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Thread: Fat and grease for fluxing is

  1. #1
    Boolit Grand Master


    GregLaROCHE's Avatar
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    Fat and grease for fluxing is

    In a recent thread someone mentioned they used bacon fat or used motor oil to flux. I’m wondering if anyone else has used these to flux and if so, how it works.

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    Boolit Master Ozark mike's Avatar
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    I have used a little veggie oil and motor oil the smoke does disipate some of the oxygen but if i remember right it burned off faster than beeswax
    Those who would trade freedom for safety deserves neither and will lose both

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    Boolit Master
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    I've read that they make processing lead smell nice, but haven't used them myself. Part of that reluctance was a superabundance of paraffin, part was wondering whether there was enough salt in the bacon grease and metallic and other contaminants in used motor oil to be a problem for the alloy or the lead processor.

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    Boolit Grand Master


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    I’ve always heard used motor oil had nasty stuff in it. As for bacon grease, I use all I generate for cooking and wouldn’t want to waste it on fluxing lead, unless someone comes up with some really good reasons for doing so. I think I will stick to first sawdust and then bee’s wax.

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    Boolit Buddy
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    When I get a new bag of sawdust/wood shavings I pour some used oil in and soak it up. Works real well for smelting range scrap. In my old NRA cast bullet handbook they used this method, and it works.

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    Boolit Buddy
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    I was told any thing that would make a carbon layer over the melt is good to go. Maybe I was told wrong but I have used pine needles and beeswax and those little parafin candles to good effect.

    I never have enough bacon grease in the house. The Doc has told me the grease burns will heal over time but it would be best if I let the skillet cool before I lick it clean.
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    Attachment 267714


    But not in my Lead. Ever seen a skillet popping with bacon fat? Not a situation I want with lead.
    Mustang

    "In the beginning... the patriot is a scarce man, and brave and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot." - Mark Twain.

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    Boolit Master trapper9260's Avatar
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    I use ground up corn cobs for my flux . I have used bacon grease for trapping coyotes. I save the bees wax for make boolit lube .I make the old NRA bullet lube .With the ATF .
    Life Member of NRA,NTA,DAV ,ITA. Also member of FTA,CBA

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    When I'm cooking down coww's I give it a shot of burnt motor oil , it seams to help with lead clinging to the clips . It makes a pretty kettle of lead , but it's nasty .

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    I mentioned that in a post using bacon fat and old motor oil , did it back when I was melting wheel weight and do it now with range scrap , does not pop or splatter like a skillet , if you have melted metal it flares off just like wax or beeswax , I dump a good dip or two of old waste oil in with scrap after firing up pot , there is always pieces of wood in the scrap and the oil soaks down into the dirt and scrap and starts heating up , at this time I usually throw a lit piece of paper in and let it burn .

    As there is around 50 pounds or more of metal in the pot and quite a bit of debris there is no splattering of metal as metal melts and oil is burning I stir it around and then skim the garbage off and start pouring ingots , I cast ingots till pot is almost empty and dump in more scrap , end of last month I did a batch ended up with about 150 pounds of clean range scrap ingots , makes my stash of old wheel weights last longer , I do not use much bacon fat anymore as I cook little of it , waste oil from oil changes is free and while burning helps scrap to melt and it works for me , lead dips and pours easier as it seems to release the surface tension , plenty of wood scraps from target backstops keeps a fire burning during most of the melt till I skim off the waste .

    May not be the way others do it but it works for me , I save beeswax for other uses though I have accumulated a stash of it , just like the jugs of xlox stashed away if ever needed , it does smoke and is done outside later in evening and into the night , most of the time the wind is blowing so choose the side to stay on and shield your burner some , I lay out older boards to dump ingots on , and toss them into old metal coffee cans for mixing into electric pot with harder or softer as needed .

  11. #11
    Boolit Master Ozark mike's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MUSTANG View Post
    Attachment 267714


    But not in my Lead. Ever seen a skillet popping with bacon fat? Not a situation I want with lead.
    Its water that causes poping
    Those who would trade freedom for safety deserves neither and will lose both

  12. #12
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    Outdoors I use motor oil and sawdust when smelting. Indoors casting I use scented wax or beef tallow. Smells like a steak fry.

  13. #13
    Boolit Master


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    Quote Originally Posted by ole_270 View Post
    When I get a new bag of sawdust/wood shavings I pour some used oil in and soak it up. Works real well for smelting range scrap. In my old NRA cast bullet handbook they used this method, and it works.
    Same here. A bucket of sawdust with enough used motor oil to change the color of the sawdust.

    It works very well, especially on filthy wheel weights, or really any very dirty lead.

  14. #14
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    Most of the COWW I’ve had came with enough oil and grease on it that it was self-fluxing.
    Sometimes life taps you on the shoulder and reminds you it's a one way street. Jim Morris

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    I tried bacon fat once. Can’t tell you whether work well or not because all I did was make me hungry. I quit casting and went and cook breakfast!
    Long, Wide, Deep, and Without Hesitation!

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    Boolit Grand Master uscra112's Avatar
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    I once used up some bacon grease that had gone rancid as flux. Worked, but left a residue I didn't like. Salt? Tried Crisco once, also messy. In my casting pot I've used beeswax, Alox bullet lube, and pine rosin. Rosin is cheapest if you buy it right.

    I can't remember ever getting any range scrap., but if I were reducing a large amount of really dirty lead I'd use sawdust, because that task would need so much fluxing. Sawdust and used motor oil are essentially free. Wheelweights, type metal, and several hundred pounds of X-ray room shielding have kept me in lead for many years.
    Cognitive Dissident

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    Boolit Master
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    I've used whitetail deer and elk tallow a few times. Mmmmmmm good smell !!!

  18. #18
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    I remember my older brother and dad with a buffalo they bought and butchered back in early 80's had all this deep yellow fat on it , always wished we had saved it for boot grease , The bacon fat along with hamburger fat was handy at the time so it was used and the wheel weights had lots of brake dust grease and lots of trash , sure wished I could get them again though .

  19. #19
    Boolit Master rsrocket1's Avatar
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    Bacon fat has salt in it. NaCl acts like KCl (as in corrosive primers, it attracts water once it cools down). Sawdust works well but you and your clothes will smell like you sat in a campfire. Parafin from candle wax is clean once it ignites and leaves a thin film on the surface of the melt to retard oxidizing. I tried used motor oil but quit once I learned of all the impurities in it that can be nasty. In reality, most any organic polymer or wood that is not hazardous (like particle board or pressure treated sawdust) works well outdoors so long as you walk away from the pot while it smokes and not come back until the smoke clears.

  20. #20
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    No bacon grease here! We eat so little of that greasy stuff anymore, the wife saves every single drop for the next mess of green beans.

    YUM!

    Besides it DOES have salt AND water in it! Part of the meat curing process. A no-no for your pots.


    I use yellow pine dust and beeswax for fluxing and only beeswax for reducing in the casting pot. I have almost 80# of the stuff (50¢/#!) and it really has a very pleasant smell. Only takes a pea-sized piece to "get 'er dun".

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