Pot Scrape/Cleaning
- Thread starter Dimner
- Start date
Bret4207
At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I thought that was the point? IIRC the char is whats supposed to do the "cleaning" and carry the crap to the surface. ???
The wood stick burns under the melt and pieces flake off and get trapped under the surface. Your defeating yourself with a wood stick. Carbon on the surface is what will clean the alloy but you need to stir in a manor that brings alloy from the bottom up to the surface and pour it through the carbon.
L Ross
Well-Known Member
Wait 'til he stains and finishes the handle. Maybe just a bit of silver wire inlay?
Bret4207
At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I don't seem to have that problem. Might again be the stainless pot, but as I stir the black carbon floats to the top. I get a layer of it and get very little additional crap. I continue stirring with the ladle after I get the char on top and draw it back through the mix many times. don't see much in the way of dross inclusions.
Winelover
North Central Arkansas
My main fluxing (sawdust) is done in the dutch oven smelting pot. Resulting in pretty clean ingots. I will flux again with pea sized balls of bullet lube at the start of the casting (ladle) session, only. I use two tablespoons..........one standard and the other with slots cut into it. I do it the way Rick describes...............bring alloy up from bottom and pour it though the bullet lube/sawdust. Starting off with the standard spoon and finishing with the slotted one.
When casting, sprues are dropped back into the pot, soon as they are cut. They don't have time to oxidize. I run my pot temperature a little higher to compensate for the slightly cooler sprues. Rare occurrence to actually have to empty the pot to clean/scrape.
At the end on my session, I empty the pot to roughly the one inch level. Mainly, because I don't trust them to work the next time I use them. Especially, the Chinese made RCBS Easy Melt or the Lyman Mag 25 furnace. I had the Lyman PID fail during a casting session. Turned out to be a blown mini fuse inside the pot housing.
I regularly, return clean rejects (bullets) back to the pot. No need to float a piece of metal..........that would interfere with the ladle. Reclaimed bullets are remelted during smelting.
When casting, sprues are dropped back into the pot, soon as they are cut. They don't have time to oxidize. I run my pot temperature a little higher to compensate for the slightly cooler sprues. Rare occurrence to actually have to empty the pot to clean/scrape.
At the end on my session, I empty the pot to roughly the one inch level. Mainly, because I don't trust them to work the next time I use them. Especially, the Chinese made RCBS Easy Melt or the Lyman Mag 25 furnace. I had the Lyman PID fail during a casting session. Turned out to be a blown mini fuse inside the pot housing.
I regularly, return clean rejects (bullets) back to the pot. No need to float a piece of metal..........that would interfere with the ladle. Reclaimed bullets are remelted during smelting.
Ian
Notorious member
False. The surface oxide skin forms before the metal even freezes.
Also, you ladle cast, so a little trash trapped at the bottom from recycling sprues is of no consequence.
farmboy
cookie man
I'm having the same problem with the yellow gunk in the bottom of the pot. I had emptied it 2 days ago and thought it was clean. Even tried to clean the nozzle. Somehow the yellow gunk plugged it. So today I need to figure how to un-plug it. Should I use a torch or a drill bit? What would you use?
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Dimner
Named Man
When I had this problem, I first emptied the pot and cleaned out everything I could. That way new gunk cannot get into the nozzle in the next step.
Then I filled it with super clean alloy, ran the pot at 775 degrees. After it reached temp, I waited 10 minutes for all the rest of the pot parts to heat up. This was just a precaution to make sure everthing in the nozzle had heat. Finally, i pushed a finish nail/Brad nail up the nozzle. Wear gloves trust me. After the nail was able to go in 3/4 to an inch, I switched to needle nose pliers and kept pouring and using the brad nail to keep the nozzle unobstructed. Poured about 3 pounds worth through it and never have had a problem again. I also never use sawdust flux. I just use wax to flux. Yeah, I said the word flux in reference to wax!
Then I filled it with super clean alloy, ran the pot at 775 degrees. After it reached temp, I waited 10 minutes for all the rest of the pot parts to heat up. This was just a precaution to make sure everthing in the nozzle had heat. Finally, i pushed a finish nail/Brad nail up the nozzle. Wear gloves trust me. After the nail was able to go in 3/4 to an inch, I switched to needle nose pliers and kept pouring and using the brad nail to keep the nozzle unobstructed. Poured about 3 pounds worth through it and never have had a problem again. I also never use sawdust flux. I just use wax to flux. Yeah, I said the word flux in reference to wax!
The nozzle on the Lee pot is interesting, a seat, then a larger hole ( where the crud collects) and then the nozzle. I use a bent 'dental pick' type tool, IF nozzle starts to drip, wiggle in nozzle and let lots of alloy drain out till a good stream. I rotate the spindle while scraping it upward with the spoon - bad stuff off the spindle floats to top.
I use a cake icing spatula that has a metal blade 1.25" wide and 7" long to scrape and stir the casting pot. I keep a #4 common finish nail clamped in the needle nose pliers to poke out the pour spout when necessary. That #4 finish is long enough to push up the metering rod so you get a little push from the lead to clear debris. Most times.
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I can't/won't speak for farmboy but I can assure you there is no marvacrap anywhere near my loading room. Hasn't been in at least 40 years and never will be again.
JonB
Halcyon member
Some people claim to have success using Marvelux. I think their secret is using a tiny amount...you know, the less is more theory...like using Lee liquid Alox.
Anyway, I got a Lee pot from another caster that had a constant plugging up problem and had a ring of yellow gunk in the pot. He used Marvelux, likely more than necessary. I cleaned up the pot and used a drill bit through the spout...that yellow stuff was incredibly difficult to remove.
Anyway, I got a Lee pot from another caster that had a constant plugging up problem and had a ring of yellow gunk in the pot. He used Marvelux, likely more than necessary. I cleaned up the pot and used a drill bit through the spout...that yellow stuff was incredibly difficult to remove.
Yep, and some people claim the world is flat.