First time using sawdust

[capt.hollis]

Man this must be the penny pincher thread , lol. Just go buy some chipped pet bedding material for pets . A 10 lb sack will last forever ! $7 , and you won't be having to sweep up sawdust, and looking for a builder , lol. You guys.

[brassrat]

Someday I may know wth you guys are doin.

[cbrick]

Sounded like Goodsteel was in close proximity to you and you are "anal" about your fluxing with a proven clean alloy. Since your down to 500lbs, it sounded like a win-win for you and the rest of the board.

Goodsteel is about two hours from me, he was passing through this area when he stopped by. From here we drove over to winelovers brand new house & donated some lead to the sand birm backstop he put in.

Anyway, please explain what sort of testing you had in mind and how you wanted to go about it.

Rick

[MBTcustom]

Goodsteel is about two hours from me, he was passing through this area when he stopped by. From here we drove over to winelovers brand new house & donated some lead to the sand birm backstop he put in.

Anyway, please explain what sort of testing you had in mind and how you wanted to go about it.

Rick

And a very good time it was! Wish I could have stayed a few days. I sure wish you guys were closer, there's no telling what trouble we would get into!

[oscarflytyer]

Tried the cedar pet bedding. Flamed up and smoked. Didn't care for the theatrics... I now just stir the pot well with a simple pain stick. Someone suggested that awhile back. Has worked very well for me. very simple, can get them dirt cheap or free. They last a little while. Combo flux and stir stick! ymmv

[jsizemore]

Goodsteel is about two hours from me, he was passing through this area when he stopped by. From here we drove over to winelovers brand new house & donated some lead to the sand birm backstop he put in.

Anyway, please explain what sort of testing you had in mind and how you wanted to go about it.

Rick

Test a pre-flux ingot and a post-flux ingot. Post results. We can't say the bad stuff was removed with sawdust unless we prove it was in there beforehand. No? Yes? Maybe somebody has done this before, I've never seen it. Maybe flux some with wax to judge it's value? Maybe someone else has some ideas.

[CountryBoy19]

I have a few questions re: procedure when fluxing with sawdust....

First of all, how much do you use for a pot of say 80lbs when melting COWW to ingots?
Do you flux before skimming the clips to try to get some of the metal and metal oxides to release from the clips? I've found that I'm always taking a lot of metal out of the pot with my clips... probably around 1/4-1/2 lb for every 80 lb pot I melt... I've found that fluxing before skimming the clips seems to help a small bit but makes it harder to skim the clips out then... it's also hard to stir the pot to flux with all the clips in it...

After the sawdust burns off and you start pouring ingots do you leave the ash on top to form a protective "barrier" to keep the metal from re-oxidizing? I do but every once in a while I get a small bit of ash in an ingot. Is leaving the ash on top doing more harm than good?

[mold maker]

I add a fist full of course pine sawdust to the cold pot of WWs. As they melt I stir and remove clips with a i/4" screen (kitchen tool frrom WallyWorld) strainer. With the clips removed I add a second fist full of sawdust and as soon as it is well charred I reduce the heat and stir vigurously with a large kitchen spoon (again from WW) and scrape the sides and bottom with a ss kitchen splatula. I use the same kitchen spoon to carefully remove the light weight floating dross, and imadiately start to fill ingot molds. If the surface starts to show oxides, I add a small amount of sawdust and again stir and remove.
Since I always try to start with the inch of material left from the last smelt and never remove that same ammount, I cant say how much sawdust I use or how much lead it processes.
The dross I dispose of is very light weight and thus can't contain much lead/tin/antimony.
All I can say is I have very clean ingots that work well in my bottom pour pots without stoppages or drips.

[cbrick]

Test a pre-flux ingot and a post-flux ingot. Post results. We can't say the bad stuff was removed with sawdust unless we prove it was in there beforehand. No? Yes? Maybe somebody has done this before, I've never seen it. Maybe flux some with wax to judge it's value? Maybe someone else has some ideas.

Could be interesting but we would first need to get Goodsteel on board and he would also need to get the folks he works with to do the testing.

