Fluxing with sawdust

[MrNRA]

I am reading the boolit casting book by Glen Fryxell & Robert Applegate and they suggest stirring in a tablespoon of sawdust for "fluxing" the melt. Has anyone tried this? What type of sawdust; pine, maple, walnut or doesn't it matter? I am a couple of weeks from casting and am reading as much as I can. Thanks for any suggestions.

Jeffrey AKA MrNRA

[huntrick64]

Quite a bit of info in older threads on this. Sawdust is ALL I use. Lately I use the large dust / small cuttings from my jointer. This is from Osage Orange and works better than anything else I have tried. I used to just stop by the cabinet shop and get whatever they sweep up, but the last time I jointed Osage, I kept it for this purpose and it works awesome. One warning, if it is a little dry and windy, and your casting outside, the alloy will ignite the sawdust and the wind will blow it our of your pot and into the dry grass. Don't ask!

Also, since your new to this, if you have a bottom pour pot, just leave the burnt sawdust on top of your alloy the whole time your casting and it will serve as a barrier to limit oxidation. Sometimes if the fluxing brings **** to the top of my melt, I will skim it off and reflux with sawdust, then leave that second flux on top while I cast.

[blikseme300]

Any sawdust, as long as it is dry, is good. I use wood shavings that is used for pet bedding that my local farm and ranch supplier sells.


Bliksem
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[cbrick]

Welcome to CastBoolits MrNRA,

Anyone here tried sawdust? A huge number of folks here use sawdust exclusively me included due in no small part to Mr Fryxell. A very wise decision on your part to read "From Ingot To Target" as your getting started, a huge amount of info in it's pages that will get you going in the right direction. Next to that book is this forum right here, another wise decision on your part in joining. There is literally many hundreds of years collectively of casting experience here. Most of the members are quite willing to help new casters and share their experience. As you start casting remember . . . The only stupid question is the one you don't ask.

Good luck,

Rick

[9.3X62AL]

+1 to all the above info, esp. the WELCOME ABOARD part! I am another who uses sawdust as fluxing agent, both for smelting and pre-cast "confirmation cleaning" of the smelted metal.

[sundog]

Sawdust works very well. I am currently working my way through a bucket of seasoned elm chain saw chips and shreds. Another thing that works very well is ash from the wood stove. Ashes left on the surface of the final casting melt make a good protective layer.

[gunoil]

hard wood shavings, ditto huntrick

[MBTcustom]

I use sawdust exclusively.
Read Fryxell's article.

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

we have a large bin, that catches the shavings from our surface planer.
When we change the oil in our vehicles, it gets dumped into the bin and stirred up.
It makes great fire starter- no kindling required and while it stinks, it makes great a
reductant for "fluxing" and putting the tin back in the mix. The other day I dumped some used cooking
oil in the bin. When I fluxed, it smelled like french fries cooking

[Grandpas50AE]

I also would like to welcome you aboard. After many years of trying different fluxing materials, I have gone to exclusively sawdust. It seems to work better than anything else, and doesn't muck up the pot. The "From Ingot to Target" is one of the best boolit casting reference books you could possibly read. And like cbrick said, this web site has the very best base of knowledge and experience for boolit casting of any website, and the folks here are really the best folks of any online community I've seen.

Welcome again to the world of boolit casting. If you ever hunt and take a game animal with one of your cast boolits, you'll probably be hooked on hunting with cast except under the most extreme of circumstances. Good luck.

[mdi]

Welcome to the addiction. I, too, use sawdust for fluxing my melt. I emptied the dust catcher of my miter saw and needed something to flux with and noticed a bag of "Smoke Chips" by my BBQ and tried that. Works good plus a good hickory smell to the casting room...

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I also use sawdust. Make sure you let it sit on top of the lead for awhile to let it dry out. Even packaged sawdust has moisture in it. If you start to stir in the sawdust and see or hear bubbles................ STOP and let it dry out. Just putting a cold spoon into molten lead can cause it to erupt. Try searching for
" The tinsel fairy" on this site. You will find out what I'm talking about. 700-800 degree lead can and will burn deep and quick. You just have to do some reading and asking around here before you do something you wish you had not done. A guy has just got to be careful.

[prs]

When I started using saw dust soon after I started having clogged bottom pour outlet. But, maybe a coincidence or maybe more related to the wooden pot scraper I fashioned. I am back to a metal spatula and bee's wax.

prs

[trixter]

MrNRA: Welcome. I too use sawdust, living in 'timber country' I have a friend that goes into the mill where they cut pine lumber, and he gathers up a coffee can full about once a month. The last time he brought me wet, and I just spread it out on a couple of "DollarTree" tinfoil cookie sheets and let it dry for about a week. I have found that Ponderosa Pine sawdust works the best for me, the resins in it do wonders in the melt. I too stir them in very well then light them and let the charcoal sit on top of the melt. Happy casting!

[**oneshot**]

all sawdust except pressure treated from my saw becomes flux. I have a catch bucket to gather it up. I usually do a mix of mostly pine with various hardwoods in it too.

[fredj338]

I've used a lot of things to flux but sawdust is by far the best. Just don't use MDF or even plywood, no way to know if the chemicals hitting 800deg lead is going to cause fumes of some kind. I only flux during ingot casting & when casting bullets, I use a wooden paint stick to stir w// That seems enough to keep things running smoothly.

[gray wolf]

I use the pine animal bedding, a 5$ bag will last a mighty long time.
I like the extra added resin from the pine, ( rosin )

[40Super]

I use 2x4s and cut them up with a course blade on my miter saw. I also get a few 3 to 4 inch pine logs(red and white pine locally) to saw up into chips. Works the best that I've tried. If you use it in your bottom pour( a person shouldn't, but if you don't have anything else to smelt in) , it can get ash under the lead at the bottom and clog up the spout. I have a scraper that I constantly am scraping the bottom starting at the spout and scrape away to the edge and then up the side. This gets most of it out and keeps the spout generally clean. I just empty the pot more often to get it all out.

[Dan Cash]

Sawdust does a fine job of fluxing. Trouble is as noted by 40Super, ash and small carbon particles get trapped in the melt and don't always rise to the top. He has trouble with a bottom pour, I am a dipper/ladle man and find ash inclusions in my bullets regardless how carefully I skim after fluxing. I prefer a cooking oil and Canola is the best of them. It has a very high flash point so it won't flame up into your face like parafin and some other oils. It works for me.

[cbrick]

I must be doing something wrong.

Sawdust is all I use and not once have I had inclusions or anything in the spout.

The only thing I can think of is that I need to start stirring with a wood stick. That evil stainless spoon must be the culprit.

Rick