What type of Sawdust as Flux

[CamoWhamo]

Hi All,

When using Sawdust for fluxing a pot, what type of sawdust is used?

Is it the fine powder like consistency or the more coarser wood shavings.

I don't have any sawdust at home and if i asked a woodworking shop for any i'm concerned that it will be mostly from what we call MDF here in Australia which compressed wood fibres bonded with resin. What effect would the resins have?

I can get bags of organic wood shavings from a pet store. Would that work?

Thanks

[David2011]

The pet store shavings would work. Some here have reported using it, mostly cedar shavings. Fine sawdust is better IMO as it needs to reduce to carbon dust.

You need sawdust from solid wood, though; not from MDF or plywood. We call it MDF as well and cabinet makers use it frequently. The glue in MDF and plywood would make for an unpleasant experience due to the noxious emissions. The big saws that home improvement stores cut ply with are not a good source due to the glue in the wood.

Do you have a friend that has a table or mitre saw or otherwise does woodworking? They might be able to supply good sawdust. A gallon or 4 liter bag will last a long time. It only takes a little each time but it works GREAT! Would there be a sawmill or millworks in your area? They would have good sawdust. I just use pine sawdust that I saved after some carpentry I did about 3 years ago. I save 2 gallons and can hardly tell it's been used.

[Grmps]

The most preferable sawdust is pine due to the resin content.
no matter how good the sawdust is you still need some sort of wax (bees-wax/parafin/...) to get a complete fluxing.

[Walks]

I just started using sawdust. I just went down to my local LOWE'S with a gallon zip lock bag & they were nice enough to fill it from the rip/crosscut Saw collector.

BOY HOWDY does that stuff make a difference. Never any more schmutz in my bullets any more.

I guess it's just a collection of mostly pine and is very uniform. Consistency of Corn Meal.

[JBinMN]

I use mostly pine sawdust. Like was mentioned earlier, for the resin content. Occasionally I will also use beeswax, or candle wax.

Stick candles are inexpensive here & easily found. I would venture to guess that they are easily acquired in AUS., as well. Good to have around for the other uses, other than as candles when the power is out, too...

Beeswax is relatively easy to come by around this area as well since there are local apiaries, & likely would be available in AUS. as well, since you have bees there too( apiaries) { Here is some webpages to help: http://amazingbees.com.au/index.html , and for a map showing beekeepers in AUS:http://apiarymap.com/ , as well as all over the world.}

I sometimes get pure beeswax from what we call the "Dollar Store" by buying a small container of "mustache wax". I do not use it for my mustache, but I have other uses for other hobbies/etc. & it is a small amount that is well refined & in a container already , rather than in pure, natural form. It IS from AUS. , or at least they say it is... I imagine you could fine something like that to use "in a pinch", if necessary...


I also use wooden shims made of pine or cedar on occasion. I am semi retired as a carpenter/ const. contractor, so they are easily available to me. ( so is sawdust. ) Either "store bought" or "home made". I also do not know if they are used in AUS., but many use "paint stirrers", to help stir the flux into the melt, and they are made of wood, so they can work as well. Wooden "shims" such as are used by carpenters to shim doors windows, cabinets, etc., should be available iif you look for them in a home improvement store or know some tradesmen in the area you are in.

Here is a link to AUS. for paint stir sticks:
http://www.unipro.com.au/products/ap...uy-price-list/


I would suggest , like was also mentioned, not to use MDF or any material that that contains anything other than "naturally" occurring components. IOW, use only natural & plain "wood", bees wax, candle wax, etc.. All the natural stuff is usually easily available & also are usually relatively inexpensive as well.

There are commercial fluxes available as well, but I do not know if they are available in AUS., nor how much they would cost there. But that is an option too...

G'Luck! with whatever your decide to use!

[Wayne Smith]

Avoid pressure treated wood sawdust as well, probably obvious but needs to be said.

I use white oak because that is what I have a lot of - and it works too.

[pworley1]

I have a small sawmill and have used almost all the common types of sawdust. I like to use cedar because of the smell, but all types seem to work very well.

[LenH]

My son is a keeper of reptiles and I have been getting into his bedding. He uses aspen shavings and that is what I have been using. It works just fine
for me. He moved and took the critters with him. I got a small bundle of the stuff at Walmart for a couple of bucks. It is what I started with and still use.

[Hamish]

I found out the hard way when getting started that using sawdust is for smelting, but when it comes to actual casting a bit of old candle wax to keep it fluxed, keeps wood ash solids from getting trapped and clogging my bottom pour pot.

A lot less headaches and better bullets.

[Reddirt62]

Another benefit of being a beekeeper...8)

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[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I prefer Dust...sawdust, as opposed to wood shavings.

Recently during a smelting session (outside), I ran out of my pine sawdust.
So I run over to the local lumberyard, they only had what appeared to be from plywood and MDF...and some dust had a greenish hue. Against my better judgement, I took some, just to get me by, so I could finish up the last couple of batches of COWW. It worked just as good, but no doubt there was some bad fumes in the smoke, I stood up-wind and I ignited the smoke as soon as it would ignite.
I'm not recommending using plywood or MDF dust...just reporting that it'll work, after all, glue/resin is carbon based.

[trapper9260]

I use ground corn cobs. I got it for nothing and also use it for my cases in the tumbler. So it all works for me.It is ground by a feed mill by a farmer some years ago.

[Hannibal]

I found out the hard way when getting started that using sawdust is for smelting, but when it comes to actual casting a bit of old candle wax to keep it fluxed, keeps wood ash solids from getting trapped and clogging my bottom pour pot.

A lot less headaches and better bullets.

^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^

Excellent advice here.

[dannyd]

Paint stick (wood) works great for me. Always pick up a couple when in HD or Lowes.

[Poygan]

I also use the paint sticks exclusively.

[Reddirt62]

Forgive my ignorance but when you say paint sticks...in what way do you use them? Thanks

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[lightman]

I've used several different types and it seems like pine works better than the others and sawdust is better than chips. I only use these when smelting and only us wax in my casting pot. I ran out of pine sawdust recently and bought a bag of pine pet bedding at Walmart. It was fairly cheap but it was in chip form. Worked ok but took longer to char over.

[lightman]

Forgive my ignorance but when you say paint sticks...in what way do you use them? Thanks

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You use them as stir sticks. They char over and do what sawdust does. Just to be clear, these are the wooden strips used to stir paint.

[Reddirt62]

You use them as stir sticks. They char over and do what sawdust does. Just to be clear, these are the wooden strips used to stir paint.

Thank you!

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[Grmps]

starting with clean / smelted / well-fluxed ingots

burn/char the sawdust


mix throughout pot with a potato masher




completely incorporate with wire wisp


leaves a grainy barrier on top preventing oxidation and lead from splashing when returning sprues to pot


IF the top layer isn't completely grainy flux again with wax and it will look like grey sand