I have never cast an ingot without fluxing but I think I have about 1/4 buckets of raw weights so I guess I could. I have never used wax to flux but I do have some beeswax & old paraffin candles so I guess I could.

I have never seen such a test posted here either, maybe it was done and I just didn't see it.

Let's see,
An ingot from WW not fluxed.
An ingot from WW fluxed with wax.
An ingot from WW fluxed with sawdust.
My ingot from alloy melted out of used sawdust flux.

What else? Open to ideas here.

Whatchya think Tim? Sound like something you would/could do? Could be interesting.

Rick

[cbrick]

And a very good time it was! Wish I could have stayed a few days. I sure wish you guys were closer, there's no telling what trouble we would get into!

Hhmmm . . . We are close, tis you that is far.

Rick

[jmort]

"Could be interesting."

I'm sure it will be interesting. If Goodsteel can't do it, Rotometals could do four samples for around $200.00. If we get 10 people to chip in $20 or so it would happen.

[Airman Basic]

One problem I see, when I'm smelting wheelweights, all the carbon based junk on the weights and the bucket kinda fluxes the mix pretty well.

[MBTcustom]

"Could be interesting."

I'm sure it will be interesting. If Goodsteel can't do it, Rotometals could do four samples for around $200.00. If we get 10 people to chip in $10 or so it would happen.

How can you, a fully fledged booliteer, speak of spending money in such egregious quantities?
The battle cry of boolitry is to get it for free, or so close to it, that you are hated by some, and pitied by others.
If we needed a space station, we'd find somebody out there that just happened to have a spare they aren't using and would give us for a 12 pack, if we haul it out of their territory.
LOL!

In that spirit, I will gladly do this. However, I just schmelted my last 4 bucket's of WW's and I have none left, so I need one of you fellers to pony up the test subjects.
All I need is a dollop the size of a dime, or perhaps a 30 caliber boolit cast from the test media.

Just to be clear, I have a friend that does these tests for me, and I don't want to wear out that avenue, so I am willing to do this test but I don't want 10 folks asking me for free tests. If it were mine to do with what I pleased, that would be different, but as it is, I have to ask humbly, and hope I don't wear out my welcome savvy?

[cbrick]

1> I'll melt some clip-on WW's and only skim the crapolla of the top.

2>I'll take some of that same WW and flux with wax.

3>WW alloy fluxed with saw dust.

4> Some of the ingot I have that was melted out of used saw dust flux.

5> An alloy I have & used for 12 gauge slugs (soft) and also fluxed with saw dust.

I'll ship these to Tim (need mailing address) with each sample marked with a magic marker as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I'll keep notes on which is which and post the results when I get them from Tim.

Also, instead of making enough of each of these to put enough in the pot to cast 30 cal boolits, then drain & clean the pot, melt more alloy & pre-heat the mold, start all over 5 different times, I'll just pour 1 pound ingots as I prepare each and send them. Is all that ok Tim?

Am I missing anything? Anyone have other/better ideas?

Rick

[MBTcustom]

It would be best to take the samples as the smelt is in progress. Just stick your ladle in there, swish it around, pull it out, and pour a small puddle on a piece of clean steel about the size of a dime.
Put it in a ziplock bagy and write the particulars on it. Continue with the next sample etc.

[jmort]

This should be good, no pun intended. Very interested in the results.

[fecmech]

pour a small puddle on a piece of clean steel about the size of a dime.

Turn an aluminum pop can upside down and pour in the depression, makes a nice clean test piece.

[MBTcustom]

Not so much. I need a flat bottom, and I will trim the top flat with a clean file.
Otherwise, I'm going to clean my Kurt vice with acetone, and smash the sample flat before I file it.

[Reloader06]

[cbrick]

Oops . . . Hold everything. I knew I had about a 1/4 of a 5 gallon bucket of weights & I do but . . .

There's always a but isn't there?

I just went out & dug out the bucket . . . All that's in the bucket is stick-on weights.

Gonna need somebody with clip-on weights to cough up some. All of the clip-on weights I have are in 5 pound ingots that were well fluxed when I did the smelting.

Rick