'Fluxing' lead

You can even use a piece of crayon.

I use chips of a homemade bullet lube that did not work out.

I've used wax and various other substances, but have since switched entirely to sawdust. This seems to do the best job of helping me get the crud out of the lead.

For tons more information on bullet casting, go to:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/

The main focus of that forum is bullet casting and most on there are extremely experienced reloaders.

Regards,

Dave

Try marvelux no smoke no fumes I think Midway sells it 1lb will last quite a while.

Like Highlander said, Marvelux works great, but if you really want to use parafin as I did for many years before trying Marvelux, it's available at most any grocery store. You'll find it in the "canning" section - people used to use parafin to seal jars of jams and jellies. It's very inexpensive and at my age a new box of it would last me the rest of my life.

Animal fat was used extensively from the ealiest times of fluxing alloyed lead. For years, I used deer fat. If you are indoors, it's not an ideal flux, not only because of smoke, but oder can be offensive.

I would like to add one thing about using Marvelux. You need to clean the spoon that you use to stir your lead mix with before using it again next time. Marvelux has the tendency of holding moisture. There is usually a hard buildup of Marvelux and dross on the spoon over time. If you don't clean it off, when you place the spoon into the hot lead, you will hear a sizzle sound which is the moisture making contact with the hot lead. Water and melted lead don't mix.

You need to clean the spoon that you use to stir your lead mix with before using it again next time. Marvelux has the tendency of holding moisture. There is usually a hard buildup of Marvelux and dross on the spoon over time. If you don't clean it off, when you place the spoon into the hot lead, you will hear a sizzle sound which is the moisture making contact with the hot lead.

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+1!

If you are really unlucky, you will hear a 'pop' and you will have hot molten lead raining down on you. Its happened to me exactly as described with the Marvellux and a spoon- luckily I was wearing a broad brim hat. The time between fluxings was only maybe a 1/2 hour as well. I'm a little leary of Marvellux since then and haven't had a single problem with wax or dry sawdust.

i used marvelux for a few years and like has been said i will hold moisture,, and it made my ladle hold the crap from the mix,, so now i go to odd lots and get candles,, you can get a box of the long ones for a few bucks and it works better for me.. it will smoke and you will have a little flame till it burns off... just my .02 YMMV

ocharry

wax/lube oil/sawdust almost anything will work.

I find that when casting with wheelweights,the melting oily crud on them serves as a good flux
BTW, as one slug caster to another,if casting with pure lead,cast hot! I had a lot of trouble getting proper fillout using a foster slug mold with (near) pure lead. Some tin definitely helps castability.

Another +1 for castboolits. Those guys know their stuff.

Most frightening flux ever

By the way +1 on sawdust, wax and marvelux (I use wax or sawdust personally)

But while I was doing some casting a while ago, my room mate had left a thing of margarine on the counter, it looked pretty gross, so I figured he wasn't going to eat any more (it had been there for a week with the lid off). So I added a little bit of it to my cast, well first came the smoke, then the fire (just like with wax), then came the most horrible smell I can imagine. The smell just continued, it smelled like being locked in a CONEX container with a flaming trashcan of fish. The most frightening thing about it, the margarine did not burn off. It just sat there, floating on top of the lead, still liquid showing no signs of leaving.

If margarine doesn't flash off like wax, butter, sawdust, wood, motor oil etc at the temperature of melting lead, what does it take to get it to break down in your body. I've never eaten margarine since then.

I've been casting bullets for about the last 35 years or so, and I've used just about everything imaginable for fluxing. I've been using Marvelux for about the last 20 years and really like it. It doesn't have the smoke and odor of some of the other things mentioned, which is a big plus.

As for the problem of it attracting moisture, that's true. The cure is to lay your stirring spoon on top of your lead melt for a couple of minutes prior to stirring. This will allow the moisture to evaporate prior to stirring the alloy, and there won't be any popping from the steam created when moisture meets molten lead. Also, sprinkle a little Marvelux over the lead placed in the pot prior to it melting completely. The heat will evaporate any moisture in the flux before it gets into the alloy.

During my last casting session last week, it was raining all day, and I was casting just inside the open door of my garage. The humidity was 100% and the rain was falling about 7 or 8 feet from where I was casting. I didn't have any problem with moisture in the Marvelux at all. I cast almost 4,000 bullets in that session, so if you learn how to use it, Marvelux is about the best product for the job.

Hope this helps.

Fred

Do you flux every time?

Okay, I'm admitting that I'm getting ready to take a step into a fairly unknown area. I have been reloading for a while, but since I reload fairly common stuff (9mm, 357 mag, 45, 22 hornet, 308, 40 S&W soon), I have never bothered to even consider casting my own bullets. But now ("but": the word in a sentance or paragraph that negates everything in front of it), since I just picked up a muzzle loader, I'm going to try my hand at casting my own shot for my "new" front stuffer. So here's the question.

First, do you have to flux the molten lead every time you melt it? Is fluxing to remove moisture, impurities, or both? After you flux the lead, then what? Do you just start casting or is there another few steps to cover? Is the flux just something to attract moisture while the lead is melting, or does it have another purpose?

Thanks a bunch.

D

I'm new as well and I've seen many people flux at regular intervals as well as right after adding new lead to the pot. Fluxing is usually only to remove impurities like organic matter and other crud. With my little experience, it does not seem to hurt to flux frequently. I have been using free tea candle wax and it works OK( beware of the flame though)Amazing how such a small amount of wax can flare up so ferociously! I think ill try some REAL flux next.

This is a four year old thread!

Since I posted here in 2007, I've stopped using Marvelux and now use regular old sawdust, preferably from a hardwood. Once the sawdust chars and produces the carbon necessary for fluxing, just stir and scrape off the residue. You can add sawdust to fluxed alloy and leave the chared ash on top, which will help to slow down the separation of the tin, antimony and lead.

Hope this helps.

Fred

Cheap candles ARE paraffin.