I've tried
What's your favorite Flux?
- 27K Views
- Last Post 11 August 2012
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I tried something new. New for me at least. I've been using 2-cycle oil as a flux for a while and it works well for me. Today I remembered that some folks stir wood shavings into the melt to introduce carbon. What I did was pour the oil onto my wooden stirring stick and stir the melt. it worked very well. I was able to jam the oil and wood deep into the pot and scrape the sides and bottom at the same time. I'll try a paint stir stick next time. If you try this use good gloves as the oil will spatter like a deep fryer.
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Darn, I just now thought of it thanks to you guys using saw dust. We have a hardwood sawmill near here. I know the guy that runs it and I should go get a couple of buckets. He also has a Lumber Shop with a commercial saw and planer with clean and real fine saw dust. I could get a lifetime supply of that stuff! :shock: ...........Dan
Am I slow or what?? I have always used candlewax as it worked fine but I forgot to get some while at the store. So I thought, “I'll use sawdust” but didn't feel like sawing up or planing a bunch of good wood to get it. Then I remembered that under my jointer I have a container to catch all the sawdust. I must have enough to fill a five gallon bucket. Sssssshh!
If someone else had of done to me what I did to myself . . . I'd have killed him. Humility is an asset. Heh - heh.
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I started casting like a lot do in a dutch oven over propane. I used lube and candle wax until my wife raised such a fuss over the smell. So I began my quest of finding a new flux. I had heard of some folks using 20 mule team Borax. I thought I would try that. So I wrote it on the shopping list so my wife would pick it up. Well like all good plans go awry, she picked up Sun dishwasher soap, not realizing I wanted the detergent for flux. Since we use liquid detergents because of the septic system, I either had to use it as flux, or go back to the store. So, WTH, I tried it. Wow. It's good flux gentlemen. Cant tell you why, it just is. Its active ingredients are sodium carbonate and sodium silicate. It does stick to the sides of the pot a bit, but I scrape that with a stick or my skimming spoon. Goes right back into powdery insulation. My lead is as clean as I'd ever want it. When I stir, I have mirror bright lead covered with a gray saw dust type of insulating cover, and more importantly for my wife, no stink.
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Have tried many fluxes and determined the best so far is borax. Double flux and can run the pot down to about 2 lbs of melt with no dross. Also, I have never had cleaner pot walls using borax
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Basely anything with carbon in it, as long as it doesn't have a girly smell such as candles. One of my favorites is cigar butts. I save them in a can till they are dry and add some with beeswax/lard mixture. Very effective and adds a nice manly smell to the shop. Ric
i thought i was the only one to use cigar butts when i run out i use pine nettles .
the smellis outdoorise. and it is cheep
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Coffee grinds when rendering WW and NEI flux in my bottom pour..I use a lath to stir..
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My toast burned to a black “nothing” this morning. That got me to thinking (always dangerous for me) that I might try burnt toast as a flux and see what happens.
Dew
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Well with carbon being the active ingredient for reducing the crap (fluxing) I often wondered why my favorite flux Matchlight Kingsford Charcoal left artifacts of being there on the barbie when your done bar-b-q-ing. Well I decided it must be some binder to keep the coals cube like. Probably dirt, silica, mud, etc. or else they would just fall apart. Anyway, I'm sure Albert Gore (my parakeet) can't stand the carbon monoxide so it a outdoor event anyway. Anyone have some old growth carbon 4B years old or is all the C 4B yrs. old. it remains my favorite cheap flux, upsets Al too I hope.
{Jeff faints at the thought of Charlie's carbon foot print.} LOL.
Cheers from New Zealand
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Well with carbon being the active ingredient for reducing the crap (fluxing) I often wondered why my favorite flux Matchlight Kingsford Charcoal left artifacts of being there on the barbie when your done bar-b-q-ing. Well I decided it must be some binder to keep the coals cube like. Probably dirt, silica, mud, etc. or else they would just fall apart. Anyway, I'm sure Albert Gore (my parakeet) can't stand the carbon monoxide so it a outdoor event anyway. Anyone have some old growth carbon 4B years old or is all the C 4B yrs. old. it remains my favorite cheap flux, upsets Al too I hope.
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Ric
You and I should get together for a Cast-out. You on one side of the garage me on the other. I have something worse than your cigar butts but from fear of the Health Safety Board I can't expose it. One hint it used to have a tail and ran the alleys. Burns real good in the pot.
Stephen Perry
Angeles BR:fire
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Since evrybody likes being a little different in what they choose to flux with what do they feel they are gaining by fluxing with their home brew.
Stephen Perry
Angeles BR:fire
I still like well chewed cigar butts. It gives a clean manly smell to the casting room, recycles a carbon product and adds carbon dioxide to the air, and keeps other people out of the area so I can enjoy my casting.
Ric
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All the flux methods given here will work. To me after melting whatever grunge alloy you start with after a good series of flux sessions what do your ingots look like. That is my way of testing a flux. If you don't flux properly your ingots will look dirty.
Stephen Perry
Angeles BR:fire
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Since everybody likes being a little different in what they choose to flux with what do they feel they are gaining by fluxing with their home brew.
Stephen Perry
Angeles BR:fire
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i use dried pitch off pine trees that grow on the edge of my yard works great smells great
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I cast indoors and use a piece of 3/4” pine stick about 8” long for fluxing. It works as well as anything else I've ever tried and the small bit of smoke when it is first used is not enough to drive folks out of the house. I have a small exhaust fan over the pot that vents out of doors but won't handle the huge volumes of smoke from beeswax. Once it gets good and charred the stick doesn't smoke much at all and still works just fine. I stir the melt and scrape the side of the pot with the stick every 3 or 4 pours. Since I only bottom pour, I don't bother to remove the residue from the top of the mix unless I'm adding more alloy. I have a long handled teaspoon to get the bit of residue from the top of the melt (don't tell my wife.) I've been using the same stick for a couple of years. BTW, you can't leave a pine stick in the melt or it will eventually catch fire. Just stir with it and then drop it in an old dawgfood can until you need it again.
Jack
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Allot of what you guys use are oil based products. I use parrafin the last I bought was made by Gulf. Comes in blocks break off a piece and light up the pot. Candles work well too. Dump in a few lubed bullets they make good flux also.
Stephen Perry
Angeles BR:fire
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