Idaholewis
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Explain your method, Fluxing is something that has never made good sense to me? What do you use to flux your lead with? How often do you flux?
45cal said:To tell you the truth I don't anymore
triggerhappy243 said:HEAR YEE-HEAR-YEE...............LOL I cast with a ladle, because most of what I cast are huge chunks of lead. T/C maxi-balls and multi-cavity round ball molds. My melting pot has a 65 pound capacity, so, fluxing, rendering,and more fluxing is all part of it. My lead comes in the form of indoor range scrap. Jacketed rifle and pistol bullets. and some lead shot too. After all the copper shards are skimmed off, there is a layer of fine grit. it gets skimmed of with a spoon. What is left is soot(carbon and other misc. particles. It is skimmed off. then there are particulates that are suspended under the surface of the lead............ why they do not naturally float beats the beegeeses out of me. This is where I will drop a chunk of candle wax or a splash of dirty motor oil on the melt and stir the pot ladling the lead thru the puddle of oil. I light a match and stand back. (I will also intermix some pine sawdust too, some of the offending impurities actually stick to the now-charcoal floating on the melt.). All that crud now pops to the surface. and once again I can skim it off. If you have ever seen specs in your cast bullets or tiny imperfections............. that is what is causing it. I repeat this process until I am left with a mirror smooth finish on my molten pot of lead. Bullets pour super shiny after that.
52Bore said:but the last decade or more I usually put a GG (I use SPG lube) bullet with lube in my pot every 500 bullets or so. No big deal to me and done very infrequent..
I know the general consensus is to use sawdust but I’ve had horrible luck with it. Whenever I introduce sawdust to my bottom pour pot I always start getting inclusions and dirty bullets.
I don’t go near my pot with sawdust anymore. At the most I will melt some paraffin wax and stir it in. Most of the time I stir food and scrape the bottom and sides the best that I can and call it good.
Yup, what most people see in a good melt is the separation of tin and lead and oxidation rising to the top that just needs stirred in,45cal, That is pretty darn close to how i flux!! I just don’t find a need for it? And when i do, what did I accomplish? I cant tell the difference? I have a Bag of pine shavings that i RARELY ever use. When my lead pot first melts i stir it really good, and then skim the surface off, after that i don’t bother messing with it anymore, it naturally skims over and i simply leave it be! My pot is a Bottom pour, the way i see it the lead under the skimmed over surface is perfect and ready to fill a mold. I use Certified Alloys now days, It’s much easier to buy it already made up than trying to mix the ratios, I don’t feel you save anything in the end by trying to make it. This Certified stuff i use is likely cleaner, maybe that’s why I don’t need to Flux?
Certain things about the sport i have taken to the highest level i can, and have learned about everything i can in those areas, example being correct Paper Patching. Fluxing lead is just not one of my things
I hope those coffee grounds are dry, I could foresee a giant explosion if there is any moisture.
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