Anyone else stop fluxing?

[Cherokee]

Flux when smelting, lots of flux to clean the junk out.
No fluxing in the casting pot, just add clean ingots and stir some. Skim off any accumulated trash.

[Calamity Jake]

[QUOTE=Oldbrowngun;4425602]The last few batches of wheel weights i've processed, I stopped fluxing. I just stir the lead and pull out the dirt that comes up. When using my bottom pour pot I can say i've noticed no difference in castings of bullet accuracy ect. Anyone else find this? Im fairly new and still learning, so if im being stupid, feel free to let me know.[/QUOT


The next time you render WW, stir and skim per your above statement, when you think the melt is clean, STIR AGAIN, you'll get more dirt.
There is always some amount of dirt/crud in the WW because the weight alone keeps some suspended, fluxing helps remove it.

I stir, skim, stir, skim again then flux, skim, flux again, skim, flux and skim again, even after all that there is still some
amount of dirt suspended in the lead as I can stir again and get more dirt out of the lead.
I like my lead clean.

[longbow]

I ladle pour and I flux fairly often. I do notice a large difference if I don't flux as a "skin" forms on the surface of the lead when it isn't fluxed. This will be oxides and possibly some tin. Fluxing cleans the alloy as already stated and helps it flow better. My understanding is that it also helps return any separated tin though I am not sure that's true, just that it appears to make things mo better is good enough for me. I also like to use old engine oil. It is smoky and nasty but all the skin and goopy stuff is all gone after fluxing and the alloy is clean and shiny and there is dry dust on the surface of the melt so I scoop that off.

I also notice little chunks of "stuff" in the lead (inclusions) if I don't flux regularly. I'll carry on fluxing regularly.

However, if you don't want to flux that's your business. Maybe not an issue with bottom pour pots?

Different strokes.

Longbow

[SwampShooter]

Im still fairly new to this but i've done it off and on for a few years and if you had alloy still sticking to the clips then to me it sounds like your alloy simply wasnt up to tempature yet. Once it hits tempature, it doesnt stick to anything.

I pretty sure it was hot enough, as soon as the flames died down from fluxing no more alloy stuck to the clips. The second and third melt acted exactly the same. Of course if I was just a few degrees low, I suppose the temperature could have gone up enough while the wax was burning off. I'm also not saying that there was "a lot" of alloy sticking to the clips, enough to where I noticed the difference though.

[sureYnot]

I pretty sure it was hot enough, as soon as the flames died down from fluxing no more alloy stuck to the clips. The second and third melt acted exactly the same. Of course if I was just a few degrees low, I suppose the temperature could have gone up enough while the wax was burning off. I'm also not saying that there was "a lot" of alloy sticking to the clips, enough to where I noticed the difference though.

I've experienced the same. Bottom line is, if it works, keep doing it.

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[bstone5]

I flux with the flux from Magma Engineering on my Master Caster.
I used saw dust in the past but found some of the carbon would plug the outlet on the Master Caster pot. Ordered the flux from the manufacture of the Master Caster and the lead outlets on the casting pot have stayed clear.

[Lloyd Smale]

I flux 2 or 3 times when smelting ingots. for the most part I don't flux a casting pot. Exception is when I use the lead that was at the bottom of the smelting pot. It seems like it allways has at least some contamination. Its pretty easy to tell. Start up the pot and if it has solids on the top I flux. If its just a oxidized skim on top I don't bother. I just cant see introducing a contaminant into my lead that's not needed.

[Oldbrowngun]

I've experienced the same. Bottom line is, if it works, keep doing it.

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Odd, I dont flux and my clips come out burned looking and with no alloy at all on them.

[sureYnot]

Yeah. It must come down to the temp, I guess. No idea what temp I'm at. I just turn the knob until it works. I might try turning it up a little more next time.

Odd, I dont flux and my clips come out burned looking and with no alloy at all on them.

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[RED BEAR]

I can't say if it is absolutely necessary but I flux the neck out of my melt. Sawdust to get clean ingots . Then after every thing is good and clean only was to recombine alloy when casting. It seems to work for me so I keep doing it. If what you are doing works for you then keep at it. Don't think there are any hard and fast rules set in stone.

