Flux: Wood Chip Size too Big?

[Phlier]

Gents, the above is a picture of animal bedding made out of wood chips. Is it too big to be used as an effective flux? I'm hoping it's ok, as my options for getting sawdust are extremely limited. After reading up on the various fluxes, I'm convinced that I'd like to use sawdust.

Edit: Darn it, I should've thrown a quarter on the top for size purposes... The larger chips are a bit larger than a quarter, but not much thicker than a piece of paper.

[farmbif]

I am not sure, in fact when I was bucking a few good sized 14"-18" seasoned ash trees today looking at the piles of wood chips from the chainsaw I was wondering if these chips might work for fluxing. Any suggestions/advice would be appreciated.

[pmer]

I've used that bedding too. Let it get hot and through a lit match on it if nothing else and it will be a good flux.

[country gent]

I use cedar bedding material to flux with and it is thin and about the same size you describe. It takes a little longer to char on the pot but does good. I ussualy put the bedding on then add a small amount of praffin wax also. This I then ignite if it doesnt on its own. I then stir and scrap heavy with a barbeque spatula or paint stick.

[farmbif]

I have bushels of cedar shavings from wood planer in the shop, I have yet to try them I have always used paraffin and bees wax. I guess I'll have to try it, I bagged the ash, will try it and the cedar I guess as soon as I get ahead on putting up firewood for winter.

[farmbif]

If anyone has need for cedar shavings I have more than I could ever use.

[Yodogsandman]

Looks like it will work. Be sure to let it sit on top of the melt for a bit to let the moisture steam off before stirring.

[Eddie17]

Use that size all the time! Steal in from my horse bedding!

[Hardcast416taylor]

Don`t know if this info will be of help or not. About 5 years back I helped a neighbor cut up some maple trees that the county road commission cut down to widen our road. I gathered up the chain saw chips I wanted into 4 five gallon pails and let them `cure`. Early last Spring I started using the `cured` dry wood chips. I had picked up a used food processor at a yard sale for a few bucks and would run the chips, a handful at a time, thru the processor. I wound up with an almost sawdust consistency chip with still enough good sized chips in the mix to last in the alloy a bit longer. I get ribbed by guys that see the processor on the casting bench wanting to know `what`s for dinner`? This is what I am doing and it works for me.Robert

[Oklahoma Rebel]

I seemed to lose a lot of tin with sawdust, I just smelted my saved ash/metal and got a 20 lb disc on the bottom of my propane tank pot, if you hit it with anything metal it rings like a bell for at least ten seconds, I am going back to just wax, but it could be that I was doing something wrong, you never know, I have been doing this for about a year or a little more. but for what we want to do with it that stuff will burn down, like they said, light it when it starts smoking and let it burn out. the ash will form an oxygen barrier, I just had molten BB's creeping up into the ash and sticking in it, I dunno, weird. good luck, Travis

[Phlier]

As always, great information that is much appreciated. Thanks everyone.

Don`t know if this info will be of help or not. About 5 years back I helped a neighbor cut up some maple trees that the county road commission cut down to widen our road. I gathered up the chain saw chips I wanted into 4 five gallon pails and let them `cure`. Early last Spring I started using the `cured` dry wood chips. I had picked up a used food processor at a yard sale for a few bucks and would run the chips, a handful at a time, thru the processor. I wound up with an almost sawdust consistency chip with still enough good sized chips in the mix to last in the alloy a bit longer. I get ribbed by guys that see the processor on the casting bench wanting to know `what`s for dinner`? This is what I am doing and it works for me.Robert

Fantastic idea. I'll pick up an old Cuisinart at the thrift store tomorrow.

[Phlier]

I seemed to lose a lot of tin with sawdust, I just smelted my saved ash/metal and got a 20 lb disc on the bottom of my propane tank pot, if you hit it with anything metal it rings like a bell for at least ten seconds, I am going back to just wax, but it could be that I was doing something wrong, you never know, I have been doing this for about a year or a little more. but for what we want to do with it that stuff will burn down, like they said, light it when it starts smoking and let it burn out. the ash will form an oxygen barrier, I just had molten BB's creeping up into the ash and sticking in it, I dunno, weird. good luck, Travis

Check out this quote from http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_textonly2.pdf ("From Ingot to Target: A Cast Bullet Guide for Handgunners" by Glen E. Fryxell and Robert L. Applegate, page 40). Hopefully, it'll help you keep that tin where it belongs.

"The benefits of sawdust are that it‘s a sacrificial reductant that can reduce any oxidized tin back to the metallic state, and it‘s cheap enough that the caster can use enough to form an effective barrier layer to protect the alloy from subsequent oxidation. What’s more, as the sawdust chars on top of the melt, it forms activated carbon, which is a high surface area, porous sorbent material that has a large number of binding sites capable of binding Lewis acid cations like Ca, Zn and Al. So it not only keeps the tin reduced and in solution, but it effectively scavenges those impurities that raise the surface tension and viscosity of the alloy (Al, Zn and Ca), keeping the alloy in top shape for making good bullets. Vigorously stirring in a heaping tablespoon of sawdust into a pot full of bullet metal does a fine job of conditioning and protecting that alloy. Sawdust doesn’t really qualify under the formal definition of “flux” as it doesn’t produce a fusible slag, but it does very cheaply and very effectively accomplish the three primary goals that we set out for cleaning up bullet metal. Reduce, remove and protect, sawdust does it all!"

There is a ton of information in that book about the different "fluxes" that casters use, how they work, benefits and drawbacks to each, etc. That book is such an amazing resource for boolit casters.

[Phlier]

Looks like it will work. Be sure to let it sit on top of the melt for a bit to let the moisture steam off before stirring.

Oh man... thanks for that. Wouldn't be good at all to stir it into the pot with moisture still in it!

[Digital Dan]

Softwood chips are what you want. Pine, cedar and such. It is the resins in the wood that do the trick.

[Pb Burner]

I bought a bag of pet bedding at wallyworld few years back. Looks like the same stuff. The bag I have says it's pine. It works fine for me. Like you said, the bigger pieces are very thin, doesn't take long to burn.

[fredj338]

In a larger pot, sure why not. I am always building something & have clean sawdust available. Any wood shop would gladly give it to you. Just avoid HomeDepot, they cut everything on the same saw so you get plywood & MDF dust, not something you want to burn & breath in.

[Phlier]

Pb Burner, yup, the stuff pictured in the OP is from Wallyworld. My wife buys it for her pet bird.

Sounds like it's going to make a fine flux.

[Budzilla 19]

Plus one on letting it steam dry before stirring in!I have been using pine sawdust off the sawmill we have in our family. Works good, and fresh pine sawdust is the way to go for me! Great smell when burning also! Kinda like the campfire at the camp we have. One more tip; go to your local lumber yard and pick out the nastiest, knottiest,piece of pine lumber you can find! More knots the better, saw it up with a fine tooth skill saw blade, you'll have great flux! Like mentioned before, rosins are what you are after. Just my .02