Fire in the casting area...

[ULTRonic]

I cast my first boolits tonight. I read that wax was a good fluxing compound and promptly grabbed the cheapest candle I could find. Since I was using lead from a range backstop (my dental x-ray leads are in the mail) there was a lot of fiber, paper, etc in with the lead, so I was fluxing a lot! Anyway, I found that the candle wax would pretty much consistently ignite when it hit the pot, I figured it wasn't doing much since it was all burning. So, I grabbed the lard I was using to lube my minnie mold for my muzzle loader and threw some in the pot. It seemed to work much better. Is this ok to do?

[dk17hmr]

I use wood shavings from the planner I have in the shop. I dont see why yours wouldnt work either, as long as your ingots are coming out clean.

[kodiak1]

Ultronic That will work some guys use oil, potatos, sticks, leaves, bees wax and the list goes on and on.
Ken.

[44man]

The wax burning is fine, it keeps the smoke down and doesn't harm the fkuxing.
My question is why are you throwing range scrap in your casting pot instead of smelting in another pot and making clean ingots?

[44woody]

candle wax has a low flash point that is why it catches fire when using it as fluxing I like to use bees wax one thing I do not like is marvelx when you use it the spoon you use to stir it with can cause a steam explosion the next time you use it it you are not careful becouse it atract mosture to the spoon with the marvelx on it :castmine: 44woody

[Junior1942]

Why flux at all? I haven't in years. Try not fluxing and see what happens.

[felix]

Junior, I agree, because most of the WW swept off of floors and put into the buckets have enough grease/trash to do a good job of fluxing. Never hurts to throw some extra into the pot if there is no danger of dangerous flame. ... felix