Smelting ingots - wood or wax

[Bigslug]

I may get roundly flamed for saying this, but I've quit fluxing entirely, having concluded it's largely voodoo for a couple reasons.

With a bottom-pour smelting pot full of 40-60 pounds of molten lead, the sand, grease, etc... is going to be the lightest thing in there. A bit of stir and scrape to dislodge it from the sides of the pot, and that stuff is floating to the top where it is easily skimmed. If any separation of the alloy is going on, that same stirring should keep it under control. Oxides only happen where there's oxygen - I can live with a few microns worth at the top of the melt. . .which is as far from the ingot or bullet-making spigot as you can get.

A bunch of charcoal from sawdust is going to be even lighter than most of the random debris. I've used my tempura "spider" to press it under the surface, but I'm highly dubious of how well it actually gets mixed. It's like trying to push a foam surfboard underwater and hold it three feet down - that ain't happening.

I still keep my sawdust handy for when I smelt large quantities of rejects or get gifted a box of factory cast that still have lube on them - easier to get rid of when held in a sawdust "wick" - but that's as close as I get to fluxing anymore. "Gravity fluxing" with a skim off the top of the smelting pot and a skim off the top of the casting pot seems to be all the separation that's required for clean metal. The end results show no observable difference.

[bangerjim]

Wood makes charcoal which purifies (attracts impurities). Wax reduces the ozidized tin back into the alloy. Two different processes. Wood/oil/anything that makes charcoal will clean your alloy when making ingots. Tin oxidizes on top of your melt when you are casting - and really does if ladle casting (lot of alloy exposed to air). Wax reduces this oxide back into the melt, so use it when casting.

That's why I use both wood AND beeswax.

[WRideout]

A while ago, I had a bottle of vegetable oil from the kitchen that had turned rancid, so I put it to use for general shop lube. When I used it to smelt COWW, the steel clips released very cleanly from the lead, and the smelted lead turned out very clean. In general, wheel weights have enough paint, grease, or rubber adhesive on them that they don't even require flux. Nowadays, I flux with used motor oil, which works quite well for me, although others have offered theoretical criticism of that process. In my Lee dipper casting pot, I only use wax. I found that partly burned birthday cake candles are just the right amount of wax for fluxing my little pot (Yes I am really cheap).

FWIW, when fluxing with vegetable oil, everything smells like french fries.
Wayne

[copdills]

I also use wax and then stir in alittle saw dust

[Wolfer]

Like most I use pine sawdust, parrifin, beeswax, broken crayons and stir with a pine stick
Not all at the same time but whatever is handy. A broken crayon stirred in with a pine stick works very well for me.

[bangerjim]

Like most I use pine sawdust, parrifin, beeswax, broken crayons and stir with a pine stick
Not all at the same time but whatever is handy. A broken crayon stirred in with a pine stick works very well for me.

And "colored " boolits are reeeeeel nice....too! HA....ha!!!!!!

[woodbutcher]

To keep the neighbors happy when smelting I used bees wax and cedar shavings saved when I cut firewood.Worked pretty good too from what I could see from the crud that I skimmed off.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[glockfan]

i've noticed that after the fire induced by the parrafin i'm fluxing with,the lead appears clearer and the bad smell generally present goes away.

[RAK2018]

Went to Home Depot and they filled a 5 gallon bucket of saw dust for free.

[sundog]

Went to Home Depot and they filled a 5 gallon bucket of saw dust for free.

What kind of saw dust? If it was from a mix of things that included plywood, 'pressboard', and treated lumber, I would not want that in my casting pot. But that's me. It might be good for rendering WWs and range scrape though. I wouldn't breath the smoke.

I just finished a 5 gal bucket of chain saw rippings (not cross cut) from some elm that was too tough to split until made a little smaller. Rippings had been dried and stored just for flux. Worked really good, nice and clean. I just took down a storm damaged elm a few days ago and some of it will be used to replenish the aforementioned empty bucket.

I've also used cedar saw dust. Smells good.

[justashooter]

i use an oak molding scrap stick to scrape the side of pot and bottom when recovering lead from junk sources. i find iron oxides in roofing lead that has been in contact with steel sink to the bottom. the white oak stick chars to charcoal in the liquid lead and makes most other junk float. no wax, no sawdust, just a stick.