Reloading EverythingRepackboxTitan ReloadingLoad Data
Lee PrecisionRotoMetals2MidSouth Shooters SupplyInline Fabrication
Wideners
Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 43

Thread: wood chips and sawdust flux

  1. #1
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Posts
    3,572

    wood chips and sawdust flux

    not to take a poll or anything but wondering what size wood chips or saw dust is the most ideal for fluxing.,
    I usually just grab a couple handfuls from under the radial arm saw. but I have huge piles of red cedar chips that the planer throws out.
    I find that for some reason pine or cedar sawdust work real well when melting down a pot of really dirty wheel weights.
    I've tried catching sawdust from the chainsaw when cutting up firewood and it works ok too. but the cedar stuff has a great aroma.
    ive had a thought of making blocks of bees wax and cedar sawdust for fluxing.

  2. #2
    Boolit Buddy

    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Oregon
    Posts
    393
    I use what ever is handy.
    Sometimes I empty the bag on my chop saw. I have been known to chop up scrap wood on that saw just to make saw dust. Douglas fir is usually what I have on hand.
    When I'm in a hurry I grab hardwood pellets from my pellet grill, but those pellets are compressed and take longer to burn.

    I think pine and fir sawdust is the best.

    Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

  3. #3
    Boolit Master
    StuBach's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    1,135
    I just use whatever sawdust is in my dust collector at that time which is mostly pine but sometimes has a mix of hardwoods in it.

    Your beeswax and sawdust block idea intrigues me, would be nice to make some (maybe in an ice cube tray) and just drop one in as needed. Currently I drop in sawdust and a couple of beeswax pellets so this could potentially speed my process up a little.

  4. #4
    Boolit Master BNE's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    SC
    Posts
    1,205
    I’ve made sawdust/wax blocks. They work well.

    BNE
    I'm a Happy Clinger.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Dec 2017
    Location
    Farmerville,Louisiana
    Posts
    1,357
    I use pine bedding chips like for horse stalls. They’re kinda big and slow to catch fire so will light them to hold down smoke. Usually do this with the large pot when melting down wheel weights.
    "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government..... When the people fear their government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people, there is liberty." Thomas Jefferson

  6. #6
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    Dec 2018
    Posts
    147
    I just grab a handful from under the table saw. Usually mostly yellow pine but also some oak. I think the resin in the pine helps.

  7. #7
    Boolit Grand Master

    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    England,Ar
    Posts
    7,687
    I've used everything from the fine saw dust from the table saw to the chips from using a chainsaw to the flakes from a planer. They all work fine but I think Pine does the best job. Maybe its the rosin in it?

  8. #8
    Boolit Grand Master uscra112's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Switzerland of Ohio
    Posts
    6,314
    Rosin by itself makes a primo flux. Personally I don't use sawdust anymore because I can't be sure that it's completely dry. I haven't had a "tinsel fairy" event but once or twice I saw significant steam coming off it before I started ti stir it in.
    Cognitive Dissident

  9. #9
    Boolit Bub
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Minnesota
    Posts
    70
    I am of the planer chips/dust collector crowd. Fine dust is good but chips last a little longer. I really like it when melting down range scrap or anything dirty. Seems to collect the dirt better, then follow up with either beeswax or candle wax. I make shot, so clean lead is imperative.

  10. #10
    Boolit Grand Master

    imashooter2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    PA
    Posts
    7,899
    No table saw and jacking on a hand saw to make sawdust isn’t high on my how to spend a day list… I use pine shavings pet bedding. A buck and small change years ago for a bag that will last years more.
    ”We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, yet they are still lying.” –Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

    My Straight Shooters thread:
    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...raight-shooter

    The Pewter Pictures and Hallmarks thread:
    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-and-hallmarks

  11. #11
    Moderator Emeritus


    MrWolf's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    NE West Virginia
    Posts
    4,853
    Quote Originally Posted by imashooter2 View Post
    No table saw and jacking on a hand saw to make sawdust isn’t high on my how to spend a day list… I use pine shavings pet bedding. A buck and small change years ago for a bag that will last years more.
    Same here with a bag of pine bedding. I would cut all types of wood including pressure treated so a lot safer just using the pine shavings.

