Using kitchen grease/fat to flux?

[kappy]

I'm curious... when the wife cooks ground beef on the stove, she collects it in a jar (instead of pouring it down the sink) to throw it away. Can I use this to flux? I know it'll burn...

I'm not asking out of cheapness... I typically just nick a little off of a roll of RCBS lube, which more than does the job... so like I said, just curious.

[runfiverun]

it won't carborize the alloy in any way, but you can use it to return the oxides back into the melt if it will burn.

[JohnFM]

I tried some Crisco once. Man, I'll never do that again.
It rolled acrid choking smoke forever, wouldn't get burned off and the only way I got it off the top of the lead was continuous dipping of a spoon into it and wiping the **** off!

[kappy]

The RCBS lube makes a pleasant odor... like meat cooking. That's what gave me the original idea.

[zxcvbob]

Lard or Crisco works great. About like wax except it doesn't flame up as near bad. Cooking grease should be about the same, just make sure it is dry.

[JohnFM]

No way I'd ever get Crisco close to any pot of mine again!
Too much better stuff around, wood chips and old candle wax for me.

[Alchemist]

I poured the last little bit of vegetable oil from a bottle in the recycle bin into my last pot of wheelweights along with some sawdust...it worked pretty well, although it was smokier than sawdust alone. I like using some salvaged lube and sawdust most of the time.

[RogerWatsonfromIdaho]

After baking meat in the oven on aluminum foil, I pour the grease into a can and keep it in the refrigerator. Also the olive oil when frying zucchini. The chicken fat makes a crackling sound when it hits the molten lead, but it works fine.

I keep some cooking oil, such as, Canola in a oil can and put a couple of squirts into the lead when I run out of cooking grease.

This will save you money and keep the grease out of the landfill.

[220swiftfn]

And it smells like yer grillin steak!!!!

:bigsmyl2:

Dan

[kappy]

The RCBS lube also smells like steak. Actually... like hamburgers.

[geargnasher]

I'm curious... when the wife cooks ground beef on the stove, she collects it in a jar (instead of pouring it down the sink) to throw it away. Can I use this to flux? I know it'll burn...

I'm not asking out of cheapness... I typically just nick a little off of a roll of RCBS lube, which more than does the job... so like I said, just curious.

If you use such a substance you are, in fact, doing no fluxing whatsoever. You are probably reducing the oxides, expecially if igniting the fumes to produce an orange, low-oxygen flame that produces lots of carbon monoxide at the melt's surface to catalyze the reduction/oxidation reaction, but fluxing you are not. For that job, specifically with lead-based alloys, carbohyrates are necessary to react with the things we consider impurities (calcium, aluminum, zinc, iron, etc.) and effectively capture them so they can be physically removed when skimming and yet leave the tin, antimony, arsenic sulfur, etc. that we DO want to keep.

Sawdust is your best tool. Adding pine rosin or wax/grease/oil speeds the reduction up, but can also convert your sawdust to ash before it has a chance to do a good job of actually fluxing the melt. Just because it's shiny doesn't mean it's fluxed.

Gear

[Sasquatch-1]

If you use such a substance you are, in fact, doing no fluxing whatsoever. You are probably reducing the oxides, expecially if igniting the fumes to produce an orange, low-oxygen flame that produces lots of carbon monoxide at the melt's surface to catalyze the reduction/oxidation reaction, but fluxing you are not. For that job, specifically with lead-based alloys, carbohyrates are necessary to react with the things we consider impurities (calcium, aluminum, zinc, iron, etc.) and effectively capture them so they can be physically removed when skimming and yet leave the tin, antimony, arsenic sulfur, etc. that we DO want to keep.

Sawdust is your best tool. Adding pine rosin or wax/grease/oil speeds the reduction up, but can also convert your sawdust to ash before it has a chance to do a good job of actually fluxing the melt. Just because it's shiny doesn't mean it's fluxed.

Gear

I have seen you mention "carbohydrates" several times in different threads. I was just wondering if I could try one of those old nasty potatos that get lost in the crisper drawer?

[Wayne Smith]

I have seen you mention "carbohydrates" several times in different threads. I was just wondering if I could try one of those old nasty potatos that get lost in the crisper drawer?

Haven't read much about the tinsel fairy lately, but if you drop a potato into your melt I'll bet you will have a very close relationship with her!

[1bluehorse]

Sawdust, (with a little wax if you feel you need it) for fluxing, use the bacon, hamburger, pork chop, sausage, grease for gravy....add flour to the already heated grease/oil, mix and stir until flour is nicely browned, add milk or potatoe water (if boiling potatoes for mashed) bring to a boil while stirring. Immediatly reduce heat to simmer continue stirring (if to thick add a little more milk NEVER ADD MORE FLOUR, it'll make it lumpy). Salt and pepper to taste.... Now you can ask if you can use gravy for flux.....:holysheep

[44man]

If you have a septic system----NEVER, EVER POUR GREASE IN IT.
A friends wife did it and it cost many thousands to correct. A complete new system with a valve from one to the other. They said how many years before the old one could come back on line.

[geargnasher]

I have seen you mention "carbohydrates" several times in different threads. I was just wondering if I could try one of those old nasty potatos that get lost in the crisper drawer?

Try it and see, I haven't, because sawdust is, chemically, the best thing you can use. I think it's funny how just about every time, without fail, that someone recommends sawdust or wood shavings here as a flux and sacrificial reducant and explains chemically how it works, the almost immediate response is "so how about (coffee grounds, clay, crayons, tree bark, toenail clippings, etc.etc.)?". My response is: Why NOT sawdust???

Gear

[waksupi]

If you have a septic system----NEVER, EVER POUR GREASE IN IT.
A friends wife did it and it cost many thousands to correct. A complete new system with a valve from one to the other. They said how many years before the old one could come back on line.

If you get grease in a water system, put in some lye. Turns the grease to soap.