Well, its almost sawdust...

[SciFiJim]

I have been tempted to rig up a cover fixd so that I could use a very low volume argon supply to keep air out. Wouldn't that be so cool to still have the mirror shine after hours of being melted?

What I REALLY want to work out is a way to purge the mould cavities with argon right before filling when ladle-pouring, I think it would help making premium rifle boolits.

How about casting in something like a bead blasting box? You could purge the entire box of O2. Just have to make sure everything you needed was in the box before you closed it up.

[izzyjoe]

oh' man now where talking high tech like nasa or something, by the way i was just wondering if you could make a chamber that's under a vaccum and pour boolits. naw that's to high tech. i'll just stick with my fish cooker.

[myg30]

Saw dust, wood chips , shavings its all good. I also like to stir the pot with a wood stick, let it char and adds to the saw dust. Oak, hickory... smells so good too !! The smoke lets me know if the fan is doing its job of keeping the lead vapors away. If your smelling it than your breathing the lead also ! When im done castin, I stir the pot,scrape the sides and discard the crud. Leaves the pot clean to add lead for the next session.

If you do use a stick, make sure its dry ! Dip it into the pot SLOWLY, it will boil out the moisture in the wood !

Mike

[Wooserco]

Really old thread, but I had to speak up. Be very careful using Black Walnut in any vaporized form. I get nosebleeds from sanding in for more that 10 minutes without an organic canister respirator.

It's scientific name is Juglins Nigra: Juglone. It is a very powerful killer. Look it up.

[waksupi]

Saw dust, wood chips , shavings its all good. I also like to stir the pot with a wood stick, let it char and adds to the saw dust. Oak, hickory... smells so good too !! The smoke lets me know if the fan is doing its job of keeping the lead vapors away. If your smelling it than your breathing the lead also ! When im done castin, I stir the pot,scrape the sides and discard the crud. Leaves the pot clean to add lead for the next session.

If you do use a stick, make sure its dry ! Dip it into the pot SLOWLY, it will boil out the moisture in the wood !

Mike

You are not smelling lead unless you are heating above 1100 degrees. What you are smelling is the metal of the pot itself.

Years ago, Grumble sent me a boxful of pinion pine sticks. Love the smell of that.

[jimlj]

Would pellets for a pellet grill work? I was thinking of trying it the other day when I had the pot hot.

[SweetMk]

What is the story with sulfur??
I heard it is a flux of some sort,,

Anyways, I was trying everything to help my lawn in the spring, and I ended up ordering a LOT of 25 pound bags of sulfur,, cheap,,
I still have at least three bags,,

Next time I melt some wheel weights outside,, should I sprinkle some sulfur on the melt??

Lowes had it cheap, until I ordered three batches with free shipping,
then, they were "magically out of stock" the rest of the summer!!

[Conditor22]

Sulfur, used as a flux is mainly used to pull zinc out of your alloy.

IF there is no zinc in the alloy, it will pull any tin out.

[Hanzy4200]

You guys think that is a waste of walnut you should've seen the tree i used for firewood 3 years ago. Walnut straight as an arrow 24-30" at the base and atleast 20' to the first branch. Guy asked me if I wanted firewood where he was clearing a house lot and he already had this cut up for me in 18" lengths it about made me sick and when I explained what he had cut up to him I thought he was gonna cry. It burns mighty fine though and splits easy with an axe no splitter needed it is faster with a maul.

My father just sold a tree a hair bigger than this, for $2,000. Guy said it was going for high end luxury counter and table tops.

[Hanzy4200]

I flux with whatever I have handy. Sawdust, grease, candlewax, oil, whatever.

[dbosman]

Please be careful with wood. If you add too much, it starts to gassify at the surface of the melt - under the sawdust. Wood gas will exit the pot to the point it ignites. When ignited there will be a nice whooshing sound and a plume of fire until it burns off. Unfortunately the big handful I added kept producing wood gas which fed the plume of flame, which sucked up more gas which...
It was an exciting few seconds that seemed like to take a long time to finish.