Making ingots from WW, new to casting!

[Dakine]

Hi all, I'm completely new to casting and have only made a few ingots so far. I'm hoping to get some advice and see what kind of trouble I might save myself from!

I saw a post saying use a pea sized chunk of wax as flux, and I'll have to go get the instructions that came with my Lee 20# but I think that might be what they recommended too, however today I noticed someone saying do NOT use wax, use sawdust and a wooden stick as a side/bottom scraper. So this leads to some questions...

How much sawdust? a spoonful?
will it ignite like the wax does?
stir it or just sprinkle it on top?
what else should I know about "fluxing"?


I've done 3 sessions so far and learned a LOT! the first one played hell with me and took all day because I didn't have a wind break setup for it, also I had problems with getting the temp right so that I wouldn't also melt the zinc WW because I was starting from a totally empty pot.

I've learned that having the bottom with at least 1/2 inch if not even more from the previous session is worth a couple hours or more of my life to do something else with, it heats up almost instantly relatively speaking compared to putting a stack of WW into an empty pot.

Also, I've learned that tongs work, but are less than ideal for removing the steel?? clips from the WW. I was using a pair of craptastic BBQ tongs that had some rust on them (therefore being useless for cooking, there's a limited market for tetanus around here) anyway, today I drilled about 20 holes into a $3 stainless steel spoon from the grocery store and bent the angle on it, and now it's a great clip strainer! So much faster and easier.

I've got almost 40 1lb ingots so far, and maybe another 30-35 lbs. of WW to go through before I need to order more... any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

I'll be starting on pouring .45 boolits soon, and I'm doing research and deciding exactly how I want to get into swaging. I'm currently deciding if I want to move into 9mm --> .40 or 22lr --> .223 first. Anyway, I'll be making more posts in the swaging section regarding that...

Thanks in advance for any help that might be offered!
-Dak

[Frozone]

I use sawdust, a heaping table spoon or 2 full works well.
No, it doesn't ignite.
If the WW are particularly dirty (or a lot are painted) I'll use a boron flux to clean things up a little easier.

I hunted garbage sales until I found a slotted stainless serving spoon. That's about the best thing for getting the clips out.

[ammohead]

The list of items that will work to flux with are almost endless. Some like to stir with a stick of fatwood or a green pine stick. Some use a chunk of potato stuck on a clothes hanger wire. You are introducing oxygen to the melt and that somehow lets the impurities fall out of the melt then float to the surface. I use Pat Marlins California Flake Flux because he gave me a great deal on a box at NCBS a couple of years ago. But I would imagine that any sawdust will work as good. Or almost as good, sorry Pat. Just be careful that anything that you introduce into a batch of melted alloy is dry and devoid of water or you will have one hell of a steam explosion. Melted alloy is very unforgiving of mistakes.

[Steel185]

getting out clips, i bought a 6 inch steel strainer from the dollar store. Its steel all around and has a plastic handle. It works great and only $1. Just use gloves (welding gloves work best). Harbor freight and dollar store are the best places to get this stuff.

I fought with fluxing with wax, and saw dust and everything else i read. It "worked" but not too great, (i found out later) then i broke down and bought some "Cleancast lead fluxing compound" from frankford asenal. The complain was it left a "rusty" resedue afterwards, i didn't find that to be true on my smelting pots. I does leave a slight rust "dust" on the side of my bottom pour furnace, but it goes away when lead gets to that level again. Best of all I fluxed my "already fluxed" lead and it was so much brighter. I buddies that don't know about casting think i have Alumimun bullets. Try that stuff or some other brand flux from the pros, it might be $10-$15 but it will save you time and frusteration. Then once you ge tthe hang of it, you can branch out on your "own flux mix".