Fluxing With Sawdust

[Love Life]

My flux was collected from freshly cut trees near a pristine stream in the Sierra Nevadas.

[Lefty bullseye shooter]

Being a cabinet maker I never have a shortage of sawdust! I just recently found that mixing said sawdust with used motor oil into a paste burns like hickory in my wood stove! I love free heat. I rarely use pine in the shop but can make all kinds of other dust/chips. I am framing a basement now and have been saving all the sawdust from the mitre saw. This come from construction grade white wood SPF (spruce,pine,fir). I can also gut flour consistancy dust out of the bag of the dust collector. So my question is, how much do I put in a pot?

I have the smelting kit coming offered here by D Crocket. I'm thinking I'll start with smelting 100#'s at a time. So how much for that size a melt? Also should I add tin at this point or add it after I make ingots and am melting the ingots in the casting pot?

Thanks for the help
Scott

[cbrick]

I add nothing when making ingots. You never know what the future will bring or what you may need to cast with in the future, If you add tin or anything else when making your ingots that's what you have. I add my tin by 2% weight of the ingot I add to my casting pot when casting.

Rick

[bangerjim]

Same as Rick. I never "build" my alloys en-mass. Some like to make theirs hundreds of pounds at at time. Whatever fits your needs.

I always add Sn and Sb-ish alloys at the time of brewing up my current mix in the casting pot. I generally let it get to about 35% full and refill with the approx weights to get to my alloy-----using the alloy calc spreadsheet.

Having gobs of ingots of a certain alloy is OK if that is all you ever plan to cast. I tend to vary the mix depending on what I am casting for. And for boolit experimentation.

I do have a ton (well mabe a half ton!) of hardball that I mix with pure Pb and Sn to make 2% in the casting pot, but keep all the "elemental" alloys separate until I need them. Gives me a wide range of variety to play with.

Have fun mixing!

banger

[rexherring]

I've been using hardwood sawdust bagged for smokers that I bought from a meat store. Also works for smoking sausage.

[nvbirdman]

There was a guy in my area cutting up wood to sell for firewood and he had a good sized pile of sawdust so I asked him if I could fill up a coffee can.
I got a lifetime supply for free. My favorite price.

[303Guy]

In my part of the world building regulations require treated timber for construction. You don't want sawdust from that.

[cajun shooter]

We had a member who sold cedar types of wood shavings instead of the common sawdust from cutting saws. I much prefer the shavings, they will sit on top and give off a very nice aroma if of the cedar variety and turn a mundane job into one of pleasure.
I know the entire process only requires the product that you choose, form a carbon so that it will do it's job but we should at least enjoy it.
I will say that I've been using this method for at least 7 years and I feel I need to throw in a note of caution before I close out. It's best to keep your shavings in a sealed container as we all know that wood will absorb water. Here in Louisiana, we have humidity levels above 75% for most of the year and I should of known better on what happened to me. I had been casting the day before and when I went to continue the next day, I found that I had left the top off the bucket. I grabbed a handful for my pot and tossed it in. I used my ladle to push it around and the air around me became flooded with hot drops of the tinsel fairy. Yes, after casting since 1970 I became forgetful about water and lead not being the best of buddies. My shavings had soaked up the moisture from the air and I was lucky to have escaped with only some small burns on my arms. Keep that wood flux sealed. Later David

[bangerjim]

We had a member who sold cedar types of wood shavings instead of the common sawdust from cutting saws. I much prefer the shavings, they will sit on top and give off a very nice aroma if of the cedar variety and turn a mundane job into one of pleasure.
I know the entire process only requires the product that you choose, form a carbon so that it will do it's job but we should at least enjoy it.
I will say that I've been using this method for at least 7 years and I feel I need to throw in a note of caution before I close out. It's best to keep your shavings in a sealed container as we all know that wood will absorb water. Here in Louisiana, we have humidity levels above 75% for most of the year and I should of known better on what happened to me. I had been casting the day before and when I went to continue the next day, I found that I had left the top off the bucket. I grabbed a handful for my pot and tossed it in. I used my ladle to push it around and the air around me became flooded with hot drops of the tinsel fairy. Yes, after casting since 1970 I became forgetful about water and lead not being the best of buddies. My shavings had soaked up the moisture from the air and I was lucky to have escaped with only some small burns on my arms. Keep that wood flux sealed. Later David

That is why sawdust is THE safe and recommended form of fluxing material. Hunks and chunks of wood can and will soak up airborne humidity/mositure and if pushed below the surface, will cause violent releases of steam and a potential molten lead shower on you! Every time I have used a "DRY" stick to stir with, the violent boiling action gave me pause!

