Fluxing, how often?

[Dales66Ford]

I have been reading and trying to absorb as much info as I can from this site. I mostly do pure lead casting and my fluxing so far has been simple. The one thing I have gathered from this site is that there are no rules when it comes to fluxing. Sawdust, wax, left over hair out of the drain, as long as you flux, doesn't matter the material. I would like to know how often the alloy needs to be fluxed. Is there any indication from the melt that it needs to be fluxed again?

[John Boy]

I flux the melt 2x before I start casting and that's it for the pot

[Dales66Ford]

Regardless of how long the casting session is?

[olereb]

I'm pretty new to casting but I have had good luck with fluxing 2-3 times with pine that I bought in a large bag at target,its sold as pet bedding.

[wv109323]

I flux once or twice at the beginning of a casting session and then at least once every time I add lead to the pot.

[geargnasher]

If using pure lead, all you need to do is reduce the oxides with a little wax. Sawdust is fine too, but un-necessary for clean metal that just needs the oxides turned back into useable metal.

Gear

[bangerjim]

I flux 3x and reduce 3x when smelting to get ultra pure ingots of whatever.

Then I use ONLY bees wax in the casting pot, as the lead I put in there is as pure as it can possibly get.

And since I do not run the pot really....really hot, I get very little tin oxide on the top. A marble size piece of beeswax at the beginning and then when I refresh the pot with more ingots, I use another piece. It puts the tin right back in there....just like magic!!!!!!!!! Using wood and other crapola in the casting pot just gets crud in there to get stuck in the bottom valve. Using wax only gives me clean pure shiny lead and boolits all the time....every time And please.............do NOT go on and on about wax not being a flux.....I know that! It is a reducer and that is what I am after in the casting pot. Flux is to clean up the filthy crud we melt in the smelting process.

bangerjim

[Dales66Ford]

Same procedure and frequency for all alloys the same?

[eljefeoz]

Banger jim is the man!
Your initial melt of WW and stuff needs all the help to keep the good stuff in it.Once you have the (hopefully) cleanest alloys possible, and start to melt those for boolit casting, go with what you see/experience
Your alloy/set up may be different.No hard and fast rule about when and how much.

[novalty]

I flux 3 times with pine sawdust when melting down a dutch oven of wheel weights. When I fill the dutch oven back up, I flux 3 times.

[country gent]

Let your eyes tell you how often to flux when the pot starts looking dirty or dull on top its time to tune it up. I cast from a 100lb pot laddle cast so when I start seeing that "dirty" look I flux with beeswax or sawdust whatevers handy. Only takes a few mins to do and keeps the pot looking better and bullets running better.

[Dales66Ford]

Have fluxed various alloys in a Dutch oven, just never in a bottom pour pot. Getting one soon and not wanted to hose the process up on my first session. Muzzleloader bullets with a dipper seems easy enough. We will just have to see how it goes.

[graphic914]

I have read on other forums to use common candle wax

[jmort]

If you have spent a couple/few hours on this site, and have reads a couple/few threads on fluxing, and you still are not convinced of the wisdom offered here, then use "common candle wax." There is fluxing and reducing, and for the latter, "common candle wax" would be an decent reducer.

[detox]

Bottom pour or Ladle method? When using the bottom pour I flux /stir about every 60 boolits. When using the ladle I flux about every 30 boolits because of heavy dross build up on surface of melt and on ladle. Dross inside of mould causes voids. I use wax.