  12. #12
    Boolit Master trapper9260's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Iowa
    Posts
    3,402
    I use ground up corn cobs . Had a farmer ground up the cobs in his feed mill for me and the amount he done for me will last me for a long time. I save my bees wax for making my bullet lube and what other use I need it for.
    Life Member of NRA,NTA,DAV ,ITA. Also member of FTA,CBA

  13. #13
    Boolit Master

    pworley1's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Mississippi
    Posts
    3,253
    I use a mix of heart pine planer chips and saw dust from band mill.
    NRA Benefactor Member NRA Golden Eagle

  14. #14
    Boolit Master

    dale2242's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    SW Oregon
    Posts
    2,466
    I use pine planer shaving used for pet bedding.
    I add a small piece of candle wax to the flux when I am casting or smelting.
    Adding the shaving has reduced my inclusions to near nothing.

  15. #15
    Boolit Master
    sqlbullet's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Holladay, UT
    Posts
    1,398
    Digging into the archives:

    gearnasher 02-19-2013, 08:45 PM (https://castboolits.gunloads.com/arc.../t-184987.html)

    Murphy, there is a lot of misinformation given already here as to what exactly does what, so I'm going to try to clear it up for you with scientific facts confirmed with the experience of a whole bunch of us.

    OK, here's the deal, as figured out a long time ago by a Ph, D. chemist named Glen Fryxell. There's three things we do with our dirty scrap alloy to process it: There's cleaning dirt out, there's reverting the oxide scum back into useable, elemental metal (called "reducing", the opposite chemical reaction to the process of "oxidizing", which is what makes the scum in the first place), and there's FLUXING, which is removing the dissolved metals we boolit casters consider impurities because they impede the flux, or "flow" of the metal when we try to cast things like boolits out of it.

    To get the dirt out, it usually just requires a good scraping, stirring, and skimming because it will float to the top. Unless the dirt is denser than lead, like Uranium, but I haven't seen much of that in my boolit metal.

    Then there's getting that tin-rich oxide scum to go back in rather than skimming it and tossing it. This is where the "reduction" of oxides takes place, and that requires only heat and unburned hydrocarbons. You can use wax, grease, oil, tallow, butter, margarine, tree bark, grass, sap, hair, ground coffee, cereal grains, rosin, vaseline, etc. You get the idea. The hydrocarbons react with oxidized metal to make carbon dioxide, water (vapor), and DE-oxidized boolit metal. There will be a tiny bit of ash unless you can make the reaction in your open pot stoichiometric, which you can't, and it doesn't matter. Just skim the pinch of grey powder and call it good.

    Now, there's FLUXING. This is the part that is mostly misunderstood. A chunk of candle was DOES NOT constitute flux. Marvakrap does, but it has a lot of drawbacks, and it doesn't REDUCE OXIDES at all, neither does kitty litter. Kitty litter doesn't even flux, but I digress. Back to fluxing. Most lead scrap has all sorts of evil junk in it like calcium, iron, aluminum, zinc, cadmium, you name it. We want that stuff GONE but want to keep antimony, arsenic, copper, and tin, along with any trace gold, silver, or copper that might be in there. The thing that does it all is CARBOHYDRATES, and sawdust has plenty. Yes, you can flux with potato chips, if you don't mind the salt corroding things. But you said you hate the stuff I call Marvakrap, so that rules out salty snacks for flux.

    Since Rosin and sap makes an excellent sacrificial reducant, and carbohydrates do too, sappy pine shavings make some of the very best flux/cleaner/reducant to be had anywhere at any price.

