Bullet Casting Help

Some use wood chips . May produce less smoke. If the pot is hot, the smoke from flux , 50/50 lube, will catch fire. Some light it with a match. I don't have a good answer for you. Ask here. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?8-Cast-Boolits

You wold probably get more nasty stuff when you smelt down raw wheel weights than when you flux.

On the other hand, if your buying your lead, in most cases it has already had the yucky stuff burned off. When you flux, you can keep the smoke to a minimum by lighting it off as soon as you put it in. Most nowadays are using sawdust, which when tossed across the top of molten lead starts to smoke pretty good if left alone. However, if you toss a match on top or use a BBQ lighter to light it up it has very little smoke, and what smoke does come up isn't anything but the wood burning. It's not going to make any more fumes than the molten lead is putting off. Even the lead won't be, or shouldn't be putting off much if anything if your keeping your temps to around 650-700 degrees.

I cast inside my 16x24 shop. I put up a box fan in the door leading outside and get on with things. When I light up my flux it smokes a little but nothing outrageous. What little smoke DOES come up is not enough to smoke up the entire room, and no more than a BBQ grill would produce. It will only last until the sawdust has charred over anyway and once it does that your good to go. Stir stir stir and scoop.

I use candle wax for flux when smelting. Usually self ignites quick enough. Not smokey if i light it and a small amount if i let it catch flame.

Like already mentioned, most smoke will come from dirty wheel weights and such.


I think my biggest concern would be the well water if they use a well. Do it on top of an area that you can clean up more easily like a concrete pad if possible.

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Or buy some Marvelux

I just realized I forgot to flux the last 50 lbs of range bullets I smelted then cast back into bullets.

Didn't seem to have any effect though with my bottom pour setup.

When the wax starts to smoke you can light it. It smokes a lot less then. Beeswax smokes even less and has a fairly pleasant smell, at least to a caster. How close are you to your neighbors? I don't see a casting pot being any worse than a rough running car or lawnmower.

The smoke really isn't Hazardous per say , it will not contain lead only smoke from your flux , if you use beeswax , wood sawdust , wood chips , candle wax , and stuff like that. Warning bees wax will burst into flames and burn , in theory the flames keep it from smoking....in theory, in practice it smokes.
Stay away from motor oil soaked sawdust...it works but stinks and smokes to high heaven !
Do what Longhorn 76 says to use...Marvelux ! It's a commerical flux, made for ...fluxing . It does not burst into flame or burn , smoke or stink . Use it and there will be no smokey stinky. I use it and throw in with it some cedar shavings , just a little , because the cedar smells good. Just follow the directions or the Marvelux...the stuff works vey well and I've tried all the home-made fluxes. Actually Beeswax is good too except for the bursting into flames part.
Some will tell you not to use it but it's just what you need in your case.
Gary

tea cup candles and saw dust.

I too live in a Mobile Home park, with close neighbors. I cast/flux and nobody knows what I'm doing unless they can see me (but who pays that much attention to me? If anyone asks I'm making sinkers). Smoke from fluxing stinks, most of the time, but is not hazardous. Prolly much less intrusive than lighting a charcoal BBQ. As the fellers note above, wax fluxing smoke can be lit and it'll burn clean. Besides there ain't enough to be bothered with at 20 feet...

Interested in casting bullets but I live in a mobile home park and realize the smoke from fluxing the molten lead will be hazardous to my neighbors.

Any work arounds to this issue?

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False assumption. Junk science put out by the EPA to curtail the shooting sports and justify their jobs. Lead is heavy,(DUH). It does not float very far even IF there was some dust involved. Lead does not vaporize under 1200 degrees, so that is not a factor as long as you keep the temp down around 7-750 degrees F.

G11354 said:

Appreciate the feedback. My neighbors live about 24ft from my house, I'm in a mobile home park so not much space between homes.

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I lived in a mobile home. Not a big deal. As long as you ain't spilling lead all over the yard have at it.

Its not gonna smoke that much at all. If your concerned use the wax by itself and light it. It doesn't smoke much at all.

Saw dust will a little. But again not much. Heck both will smoke a lot less than a charcoal grill.

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There are two stages to casting. Ingotizing and boolit making.

First you take your lead and melt it all down in a large pot or smelter (Satans smelter perhaps?) and then you add in your pine shavings and beeswax. Pine shavings first, beeswax after you stir up the pine shavings and there is a lot of ash floating on top. Then you add in your beeswax and stir the pot some more.

Then you scrape off the garbage on top (DROS) and either ladle out the lead into ingot molds or you pour it out into ingot molds.

Once you have your ingots made and stored, you return later to melt your ingots to make boolits. Ideally you should have two pots, one for scrap and making ingots with and one for CLEAN lead ingots. Then you just melt your lead ingots, maybe mix in some antimony (Lino type) and cast your boolits.

Smoke will happen. No matter what you put in that pot on your ingot run it will most likely smoke. Rubber/foam off wheel weights, stickers, adhesive, glue, paint, powdercoat, you name it, it will smoke. Keep the organics that you put in to a minimum and keep it to CLEAN organics and the smoke is not so bad. But in the end, two showers will be needed to UNSMOKE you - Else you will be walking around like me and sniffing yourself and your clothes and apologizing for smelling like a meth head to everyone... Castboolits is an excellent source for casting. I am a very firm believer that you should flux with pine shavings initially, and then add in beeswax later after the pine shavings have been reduced to ashes.

Once you start casting, get into powdercoating. You will save yourself a LOT of money by casting and powdercoating your boolits.

I buy the lizard litter at Petco for my tumbling media. It's walnut shells. It also makes a fine flux and doesn't stink. it just smells like burning wood or charcoal. The downside is that it might attract neighbors hoping for a free hamburger from your grill

Remember though, DON'T use your old tumbled shells with whatever cleaner/polisher/copper oxide in it. Use new from the bag.

I cast just inside the door of my garage. I have a portable floor fan behind me to keep the smoke from going back towards the inside of my house. I'm using an electric pot and just plug the fan into the same surge protector and extension cord that the pot uses.

If you will set up a fan to direct and disperse the smoke in non-objectionable direction, I doubt your neighbors will say anything.

I don't see how burning paraffin wax is hazardous to your neighbors. Paraffin and bullet lube worked perfect for over 100 years. Today, the in-thing is sawdust, so that is just like a wood fire.
Temps aren't any where high enough for lead fumes to be a problem and, if they were, they would be a problem all the time and not just while fluxing.