Indoor-low smoke flux

[nitroproof]

What do you guys recommend for casting flux for indoor (basement) casting. I do all my scrap salvaging/ingot making outdoors, but am ready to start making boolits.
What fluxes won't set off teh smoke alarm. :holysheep

Thanks, Craig

[Bret4207]

Use a nice, dry dowel to stir the alloy. It will flux as well as most anything else and the smoke will be at a minimum. If you use a bottom pour you can leave a 1" layer of kitty litter on top of the alloy and that will keep oxidation down.

Some folks will say you really don't need to flux like crazy, that we over do it when we flux every 10 or 20 pours. I agree and sometimes I've gone well over 150 pours without fluxing. But I stir the mix with my ladle everytime I dip and some say that IS fluxing. YMMV.

[454PB]

I use Marvelux and recently bought some of the Frankford Arsenal smokeless flux made and sold by Midway. The vast majority of people on this forum HATE Marvelux. You have to read the instructions and follow them. Marvelux is hygroscopic and the residue left on a stirring tool will attract moisture. That means you have to preheat the stirring tool before you plunge it into a molten mix. The easiest way to do that is simply lay it on the pot while it is heating. Some people also claim it's moisture attracting nature will rust out your pot. I've got Lee pots that have been used with Marvelux for over 25 years and are doing just fine.

I've tested about every method of fluxing, and none of them does any better job than Marvelux. I judge this by the end result quality of the cast boolits, both visual and at the target.

I use conventional carbon based flux for smelting, because I do that outdoors. The best I've found is the NEI flux, but just about anything from sawdust and old motor oil to Ivory soap works well where the smoke can be avoided.

[kodiak1]

I'm with Bret use a stick.
Ken.

[Three44s]

Don't put that Marvelux in my lead pot and I won't have to hurt you!!!!

I get better fluxing with a pea sized glob or two of bullet lube!

Three 44s

[monadnock#5]

I think the best solution is a range hood or a bathroom fan kit. With ventilation you can experiment with any fluxing method you choose without setting off smoke detectors or the wife threatening to eviscerate you with a dull spoon.

[68 couper]

I use the free paint stirring sticks from the hardware store. Some guys use chopsticks.

[Lloyd Smale]

Im one thats not a big fan of fluxing. Even casting out in the barn i flux when making ingots and when casting about all i ever do is stir with a wooden stick.

[Marshal Kane]

I'm not a big fan of Marvelux. One day it had rained in the morning but was dry enough to cast by the early afternoon. I put my stirring spoon aside after fluxing and when I went to flux again, there was a sizzle from the spoon that made my hair stand on end. Seems Marvelux draws moisture. The day after casting, I checked my pot for condensation. Founds droplets of water on the pot rim. All from Marvelux residue. All of my casting tools e.g. ladle, stirring spoon, sieve, etc. have to be cleaned of any Marvelux residue with water and dried after every casting session or they will begin to rust. Some casters like Marvelux due to it being smokeless but as for me, I'll forego smokeless for something that will not attract water. Just my personal opinion of this product.

[nitroproof]

I mounted a small fan to blow smoke/fumes out the basement window over my bench and opened a second window. Used a wooden dowel. Made boolits. :bigsmyl2:

[mauser1959]

I thought I had come up with something new using a dowel as my fluxing impliment. I guess some of you casters have a lot more experience and more thought put into this than I had figured on. I figured that if sawdust worked that a dowel would too... wonder how many years ago most of you figured that out.

[13Echo]

I recently had to saw up quite a bit of Spanish Cedar. That is some of the best smelling sawdust I've ever run across and it makes wonderful flux. I put some on every now and then just to smell it. A stick of the cedar or pine or other such rosenous or aromatic wood is the best stirrer for the pot I've found. As has been pointed out by the other posters it fluxes just by stirring and smells good to boot. It just wants to catch fire occassionally.

Jerry Liles

[waksupi]

There are lots of good smelling things to flux with. Grumble sent me a box of pinion pine a few years ago. Great incense at the pot.

[Bret4207]

I'm thinking of a little Capt. Black or Borkum Riff pipe tobacco. That should bring back memories or the old pipe suckers I knew in my youth.

