wax to the pine; I think it helps with more heat and more reduction.

[ioon44]

I use pine pet bedding because it is easy for me to get.

[Jhopson]

I use pine pet bedding for my first two fluxes and then some candle wax. In my casting pot I use beeswax.