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fluxing to maintain desired lead alloy (1 reply)
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I am a bullet caster and am being told by the very experienced smelters/casters that if I don't flux and stir the melt that as I scrape off the dross I am actually removing the tin and antimony possibly to the point of ending up with pure lead. Being in the electronics industry for 40+ years I am very familiar with using flux to remove surface oxides and to ensure a clean solder joint. I understand using flux to help remove any oxides from the melt makes sense, but by not fluxing actually removing tin and antimony from the melt I don't buy it. The experts say to use wax, oil or pine sawdust and stir it into the melt to end up with simply black ash on top of the melt. I like to keep my melt at about 700 °F for best operation. I try to stir all the stuff floating on the top into the pot to reduce the amount of alloy that I would scrape off with the dross. In our wave solder machines we daily scrape off the dross and frequently send a melt sample out for analysis. To date we have not gotten results suggesting our alloy needed adjusting.
Am I fighting a loosing battle with the supposed experts and better served to be educated and keep my mouth shut?
Please enlighten me. Thank you.
PhilN