[dromia]

When I was little and my dad would be melting lead outside on an open fire making ingots for when the scrap man came round he would stir it with dry kindling saying it cleaned it nice.

When I took up casting some years later that's what I knew so that's what I did. In the intervening years I probably tried all the usual and unusual suspects but the bit of dowel works best for me.

[454PB]

I'm thinking of a little Capt. Black or Borkum Riff pipe tobacco. That should bring back memories or the old pipe suckers I knew in my youth.

Hey! I resemble that remark. I've been a pipe sucker for 40 years. I quit Captain Black, too pricey for me.....and way too pricey for flux. I think the last time I looked, it was $30 for 14 ounces.

[jonk]

I don't mind Marvelux, but my complaint is that the lead has to be HOT to render it down to it's bubbly liquid form. Not that that's a bad thing, but it is frustrating to dump it in and see it do nothing. It doesn't smoke. I don't find it works better or worse than anything else though.

[BigSlick]

After reading everything I could find on to flux, or not to flux, what to flux with, what not to flux with etc..

I have settled on sawdust with a little bullet lube mixed in. If I'm lubeing bullets and swap bullets, or dies I usually end up with a little on my hands or some oozing just a little until I get everything set for the next round.

I just roll it between my fingers and drop it in a coffee can I keep on the bench. When I go to pour, I drop a cup or two of sawdust in it and mash it all together. I put the lid on it when I'm done and take it back to the loading room. Next time I lube, I drop the lube in on top of the sawdust. Kinda keep a running stash going.

I picked up a 5 gallon bucket of sawdust from a cabinet shop for the effort to scoop it up and haul ass with it.

I've tried all sorts of things, but this seems to work great.

After reading about the ivory soap thing, I will crumble up soap bar remnants and drop em in the sawdust and lube too.

I don't seem to be afflicted with excess smoke, I don't add a whole lot of sawdust and it doesn't smoke like a chimney when I do. Add it, wait a couple of minutes, stir, maybe add some more, maybe not. I don't skim until I get ready to add clean ingots and only sometimes when I do that.

I have a stack of paint sticks I picked up from the paint store, but will hang on to em until I use up the sawdust. I've got a few dowels, but use them to push the last bullet thru the Star when I'm done. Plus, those things cost .59 cents each. The sawdust was free :mrgreen:
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[Dale53]

If you have proper ventilation, then it makes no difference what method of fluxing you use. If you do NOT have proper ventilation, then you are endangering yourself and everyone in the house. It should not be difficult to figure out a good way to ventilate while casting.

I am presently installing an inline fan in a dryer vent line dedicated to my lead pot. It will be fastened to the top of the pot in such a manner that I can change pots in a minute or so and still have nice ventilation. I have a MAJOR (furnace squirrel cage blower) vent over top of my casting area, but it actually is doing TOO good a job and sending all my heat in the winter and all of my cooling in the summer to the outside:-?. The new venting system (from Lowe's or Home Depot for about $50.00 for parts) will do the job well and NOT send all of my GOOD air to the outside...:mrgreen:

Please, for both you and your families sake, ventilate adequately.

Dale53

[codarnall]

Craig, believe it or not if you have some charcoal for your bar-b-q crush up some carbon and place it on the top of your melt, stir as needed add some when necessary. It keeps the heat in it reduces the oxides (slag) and its cheap and it works, ...good old chemistry. Smoke is minimal.
Charlie

[gcollins]

Does the saw dust haveto be pretty fine? I have a ton of cedar and Black Walnut that I save from my planer, they are not real small, they are like very thin slivers?
If anyone would like a small zip envelope, pm me. and I will send you some to try!
Greg

[codarnall]

Works too, I just think more folks have briquettes that saw.
Charlie

[hunter64]

Dale53: The furnace squirrel cage is a great idea only I would get some different pulleys so the fan would be alot slower.

[Dale53]

hunter64;
Thanks for the suggestion. However, I am going to leave the big blower like it is (it is handy when using smoky flux) and just use the inline "extractor" for "normal" casting conditions.

Dale53