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Fluxing boolit metal

Twowings2U
50 years ago I was fluxing with a bar of Sal Ammoniac--scraping it
to get an amount of powder sufficient to do the job..
Today I have 10# of ammonium chloride in powder form--I plan on
dampening it with water & compressing it into pellets, drying out the water in an oven,then forcing one under the surface of the molten metal in a Stainless steel screenwire basket, letting the gas generated
stir the melt & bringing the dross to the surface..
Anybody got an alternate method??
What about using hot paraffin to bind the NH4CL ?---mix hot, pour in a pan & cut into cubes ??
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Comments

12 comments

Date Votes
  • cbyerly
    That sure involves a lot of extra effort. Bee's wax is cheap and plentiful. A 10 lb block of wax will last for years.
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  • Ambrose
    "boolit"??
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  • MIKE WISKEY
    ""boolit"??"................THATS HOW SOME BULLET CASTERS SPELL 'BULLET' AFTER SNIFFING SAL AMMONIAC FOR YEARS[:D]
    PERSONALY I LIKE BEE'S WAX BETTER. S.A. MIGH BE GOOD FOR 'TINNING' A SOLDERING IRON BUT BEE'S WAX SMELLS BETTER
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  • charliemeyer007
    Bee's wax for me. Sometimes a little pine pitch amber, it seem to help keep bullets shiney longer.

    Any kind of wax and lots of it for reprocessing slag or other dirty lead.
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  • bpost
    The phone company used a stuff called STREEN (?). It is a rendered animal fat that fluxes lead an lead alloys to perfection. I still have some for doing large posts of wheel weights.

    I simply use a bit of boolit lube these days with great results.
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  • dcs shooters
    I used MARVELUX when I was casting. It works very good. I still have a jar of it, if anyone can use it.
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  • jonk
    Wood shavings, or a hard wood dowel do the trick just fine. Smells nice too.

    I'd have big, big concerns about your method. Ammonium chloride may or may not work, but would be caustic to the pot, and is somewhat hygroscopic, and ANY water- even just moisture in the air on a ladle or in this case on your pellets, which they will absorb unless vacuum sealed immediately after oven drying, will cause a visit from the tinsel fairy...
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  • Twowings2U
    bpost---The phone co uses pure STEARENE- AS OPPOSED TO THE PETRO
    CHEMICAL Styrene..... your definition is correct--it is a highly refined
    product from animal fat..it is a soldering flux that is LESS corrosive than rosin core solder...
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  • Twowings2U
    Where's a good place to buy Bees Wax----might be a shortage, since
    the bee population is dwindling.

    BTW, I wuz just gonna use the NH4Cl on a big batch of dirty lead--

    Plumbing, sheet lead,caulked lead joints from Cast Iron pipe, and a big old window frame from a X-Ray room---almost dead soft--but measures 8.7
    BH. Plus a buncha Wheel Wts.
    I wouldn't risk on my spotted organ pipe metal--50% Tin !!
    Just gonna clean upall the dirty stuff before I start blending boolits.

    Thanks fellas for all the info---
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  • bpost
    This is where I get my bees wax.

    http://www.dadant.com/?gclid=CNuBsL_lz7MCFcxcMgodGy8A6Q
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  • rusty3040
    for large batches outside i use hardwood sawdust and motor oil mixed , this combo works better than anything , it leaves a film on top sealing lead from the air
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  • Hawk Carse
    A friend and I use pieces of a failed homemade bullet lube. Contains beeswax as most do.
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