can you flux with this???

[1911fan]

I know you can flux using sawdust, can you flux with ground up corn cob?? i bought a bag sometime ago from a pet store (they sell it for bedding material) to use in my tumbler for cleaning brass. I have fa big bag in the basement and was wondering if this would work like sawdust??? Anybody ever try this????

[ph4570]

corn cob, Hmmm, seems like it might work.

How about walnut grit? I have pondered trying it. I have 1/2 ton in the garage. I plan on casting this evening. Perhaps I'll try a pinch.

[1911fan]

walnut seems like it would work as well, but being that I am new to all this I did not want to burn the house down incase it has been tried and turned out bad.

[waksupi]

Anything carbon base will work. That opens a lot of territory!

[6shooter]

I flux with floor dry and sometimes unscented kitty litter. If I bottom pour , I use either one on top and it keep the spout from plugging because the heat stays in the pot. you usually don,t have to turn the heat up as high.

[thx997303]

I wonder, I have a bucket of sawdust, but I am sure it contains dust from treated wood and MDF, I wonder, can I use this or will it be a problem?

[sheepdog]

Not really. Only thing thats really going to mess you up is moisture.

[leadman]

Just make sure it not from treated wood, the green stuff has arsenic in it iifc.

[geargnasher]

Just make sure it not from treated wood, the green stuff has arsenic in it iifc.

I was under the impression that the EPA outlawed Arsenic due to supposedly leaching into lake water from treated pier poles. I know Wolman salts are history in my area. Regardless the inhalation hazard of whatever is being used is still there.

Gear

[geargnasher]

I flux with floor dry and sometimes unscented kitty litter. If I bottom pour , I use either one on top and it keep the spout from plugging because the heat stays in the pot. you usually don,t have to turn the heat up as high.

If you're using gypsum or talc based clays like Kitty Litter you aren't technically "fluxing" because that stuff doesn't char and produce the sacrificial reducant carbon for our tin/lead oxides to react with. You are cleaning and insulating, as well as preventing further oxidation, but you are not fluxing.

Anything that chars will work, I use differnent flavors of planer chips from a woodworker friend of mine because they smell good and don't Poof like oils can. I also don't use boric acid anymore because it is such a pain imo. I like to see the lead and get an idea of what it's doing, plus I constantly add back sprues/rejects/ingots as I cast and it's a pain maintaining the glass through all that. Just throw in a fresh pinch of chips when it gets dull on top and stir in with a stick, skim the ashes out a few dozen pours later.

Gear