I will stick with wood sawdust and a metal stirring tool!

Also, some individuals are highly allergic to certain cedar oils and the smoke from the burning wood can cause respiratory distress. So be careful.

banger

[glockky]

I use the sawdust that catches in the bag of my circular saw. I personally only use sawdust now to flux in my smelting pot. I have had a lot of problems when using it in my casting pot. I always end up with dirty boolits.

[cbrick]

I use the sawdust that catches in the bag of my circular saw. I personally only use sawdust now to flux in my smelting pot. I have had a lot of problems when using it in my casting pot. I always end up with dirty boolits.

Are trying to force it under the melt and/or using a wood stick to stir?

Rick

[bangerjim]

I use the sawdust that catches in the bag of my circular saw. I personally only use sawdust now to flux in my smelting pot. I have had a lot of problems when using it in my casting pot. I always end up with dirty boolits.

That is why I tired (and quit very rapidly) using sawdust in my casting pot. You really do not need to flux, as you have already done it 3X in your re-melting pot when making your ingots. Your feed ingots should be 100% clean and pure, right?

I use only beeswax in my casting pots to reduce the Sn back in. Works like magic and does not contaminate any boolit castings I do with my bottom pour pots. And sawdust tended to get stuck in the bottom spigot and cause pour problems. (How it gets down there, I never did figure out!) Since I stopped using wood dust and cleaned the pot of any burned wood garbage, eveything is perfect.

Works for me.

banger

[geargnasher]

How it gets down there is you put it down there, either on the end of an ingot or handfull of sprues, on your stirring spoon, or by scratching around on the bottom of the pot with a stick. If you're using clean metal in the casting pot, all you may need is a sacrificial wax reducant to revert the oxide scum, but I prefer to use sawdust anyway because it best adsorbs "contaminant" metals in oxide form, so applying directly to the surface after all the oxides have been floated up there makes sense to me.

Gear

[cbrick]

Your ingots would be perfectly clean assuming proper fluxing. I suspect from a huge number of posts on this forum over the years that very few people understand how or do proper fluxing. I use sawdust in the smelting pot and I also use it in all of my casting pots every time I turn on the pot or add new ingots to it, been doing so for many years. I never have anything in the bottom valve or in the alloy that comes up in the ladle. My bullets are clean, my bottom valve is clean and my bullets are clean. Anyone using sawdust and getting anything under the melt about has to be because they put it there, sawdust did not sink in lead.

Stirring with a wood stick is the easiest way to get charred, burnt wood under the surface of the melt, the stick is charring as you stir and flaking off bits of burnt wood, scraping the sides and bottom is even worse. Lead is dense enough to hold it there where it will be drawn to the bottom spigot or brought up in a ladle and poured into bullets.

Rick

[therealhitman]

My flux was collected from freshly cut trees near a pristine stream in the Sierra Nevadas.

Mine too! Did your tree have Unicorns dancing with Pixies around a stream of molten linotype feeding a silver pond in the shape of a 358311? I know...right?

[Love Life]

That's exactly how it occurred.

[montana_charlie]

My flux was collected from freshly cut trees near a pristine stream in the Sierra Nevadas.

Is that stream spring-fed ... or snowmelt?

[Love Life]

Both.

[therealhitman]

Sweeeeeeeeet!

[retread]

My table saw cuts everything from pine to particle board, so I do not go to it for my flux. My planer however, is used only for wood so that is my source for flux. Like Gear I prefer yellow pine.