[Airman Basic]

BTW, if you use a wooden stick to stir with, make sure it has NO moisture content, for obvious reasons.

[robg]

Do commercial casters flux their alloys?

[Duckiller]

Depending on purity Commercial caster may flux their alloy. When making ingots I usually have greasy, oily wheel weights. Throw in some sawdust if readily available . Most importantly I stir with a wood stick. Not to disagree with Airman Basic but there is NO stick with no moisture content. Stick should not have water dripping off it, just dry to touch. Stir deeply , it will burn and in so doing is fluxing the mix. Ladle off trash and cast pretty clean ingots. You need to do some sort of fluxing to bring dirt/ trash to the surface so you can ladle it off. Clean ingots in a casting pot need minimal fluxing.

[mvozz]

I am fairly new to casting so I tried to read everything I could on the subject including many of the posts on this website. One book that is great is Glen Fryxell's book From Ingot to Target. When it comes to fluxing, if the lead alloy is clean you don't need too much flux but the sawdust becomes a reducing cover that will prevent oxidation. It also reduces the tin to keep it in the melt. I am just new enough to believe someone that has done it for many years so when I add alloy I throw in a bit of sawdust, stir it in and leave the carbon on the top while I cast. The only time I clean it off is when I am changing alloys. So far the results have been excellent from 39 grain 22 cals to 405 grain 45 cals. I think I am sticking with Mr. Fryxell's advice for now.

[RogerDat]

I flux, otherwise what would I do with the three banker boxes filled with planer shavings? I still find a bit of crud makes it through now and again so I figure fluxing cuts down on that and less crud is better.

Ladle cast so the bottom pour thing doesn't apply. I still think I would want to avoid putting crud in a bottom pour pot. Now if I had a bottom pour ingot ladle.... sigh someday.

[lbullock1]

I gave up on sawdust fluxing, concluding that it's hokum. I didn't see the sense in trying to stir super-light carbon ash into a deep pot of super-dense lead for the purpose of it basically doing. . .nothing?

Anything you want to get out of your wheel weights and range lead is considerably lighter than the lead and will float to the top provided you do the stir and scrape sufficiently. It doesn't need an additional life jacket to make it to the surface, and your carbon-ash (being a highly buoyant life jacket), can't be forced deeply enough under the surface to reach what you want to grab, so why bother with it? Between a bottom pour smelter and a bottom pour casting pot, you've floated your crud to the top away from the spigot TWICE before you make a bullet. Ponder it logically - what's going to be left in the lead after that?

The sawdust is handy to help burn off grease & lube puddles, but as far as cleaning the molten metal, I let gravity do that for me.

I believe that the benefit of fluxing with sawdust is not so much its quality as a flux, as its ability to stop oxidation at the surface of the pot. If you can reduce the oxidation of tin, antimony, et al then you maintain a consistent alloy in terms of percentages of the main metals in the alloy.

[sundog]

Best flux I've ever used was elm ripped sawdust, well dried. It even had bits of grass in it from when it was picked up up. Worked even better than cross cut saw dust. It's all used up now, but I've got another elm tree down from last winter that the trunk still has not been cut up up. Some of the bigger pieces will be ripped for some more.

[waco]

This is why we should flux our boolit alloy. It's a short read by a man who knows his stuff.
http://www.lasc.us/FryxellFluxing.htm

[dondiego]

Best flux I've ever used was elm ripped sawdust, well dried. It even had bits of grass in it from when it was picked up up. Worked even better than cross cut saw dust. It's all used up now, but I've got another elm tree down from last winter that the trunk still has not been cut up up. Some of the bigger pieces will be ripped for some more.

Why do you feel that the "ripped" is better than than "crosscut"????? Is it the size? Doesn't seem to make much sense.

[Hannibal]

I haven't stopped using flux, but I did stop pushing any fluxing material down into the melt in the casting pot. Perhaps it would work better, but I find too many inclusions that way, so I just allow the charred fluxing material to float on top to help with oxidation. And that solved my problem with inclusions.