Metal Casting Zone

After my last lost wax brass casting run was not too successfull I have been looking at the area of melting of metals ,,in my case the brass alloy .
Could anyone give me advise on the correct method to melt the alloy
A) I should heat the melting pot to melting temp ,then add the alloy??
or
B Add the alloy to the melting pot and bring up the temp with the alloy in the melting pot. I am woundering if the later allows the brass to oxidise before it melts and can cause problems in the end casting.

Should the molten brass be stired at any time before pouring.???
Thanks Johncast

i slowly bring the pot and the brass up to temp then i "give it to it"! i used to have the pot glowing with full blast at the beginning but have found that by bring it slowly to heat is best. i always stir mine. there seems to a fair bit of crap in my brass and stirring brings it to the top where i skim it off! i cant remove all so i slowly pour and the crap goes to the bottom. to avoid this crap going into the mould i melt plenty of brass and pour the rest out into thin "sticks (like sticks of solder) i find that the pigged "sticks" are great for topping up my pot and are easy to insert into the hot crucible (pot lol)btw. i never use flux!!this seems to allow the crap to "dissolve" into metal and causes grief in the casting.mind you im using brass with high zinc content and it may be different for other mixes.

I basically do the same as XL, I give it a good stir let it sit a min then skim all i can. ive done this on all different types of brasses and bronze and it has been working well. When you have the brass skimmed properly the surface of the molten brass should be shiney with just a few tiny floaters (dark colored specs). You have asked several times of pour temp for brass, I have no way of measureing temp i just heat untill i dont see any mush (like when you freeze a soda) when I stir and give it a couple more minutes untill its all gone, then skim and pour.
once you quit useing the flux you are going to see a drastic difference Trust us and go for it. The flux is definetly 99.5% of your troubles.

Thanks again XL and Aone for your help. This casting business has so many facets to it , one small detail can be the differents between good or bad castings. I have decided on some changes to be made during my next brass casting run and will post some results when complete. Thanks again.Johncast

I cant wait to see your results on the next cast

i think you will lick it this time!!! i look forward to hearing how it went!

I was looking for some nice brass metal finishing for a custom metal art order from www.torchcraft.com. The brazing idea with brass is what I was considering. Any thoughts?