I use Marvelux only when making big batches of metal, IE., cleaning wheel weights. The rest of the time, I use wax. The best way to eliminate the flash (foom?) of the igniting wax I have found is use a BIC lighter or equivilant. When the wax starts to smoke, flick your BIC into the smoke. It may take a couple of flicks, but the ensueing flash up will be greatly reduced and nowhere near as scary. If you wait for the hot wax to get hot enough to ignite on it's own, the flash will be a lot bigger and will scare the pants off you. After 50 years of casting, I still get startled by the "foom", so I control it. Dump wax, ignite smoke, then stir. I use an old pistol gripped saw that holds a hacksaw type blade gripper with a set of vice grips. Saw looks liek a mini-keyhole saw with interchangeable blades. Vice grips keep the hands and fingers out of the flames.
Paul B.

Sawdust. Preferably pine and the more pitch the better but only because I like the smell. Actually any DRY sawdust is fine. Regards, Woody

I have been using Olive oil seems to work as well as anything I've tried and it smells much better than most.

Do any of you have a preference of one or the other as far as flux for your melt. I have been using a bit of wax, it works, but has a tendancy to scare the he!! out of me when when it ignites.

There has got to be something better, especially if it can be homemade.

Thanks

Mike

You'd think with the amount of melts I'd fluxed, that I wouldn't flinch at the foom of the wax igniting, but alas no, I always seem to pull the spoon back in a hurry.

I've heard that sawdust makes a good flux. I have plenty of old ski wax and crayons, so will stick with wax, and try and learn to deal with foom

Crisco is used on the bulk WW melts, then a layer of new (clean) organic clay based kitty litter is used on top of the bottom pour pot casting melts.

Using oil-based PAM cooking spray as a release agent on your ingot mold has a very nice secondary effect -- every ingot has a stiff oil-based coating of PAM all over the outside surface of every ingot.

Slide a new ingot into the casting melt & you just oil-fluxed it again with zero added effort on your part.

The organic clay in the floating layer of kitty litter breaks down slowly over time providing the rest of the needed fluxing action that is needed on a bottom pour pot (and providing an air sheild as well) once again at zero added effort on your part.

You don't have to stop and tend to the pot, you just add new PAM coated ingots and cast just as blazing hot & fast as you can.

Oldfeller