NOTE THIS IS MY OWN Experience. IT IS NOT A RECOMMENDATION. JUST A TEST. NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR HARM OR INJURIES IF YOU ALSO USE THIS Procedure. iT IS JUST ONE I FOUND ON THE INTERNET AND TRIED. IT WORKED FOR ME.
HAZARDOUS FUMES WERE CREATED. SO A COMMERCIAL Degassing FLUX IS Recommended.
I have been doing quite a bit of casting. Some of the parts cast needed to be machined. In particular a couple blocks I cast for building a mold.
I found I have a lot of small gas bubbles in the casting. Hundreds of them. I understand they are hydrogen bubles comming out of suspension during sloidification. They are about the size of a grain of sand. It does not work well for mold making.
I have spent several days pouring tests. I have been testing various home brew degassing flux I found on the internet. Some were a wast of time. What has worked rather well was a combination of materials found at the local grocery / hardware store. I found thishome brew on the internet.
after the melt was molten, I used a standard cleaning flux using a pipe nipple on the end of a 4ft steel rod. I actually built 4 of them. So I could have them ready. I left the dross created, on top.
Then I installed a 1" chlorine tablet in a nipple and put it at the bottom of the melt. I melted about 25 lbs of aluminum. No recommendation of quantity of chlorine was given in the article. It bubbled violently and splattered aluminum about the furnace. Very gladI wore safety gear. It give off a dangerous chlorine gas so be well ventilated, and stay clear of fumes. USE a chemical mask for chlorine etc. NOTE: BE SURE TABLETS ARE VERY DRY. VERY VIOLENT REACTION COULD COME FROM DAMP CHEMICALS BEING PLACED INTO MOLTEN METAL!!!
Then I installed some "light salt" It was fairly uneventful. A little bubbling. Then I shut the furnace down, during falling temperature, I installed another chlorine tablet. More violent bubbling. The article I read said several treatments of chlorine tablet would be needed. Then I cleaned the top of the melt and poured it in a mold.
A hour later I removed the block, cut it open on the band saw. Wow, no more gas bubbles.
This was a positive experiment. I don't like the chlorine vapor issue, but it worked for this test. I don't recommend the chlorine.
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