casting flux?

[Scota4570]

Catch afire...???
YUP...and you don't want to be surprised should it happen. "Startled" ain't a good place to be when in close proximity to a pot of molten lead.

The easy solution is to have a small amount of smokeless powder handy. When the smoke becomes obnoxious toss in a couple of granules of powder, the tiniest amount you can manipulate. The smoke will ignite.

Wax is a really good flux. It is cheap. It works. and it not corrosive.

Marvel-flux will rot your melting pot. It will destroy a Lee pot in short order. It is junk, never use it.

 

[Cowboy]

heelo forum.have cast hundreds of rb without ever using flux.i use old drill bit to draw off the dross.question is could flux make this easier?am idrawing off a lot of good lead?is there any cheap flux formulas?stuff I might have around the house already?thanks!

I use a pea size bit of paraffin wax. Once the lead is melted, I stir in a bit of paraffin. It smokes like a son of a gun but I do my casting in the garage with the door open. As soon as I drop the wax into the lead and stir it in, I purposely light the fumes coming off. It keeps down the amount of smoke and if you light the fumes yourself, it cuts down on the startle effect that one sometimes gets if it suddenly self ignites. Either way, the flame is your friend as long as you are not near any flammable substances. Don't try to put it out, just let it burn. It is no big deal, it lasts only a few seconds

Billnpattie is right on the money! I too use paraffin wax. Like he stated, only a pea size piece is all that is needed. Yes it will burn and produce a flame which will last only seconds...

The mistake I made when I was new to casting was that after I dropped the piece of paraffin wax into the pot it started smoking alot but no flame, so I immediately started to stir in the wax and POOF!! The fire started and startled the crap out of me! :haha:

Most of the time you will see the wax melt and start to cover the surface of the lead, then alot of smoke, then usually a 2 to 3 second delay and POOF! The fire starts. When the flame starts to burn out I scrape the bottom and along the sides of the pot all the while mixing the wax into the lead real good.

Then skim off the Dross off the top of your lead and your ready to cast. End result is clean lead! :grin:

Respectfully, Cowboy :thumbsup:

 

[M. De Land]

Yes, saw dust makes one of the best casting fluxes known to man and it smells good to boot.
I save all my walnut filings for my casting flux as it works as good as any commercial flux, smells good and is free.
Any thing that makes a bit of free carbon when it burns will flux lead quite well.
I've tried Marvelux, bees wax, bullet lube, candles and what have you, plain ole saw dust works just as well as any of them and it won't flare up like wax does.
Try it some time and you will be as amazed as I was after many years of using all manor of other stuff that smokes horribly and flairs up.

 

[M. De Land]

A little trick I picked up along the way is to use a wood paint paddle to stir your lead when you flux and use the paddle to smash out the slag/dross lumps against the pot wall that are filled with good lead.
The paint paddle will burn as you smash out the lumps and will be fluxing the melt the same as the saw dust as it is consumed.
In this way you can return much of the lead in the dross to the melt that you were skimming off.

 

[Maven]

Lots of good information for you, sc. However, which flux you choose may depend on whether you cast indoors (with ventilation!) or out. I.e., fluxes which smoke or burst into flame are better for outdoor casting if you wish to keep domestic peace. For indoor casting, I use Marvelux and have been very pleased with it. When I melt large quantities of Pb or harder alloy (wheel weights) outdoors, I prefer sawdust.

 

[robert bw]

thanks 4 the info,i do all my casting outdoors sittin in sand on the ground(hard to drop it on the ground if your already there)I only work with 2 or 3 ounces at a time.aint tried fluxing yet but I suspect I will save about 10 percent by weight.next casting session I will report.thanks fellas,preciate the collective knowledge here.now go out and make some smoke!!!