    But in order to get the fullest effect you must expose as much of the metal to the smoldering sawdust as you can so it can soak up that nasty calcium, aluminum etc. etc. while also sitting on the top and keeping oxides reduced. Oxides float, and putting the sawdust on top takes care of reducing them back into the alloy, but to really get the bad junk out you have to expose all the metal in the pot to it. To do this when smelting, first I toss in some wax to reduce the oxides out of the clumpy, dirty junk floating on top after getting all the scrap melted and skim all that off. Then I put about an inch of chainsaw debitage on top (the bar oil residue helps some too) and let it start charring really good. Then I take my big ladle and scrape the heck out of the bottom and sides of the pot and get it stirred up good, then start bringing up big ladlefulls of alloy and drizzling it through the smoldering sawdust layer. I do this over and over again until the sawdust is just a grey ash, which I skim off and toss, then add another layer and repeat. If there is a lot of the junky metals in there, you will notice a big difference in the ash from the first fluxing to the second or third fluxing. The ash from the first fluxing will be more like burnt aluminum foil and later fluxing ash more like fine powder.

    That's it! After cleaning, fluxing, and ingotizing, you may not need to flux any more. When casting, if you got the bad junk out during the smelt, all you need to do is keep the oxides reduced, if even that. Kitty litter is good for sealing the surface of the casting melt from oxygen on a bottom-pour setup or to insulate and keep heat in during cold-weather casting, but in and of itself does nothing to absorb impurities or reduce oxides. During casting, you can use wax to keep the oxide scum reduced, stir with a wooden stick, or do what I do and float about a quarter inch of sawdust on top of my casting pot, because as it burns to ash it seals the surface just like kitty litter does, only is easier to clean out and less dusty. The charring sawdust layer, while actively charring and before it turns to ash, is also a great reducant for the flash-oxide that forms on sprues, so if you toss them back in the pot as you cast it will help keep the excess scum caused by that process from forming. You might skim and refresh the sawdust periodically if you wish while casting. Otherwise, grease/wax/oil will keep the oxides at bay.

    Hope that sheds a little light,

    Gear
    So, for these reasons I use dust, and the dustier, the better.
    My isotope lead page: http://fellingfamily.net/isolead/

  16. #16
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Posts
    986
    Oiled sawdust has been recommended occasionally. When I tried it, I got mine by removing the sprocket cover on my self-oiling chain saw and got ready-made oiled sawdust. I have since settled on candle wax (paraffin?) since I got a bag of broken candles several years ago.

  17. #17
    Boolit Master
    StuBach's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    1,135
    Upon reading the others posts I think I’ll stick to what I’m doing which is saw dust with bees wax chips I get from Amazon. $20 bag of chips lasts a long time when a little is coupled with pine saw dust from my TS/Drill/router.

  18. #18
    Boolit Master

    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    JAX, FL
    Posts
    1,228
    I have read and been of the impression we flux for two distinct reasons. One we flux to remove impurities and the other is to recombine alloys. So I flux with sawdust to clean my alloy and then use a tiny blob of bees wax to get my tin and antimony recombined with the lead if/when I see them floating on top or when adding some tin/pewter to my alloy.

    I wonder if using both at the same time is really doing what we are hoping for. It seems like the combination would be cancelling out one or the other. Or am I cornfused again?
    “Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem.” Ronald Reagan


  19. #19
    Boolit Grand Master

    imashooter2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    PA
    Posts
    7,899
    Wax and sawdust do the exact same thing. Add carbon to reduce oxides back into the melt. The cleaning is accomplished by stirring and scraping to allow trash to rise to the surface to be skimmed off.
    ”We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, yet they are still lying.” –Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

    My Straight Shooters thread:
    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...raight-shooter

    The Pewter Pictures and Hallmarks thread:
    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-and-hallmarks

  20. #20
    Boolit Master
    JoeJames's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    Arkansas Delta
    Posts
    1,468
    I generally have a low mound of pine sawdust where I have push broomed it from my table saw. Works just fine. But a buddy got the idea after reading Ingot to Target, used some sawdust, and set off the smoke alarm on his alarm system at his main house.
    Britons shall never be slaves.

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check