Anyone use their old tumbling media for flux when casting or smelting? Mine is very lightly oiled to control dust. Thought it might be specially good for smelting scrap. Seems like it would be as good as sawdust and be a good way to recycle the media after I change it out in the case cleaner.
Essay W
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Hmmm, interesting concept, some folks use oiled sawdust. should be a variety of opinions. Perhaps another idea would be to use/recyle some of our wive's poparie, might help with the smell especially when smelting WWs...
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Heavens NO! I would rather smell burning rubber valve stems than poporee. That stuff stinks!
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Sure wouldn't want to breath any of the fumes coming off that media.
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Walnut wood and “nut wood” is toxic. That is why barn grain stalls were made of walnut (back in the day). Worms wouldn't eat it due to it's toxicity. Fumes from burning walnut can cause asthma attacks. Bad stuff...
On my grandfather's farm, the barns were in good shape but were 100 years old. The grain bins were as sound as the day they were installed. Grain draws wood worms like stink draws flys. No problem with the walnut stalls due to the toxicity.
Dale53
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I got the idea reading Glen Fryxell's e-book. He mentions walnut sawdust specifically. I burn walnut and black locust, also known for its resistance to bugs and rot, and the chemical properties of it's wood. I don't huff the smoke. Arsenic is toxic too and is in a few casting alloys. If the ventilation is good, why would walnut shells be worse than used motor oil or paraffin or pine rosin or any number of other weird things people routinely use to flux? Personally, I like the no-stink, low-smoke powder flux, but the advantages of sawdust in breaking down tin oxides got my attention. Never would have considered it otherwise, nor any other oil, wax, rosin, pitch, etc. flux, because of the smoke. Casting may produce fumes, but not much smoke aside from fluxing/smelting.
Essay W
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I had a long conversation with Bill Ferguson once about toxicity. Bill by the way is an MIT grad and hasn't forgetten much from school 60 years ago. Forget metal fumes ( there aren't any) but beware of the fluxing fumes (there are alot!) he said the worse were grease and motor oil fumes, with wood (sawdust next). You can use it, but here you need fans and ventilation. FWIW, Ric
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I cast in a small shed out behind the house and use lots of ventilation even in winter. Have always just used broken bits of paraffin candles for fluxing and do not breath any of the fumes that come off. Too many things out there in our world today that will mess up your lungs but good. No sense in coming up with exotic concoctions to do a simple job.
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HHHHMMMM. I have a 55lb sack of fine walnut media at home right now. I will try fluxing with virgin material and report.
Cheers from New Zealand
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I think Bill Fergusson and Glen Fryxell both know their respective chemistries. Ferguson gave me a prototype Corbin swaging press about 15 years ago. He told me once that..."Elderly is what senior citizens call old people. I'm elderly,” Glad he is still working in our area of interest. He is one of the good guys. Got supplies and a ton of advice when I knew even less than I do now. He was the guy I got my flux from. Essay W
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I've had terrific luck with pine pitch and the smell is not bad at all.
Bob
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Tried the walnut media this evening. Works VERY well. Smells not too bad either. Can't see me going back to sawdust.
Cheers from New Zealand
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Corn cob tends to hold water, so be careful and use little.
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Beeswax and paraffin work remarkably well. For ventilation in my garage, I use a small fan made by Stanley. It pulls the fumes off the top of the pot and immediately shoots them at a 90 degree angle away from the pot and at a distance of 10-15 ft from where I sit.
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I have used clean walnut shell for flux. It works as well as sawdust but it sure stinks very heavily. It sounds like Rice Crispies cereal in milk when clean walnut media is used for a flux. You get the snap, crackle and pop but an additional bad smell.
An interesting “free” flux I have used is leather grindings from a shoemaker mixed 1 part leather grindings, 1 part pine sawdust, 1 part ground charcoal. This flux is superior for pulling crud out of mystery scrap lead batches.
Gary
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