Fluxing with no wood product, how good is it?

[bbogue1]

Does anyone flux their wheel weights with a compound designed for fluxing, wax or borax? Does it leave your pot clean? Are there any problems with the bottom pour valve? If you are not using a bottom pour pot does it get impurities out? Why should someone use your method instead of wood or sawdust?

[rockshooter]

wax works well but stinks up the garage- borax cruds up the pot. Wood sawdust works fine, smells better
Loren

[ericandelaine1975]

I've always used wax. If you don't have an exhaust fan it will smoke and stink up the room.

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[Lloyd Smale]

tried them all and anymore just use wax.

[Dusty Bannister]

I do not use anything in the casting pot that will add dust or debris to the alloy. I use both bees wax and Borax, but borax is in smaller amounts to reduce oxides so there is no crud left in the pot, other than the dross to skim off. I do use the skimming spoon to move the alloy in the pot to help move any other debris to the surface before skimming.

[country gent]

In my big ladle pot ( 100lbs+) I use a mixture of wood and paraffin to flux. I did try the flux in a tin for soldering pipe joints and such, worked but not any better or wrse than the wood paraffin mix. I add the wood and a small ball of paraffin and start stirring scraping the pot. as the wood chars I ignite the fumes to lessen the smoke. I use a barbeque spatula to stir scrap the pot and agitate the mix. My alloy is almost always 20-1.

As important as what you flux with ( many things will do this) is how you mix agitates scrap the pot. You need a motion the brings the alloy up thru the flux and the flux down thru the alloy. Letting the flux sit on top and stirring is near as effective. This is why I like the wide flat spatula for this I can push the wood chips paraffin down thru the mix and pull the mix up thru the flux and scrape the sides. I then skim off the dross with a sloted spoon to start and finish with a solid spoon for the last little bit. When properly fluxed and skimmed the surface looks like a mirror. Getting the flux work thru the alloy to the bottom of the pot and scraping the sides brings all most all the impurities to the top

[therealhitman]

I have always used wood chips to suspend and float impurities and wax to reduce the surface oxidation periodically. Seems to work in my part of town but I have no empirical evidence of my approach actually making a difference in purity, BHN, mold fill out or tin content. Proving that would require some effort at scientific method and Lord knows I am too busy casting and loading to do any of that.

[Soundguy]

I have used borax and wax, I like wax the best, less ash it seems. Do it outside or in good ventilation, it will smoke.

[Grmps]

If you light the wax on it will smoke a lot less.

I found that was will get you cleaner than just pine sawdust

[georgerkahn]

I started out with Brownell's Marvelux (https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-tools-supplies/general-gunsmith-tools/solders-flux/marvelux-bullet-casting-flux-prod1132.aspx) and really liked it. I then read that this product does some not-so-good-things to the alloy, so I graduated to pine saw-dust complemented with cheese wax -- the red stuff coating on round cheese balls. I use this now. HOWEVER, on occasions where the sawdust+wax doesn't seem to do the trick, I go back to adding a bit of Marvelux which hasn't failed me yet. I exclusively use bottom pour pots (two lyman and one rcbs) and on rare instance will need apply a bit of added heat to bottom spout with a butane bar-b-que lighter, when cold out and my rhythm slows. I do not think the fluxing has anything to do with this. Many a "fluxing expert" professes using sawdust fluxes with removing important oxidants, with the layer of resulting charred residue left on top further attenuating oxidation as well as loss of valuable tin in the mix. What I do....
geo

[triggerhappy243]

well, I have heard that there is no such thing as too much fluxing. So, I take that a bit literally. I do all my smelting and casting with a big cast iron dutch oven. What I have been doing lately is drop a chunk of candle wax in the melt and allow it to melt. right before it ignites, I use a big soup ladle to scoop up and pour back into the pot, so the lead runs thru the puddle of melting wax. I also do the very same with saw dust............... but only after it has turned all black. And it does seem to attract a lot more crud than just surface fluxing. After the smoke has cleared and I scrape the surface crud off, I then scrape the sides and bottom if the pot vigorously to dislodge crud that is sticking to the pot. My ingots come out super slick and clean. Overkill?? awe heck yea.