Fluxing

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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

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'm glad someone is addressing this topic. Fluxing is something I have tried but not seen a lot of gain.
 
from what I remember, fluxing is used primarily to help blend other metals such as tin, antimony with your lead. It's helpful when you require a harder bullet usually for a higher speed centerfire bullet. Since most ML bullets are pure lead it's really not as critical to our casting unless your lead source is real dirty. I found it will help gather up the junk making it easier to skim the garbage off with the dross.

Some folks use a small amount of wax or sawdust to flux adding it to their melt pot.

Don't forget GOOD ventilation and be extra safe!!! Lead fumes and molten lead will do you in if you're not extra careful.
 
proper fluxing keeps the various metals in the melt from oxidizing and being lost when you "skim" the melt. If you skim without fluxing and keeping some protective cover on the melt the oxidized metals are skimmed off with the dross and lost unless you put them back into the melt and flux. For a whole lot more information on the why and how of proper fluxing and much more about bullet casting check out castboolits from the link. I have cast lead and lead alloy ML bullets since 1962 and fluxing is an important part of casting any metal. W

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forum.php
 
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.
 
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.

Good post trigger! This makes sense. I’ve even heard of guys using a stick to stir the molten lead, obviously a BONE dry one!
 
I have 3 lead pots, each about 40 pounds; Pure lead, WW and one somewhere in between.
Pure lead pot for ML bullets.
I learned to flux with a pencil size piece of bees wax, 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..
 
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 have done this on several occasions, didn’t have enough for a group shoot of a certain weight and tossed the lubed bullets back in the melt. This is gonna happen to my lead pot tomorrow as a matter of fact! I worked on opening up a Lee .451 Sizer die this morning, I only wanted to open it 0.0005 inch, i did so with ultra fine 1500 Grit paper, and Flitz Metal polish, i got it dead on .451.5 but in the process i kept checking bullet to bore fit by sizing a lubed bullet, Sure i could shoot the 8-10 i sized, but I’d rather melt and re pour them.
 
I have two sorts of lead I use, one fairly pure, the other hard that was in the place when I bought it; I figure it is mostly wheel weights. Neither variety is particularly clean, and I reuse my projectiles as I am mostly interested in bullet velocity and fire into a box filled with garden rubber mulch.

I flux pretty much every time before I cast using used coffee grounds to remove the film from the surface and get a nice shiny surface.
 
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.
 
Try bees wax, it burns off completely. It just takes a touch of it , pea size is almost too much.
 
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.

I would imagine sawdust has all sorts of interesting rsins in it. I just put about tablespoon of used coffee grounds on the top of the melt, move it around on top, skim it off after a couple of minutes as a fine gray powder. It reduces the lead oxide in the skim.
 
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
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,
 
I hope those coffee grounds are dry, I could foresee a giant explosion if there is any moisture.
 
I hope those coffee grounds are dry, I could foresee a giant explosion if there is any moisture.

Nope. Wet, right out of the drip pot. No explosion, the wet grounds are too light to penetrate the lead surface.
 

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