Thread: Flux and casting

As mentioned by @Marty Henry...you ignite the smoke.
I cast bullets for many years (.45 and .58 cal).
I used to roll up a wee 'candle' of newspaper to ignite the smoke (yes, it really does burn).
Why not let it smoke? Because that smoke contains real bad shit. You do NOT want that smoking away inside your garage/shed to leave a toxic layer in the building.
Even when casting outside...ignite that smoke. The fumes are dangerous to not only you but particularly infants, small children, and pregnant women (can damage the foetus).
Wear gloves, and a mask. You do not want lead poisoning from your hobby.
Wash yourself after the casting is finished...a shower is good as fumes will have left crap in your hair too.
For flux, I too used bees wax, but a 1/2 walnut sized lump of dripping works just fine too.
Once it's fluxed, stir the hot mixture with an old hacksaw blade. The crap and slag will stick to the saw blade, then dong the saw blade onto a handy brick, rock, whatever and all the crap falls straight off.
Give another wee stir around. If the saw blade comes out clean then you are ready to cast.
Don't forget to heat your mold in the mixture so that lead and mold are similar temperature.
You can add the odd wheel weight to the brew to make it a 'harder' lead too. Antimony, from memory, is whats in the wheel weight.
Anyway, it's easy to do, but always remember about safe practices. Don't risk your health, or your kids health.