Infared thermometer

[SWANEEDB]

Was at a g-show this past w-end, a gent had a Raytec infared thermometer on his table, batt was low so did not work properly, gave him 30 bucks and brought it home with me, stopped buy a store, bought a 9 volt batt, it works great, goes up to
750 degrees, just hold it a couple inches from the molten lead and you got your temp, plus or minus 1 degree, beats the heck out of the others that you stick in the pot, do a google on Raytec, sells new for about $50 or you can go real wild and get a better one.

[lwknight]

Most peoples experience with the IR thermometer is that they are not reliable on shiny surfaces. I suggest that you test the results a few times before you trust it too much.

[mooman76]

I have heard to float a small piece of steel in the lead to get a reading off of.

[cajun shooter]

I have a infared that I purchased from Sears for Automotive work. It goes to around 1200 degrees. I have never been able to achieve a good reading because of the reflective nature of the lead. I tried to use it in my turkey pot also with the same results. It works very good on things it was made for but lead is not one of them.

[Shooter6br]

Use a Harbor feight pocket model . Up to 420 degree F i use it to check mold in mold warmer Besides it is fun to play with the laser Get a coupon and it is 20% or more off price

[Shooter6br]

I use this model

[wiljen]

I found that I could aim the thing at the side of the pot just above the junction with the lead and get a pretty solid reading out of one. Pointing it directly at even a clip floating in the lead gave garbage readings.

[454PB]

Drop a COPPER penny or large gas check in the pot. It will turn black and not reflect the light.

[John Boy]

IR thermometers only measure surface temperature. It's the temperature of the melt down in the pot that should be measured

[montana_charlie]

it works great, goes up to 750 degrees, just hold it a couple inches from the molten lead and you got your temp, plus or minus 1 degree,
What if your lead is at 760 degrees?
The thermometers most of us use go up to 1000 degrees, and there is a reason for that.

It should be useful for checking mould temperatures, though.
CM

[mold maker]

Drop a COPPER penny or large gas check in the pot. It will turn black and not reflect the light.

Remember that todays penny is copper clad ZINC.
Do you really want to add zinc to the mix????

[454PB]

That's why I emphasized a COPPER penny or gas check.

[BoolitSchuuter]

Infrared thermometers are calibrated to a "Black body" source. any dark surface allowed to come to the same temp as the lead should give a reasonably accurate reading. Without the dark surface, the reading could be off as much as 10%.
The reading will invariably be low. Higher end infrared thermometers usually provide a list of correction factors for various surface reflectivity. Raytech was one I used to use regularly. I would suggest a thin steel disk painted with a high temp flat black paint. This will allow a quick heat soak and an optimum surface to get an accurate reading with an inexpensive thermometer.