New Guy, couple of ?

[larry357]

Iam gearing up to start casting, last week I cleaned up a batch of w/w in an old cast iron skillet. I fluxed with no-corrode plumbing flux seemed to work ok. read somewhere not to cast out of the cleanup pot, so today I made some muffins. when the lead melted it was dirty on top again so I fluxed it and skimmed it then fluxed it with t/c,s borebutter and skimmed that off. the muffins were shiny at first but after cooling they look dirty on top. ?#1: is the lead gonna oxidize every time I heat it up?
      ?#2 am I cookin the goodies out the lead?
there was maybe a tablespoon to skim off today out of about 15 lbs of melt. I havent been able to find beeswax or parrafin yet to flux with but I havent checked every store over in town.
       ?#3 will t/c,s borebutter mixed with beeswax make a decent lube?
       ?#4 will the borebutter be ok for a mould lube?
Sorry this is so long I read thru all the previous posts over the past couple of weeks. Thanx in advance for comments &info. , Larry

[Lloyd Smale]

yup
not enough to worry about
should be ok
just keep it out of the cavities

[The Shrink]

Lloyd, you're uncharacteristically short today!

Larry, you are right on track.  Everything you are describing is normal, at least for me.  I've found I get much more dross from a cast iron pot than from a stainless steel one.  When I pour out the lead from the cast pot I find some rust sliding around the bottom of the pot.  I gather that most of the dross I'm finding is iron oxide from the pot, that is, after I've cleaned up the stuff.  

Get a lead thermometer.  I finally did and my bullets stayed within one grain for the first time, not a single over or under weight.  It will also tell you if you are getting overly hot.  

A decent flux is about anything that will burn off.  I've heard, not used, oil soaked sawdust used oa a flux.

The only thing on a mold that you lube are the screws.  Keep all of it out of the cavity, with the possible exception of a release agent like mold prep.  That's very finely ground graphite suspended in alcohol.  

Your bullet lube will depend on what you are shooting and your shooting conditions.  Yeah, Bore Butter and beeswax will be decent, you adjust the proportion of each to adjust the hardness/softness of the lube.  Crisco and beeswax or Lanolin and beeswax or Tallow and beeswax will all work.  Adding a sapofier (soap) helps.  I use a tablespoon or so of Murphys Oil Soap.  

Have fun, don't be afraid to experiment, you simply re-melt your failures and try again!

Wayne the Shrink

[jgalar]

1) Where ever the lead is in contact with the air you'll get oxidation. The higher the heat the more you will get. As suggested, get a thermometer and cast at the lowest temperature that you can. For a bottom pour heater, use kitty litter on top of the melt to reduce the oxidation. For ladle casting, you will need to skim from time to time.

2)You are not going to cook out any gooddies, even if you want to. Once it is in the mix there isn't much you can do to get it out without a chemical or distilling process.

3)Never tried borebutter for smokless.

You can use a piece of crayon to flux. Parrafin can be bought at grocery stores. Bees wax can be bought at craft stores or http://www.texasdrone.com/
Fluxing does 2 things: it removes dirt and evenly distributes your goodies throughout the mix (kinda like stirring latex paint evenly distributes the color pigments)

4) Again never used borebutter to lube aluminum mold pins. Alox/beeswax bullet lube works best for me.

Pretty much giving you the same info as the other posters only less so.

Just curious, since you mention borebutter, as you casting for muzzleloaders or smokless? From my experience WW lead sucks for muzzleloaders.

[JBMauser]

If you can't find parrifin look for canning supplies at the grocery store.   I use birthday candles for flux.  I just snap them and slide a piece off the wick and in the pot it goes.  handy and I don't singe my hair with a 10 in. flame.  When I used to toss in a pea sized piece of beeswax I guess it was closer to a marble and you could roast a marshmello in the flame which took way to long to burn off.  Less is better and 3/8 in. of BD candle seems just about right for my lee bottom pour.  Best of luck JB

[jh45gun]

I used a mixture of bore butter and bees wax for a lub for my muzzle loaders and it worked fine. DO not see why it would not work for smokeless also. I have not tried it yet for smokeless but will when I cast for my 8mm. I want to try some low velocity loads with out the check cast as is in my 8mm.

[Lloyd Smale]

ps that no corode works great I used it on recomendation from the old moderator of this fourm Billy Marr. I cant find it localy anymore or id still be using it.

Iam gearing up to start casting, last week I cleaned up a batch of w/w in an old cast iron skillet. I fluxed with no-corrode plumbing flux seemed to work ok. read somewhere not to cast out of the cleanup pot, so today I made some muffins. when the lead melted it was dirty on top again so I fluxed it and skimmed it then fluxed it with t/c,s borebutter and skimmed that off. the muffins were shiny at first but after cooling they look dirty on top. ?#1: is the lead gonna oxidize every time I heat it up?
      ?#2 am I cookin the goodies out the lead?
there was maybe a tablespoon to skim off today out of about 15 lbs of melt. I havent been able to find beeswax or parrafin yet to flux with but I havent checked every store over in town.
       ?#3 will t/c,s borebutter mixed with beeswax make a decent lube?
       ?#4 will the borebutter be ok for a mould lube?
Sorry this is so long I read thru all the previous posts over the past couple of weeks. Thanx in advance for comments &info. , Larry

[larry357]

Thanks for the help guys, the reason I used no-corrode is I have some same goes for borebutter I have plenty of it for my frontstuffer. got some beeswax this morning at the hardware probably use it for lubes since so many cheaper fluxes are out there

[pistolfan]

Don't know if this will help you much but a few weeks ago I melted down a few hundred pounds of wheel weights and lino into ingots. The only thing I used to flux was just plain sawdust and it worked great, as good as or better then Marvolux from Brownell's, the ingots seemed much cleaner than the last time I did this using the Marvolux only, also when I melted this down in my casting pot to make bullets it didn't require so much fluxing to clean it up. I used sawdust for this also, puts a nice burning wood smell in the house though. The pot seemed yo stay clean throughout the melt als. Anyway hope this helps you a little, if nothing else sawdust is cheap. Peter

[calvon]

One guy says he uses olive oil. Puts it in a liquid soap dispenser and squirts it into the lead pot as needed.

Another guy, who lives in the west, uses pitch gum he gathers from Ponderosa pine trees. Ponderosa pine is oftentimes attacked by a beetle called the Turpentine beetle (Dentroctonus valens). The bug hits only the lower part of the tree and the tree usually pitches the bug out, leaving a little gob of pitch on the outside of the bark with a dead beetle in the middle of it. Collect these little gobs of pitch and use them for flux. It works good.