Tried Something Different

[monadnock#5]

The night 'fore last, I heated up my Mag 20 BP in preparation for casting. Once melted, the full pot had the normal gunk covering the melt. I had fluxed the pot well previous to pulling the plug the casting session previous, but that doesn't matter in my experience as there's the same amount of dross on top at the next melt. This time around, when I drew the dross into a pile and saw it was the about the same diameter and thickness as a silver dollar, I said "the heck with it", and covered the melt with a thick layer of wood ash. "Time to cast a few."

I cast up a bunch of .45 and .32 cal pistol bullets. Three pots worth. I didn't flux at all. Not once! I'm here to tell you that I've never gotten so many keepers with so few culls, ever. They were much prettier than usual too. It's easy to tell when dross inclusions are heavy on the boolits, as you can see it on top of the sprues as they harden. This time around, the sprues and boolits were much, much cleaner. I'm thinking that whatever other good qualities the wood ash imparts, it's the thick layer of insulation that keeps the heat cycles fewer and shorter in duration. Thus, the convection currents in the melt don't cycle as much dross from the top to the bottom of the pot. Just my WAG anyway.

The next time around, I'll dump the ashes, fire up the pot, and then see where I'm at. If I don't see anything that gives me pause, I might just apply a fresh coat of ash and keep on truckin'.

I thank the posters who originally came up with these ideas that I've picked up through osmosis. In particular, thank you Boerrancher for the tip on the wood ashes. Except for that period when I was putting lubed culls into the pot, I didn't run the exhaust fan at all, and not a peep out of the wife! Life is good!!

[Eagle]

That sounds great! So I could get away from fluxing all together if I just cover with some wood ash or no. I always have trouble with the fluxing. I never know if I am doing it enough or to much.

[monadnock#5]

Well Eagle, fluxing is a very important part of the process, but apparently not so much at the casting stage.

I've always had a problem with inclusions causing diseased, nasty looking boolits. From what I've learned on this Board, it's the smelting and refining stage where fluxing is most important. Funny thing though, for the life of me, I can't keep my cast iron smelting pot clean to save my life. A year or so ago I cleaned it down to bare metal and sealed the pores with Frankford Arsenal Drop Out spray. When the coating wore off, the build up of gunk soldered to the bottom of the pot was as bad or worse than before, and the leprous boolits just kept a comin'.

The real break through came when I alloyed range scrap ingots with WW ingots. For that job I used a stainless steel sauce pan on a hot plate. By the time I was ready to pour ingots, the well fluxed alloy was as clean as I could make it. I can't explain it, but gunk just doesn't solder itself to a stainless pot.

By the time I melted those alloyed ingots in my casting pot, what point was there in further fluxing? We had a poster on this Board at one time who claimed to work for one of the big battery manufacturers, and made the statement that, "you can turn a whole pot of lead into dross simply by stirring and fluxing."

So yes, keep fluxing in the preliminary stages. My first analysis at this point is that if you do a good enough job in the early stages, fluxing in the final stage is not only useless, but counterproductive. Further testing to be undertaken.

[runfiverun]

clean before you melt the ww's then again after they are melted protect the alloy from air as most of the junk you are skimming and trying to flux back in is just oxidized alloy.
the consistent temp helps with consistent boolits too.
i will just leave the junk on top of the pot or add [like was said] wood ashes or coal dust [cause i got it] or marvelux sprinkled on top and left to sit. borax, kitty litter,sawdust.
all seems to help.

[monadnock#5]

I've been wanting to wash my WWs before smelting, but have never come up with any ideas on an easy, efficient way to go about doing that. However, I just read a post from Crash Corrigan on spray washing the weights at the car wash. Great idea. I'm going to give it a try.

[SciFiJim]

Monadock, If you are going to spray wash them then taking them there in a milk crate would be a good idea. It has handles for easy carrying and large holes for drainage. Just an idea from a pre-beginner.

[monadnock#5]

The local car wash has several covered bays for pressure gun washing. I figured I'd back my pickup into one of the bays, dump a bucket of WW's into each of the back corners, and make 'em dance!