Tinsle fairy visits

[medic44]

I was outside yesterday smelting when a drop of sweat fell into the pot. Lesson learned- must cast in cooler and less humid weather:shock: :shock:

[mtgrs737]

That can be a real eye opener, lets you know you can still move pretty fast! I have a couple hundred pounds of WW's to smelt but I am waiting for cooler weather 102 here today!

[Pepe Ray]

Gotta be careful of random bugs as well. Flies, skeeters, all contain water.
Pepe Ray

[Nueces]

I hope you escaped without 'hotspots', medic44. And thanks for the story - I came close to the same result some years back.

Mark

[cohutt]

I hear you. Sweat on the melt pops some but not like sweat or water IN the melt. A damp WW will give those tinsel fairies turbo-wings. Learned that in a rather short but intense "event".
(Sidebar: My smelt area is on the hot side of the house next to the A/C tower. Add 2 weeks of 100+ temps with no rain and a 700 degree pot of molten lead and you have a perfect simulation of hell for those who are interested in a test drive).

Since i sweat like a 'ho in church, i've made some adjustments to my smelt layout:

I ease lead into the pot using a standard shovel with a 5' handle.

I stir with a 3' BBQ fire poker that also conveniently lifts the lid off dutch ovens.

When i skim and pour ingots, i have started making myself sit down next to the pot on a conrete block on end- perfect height.

This does a few good things for me-
1- keeps me from leaning over the pot and dripping gallons of sweat into the smelt
2- keep me from leaning over the pot to better enjoy the heat and fumes.
3- keeps me from leaning over the pot and stiffening up my 47 year old back for the whole week after "smelt day".

[piwo]

I love my inside casting setup, but one day a pop up shower roared in. I looked at my venting and realized that it would be possible for some water to make its way down into the pot if it hit just right. Modification on angles of the venting were done quickly there after!

[Buckshot]

..............Nothing but sizzling occurs with water dripping on the surface. I'd have no issues putting a pot full out in the rain. Hold on to your britches if water somehow ends up under the surface. The more hot molten lead over the water there is, the more violent and explosive the result will be.

Since steam creates a bubble with equal pressure in all directions, if water somehow ended up more then halfway down the pot, you'd have the equivilent of a morterload of hot molten lead being violently ejected. Sweat dripping in the pot would be a non-issue. However, I'd sure adjust my casting stance so my head wasn't over the pot :-)

................Buckshot

[Ron.D]

I'm with Buckshot on this one. I started plumbing back in 1964, on a highschool, where there were 15 plumbers, most working with lead and oakum. I've seen those pots running in a light rain, no problem. A drop of sweat wouldn't bother me either. The only time I've seen it crackle a bit was when there was an extreme amount of dross on the surface, causing the surface layer to become porous. I've seen a few tinsel fairies, but always from cold lead being added to the pot. That's why I made a lead smelter capable of melting 4 buckets of WW's at a time. once the melt has started, the only lead or WW's I add are at least part way up to temp. i.e. at or near the boiling point. Ron.D

[Johnch]

I almost emptyed a 20 lb pot
I had just broght in some ingots from outside
They were 0 - -5 F
I sat a ingot on the lip of the pot , someting I had done hundreds of times
I went upstairs to do something when a ingot must have sliped into the pot , maybe from the door slamming shut

Coming in from 0 or lower , it allowed the ingot to sweat , droping in to the pot put water deep into the pot
Covered the walls , ceiling and bench with the contents of the pot

Glad I had just steped out

Water and 750 degree lead don't mix well [smilie=1: [smilie=1:

John

[jhalcott]

I had a moth or some other large bug drop into the pot once. The resulting POP sent a bit of lead into the air. Not enough to "paint the wall" but just enough to stain my under wear!

[fatnhappy]

If your life is dull and boring, spice it up by tossing a cold ingot in the pot. Mine had almost enough power to start nuclear fusion judging by the size of the blast.

I blew a 1" hole through the side of a 40# plumber pot. [smilie=1:

[trooperdan]

I once had a buddy that was a single E-6 barracks rat; his spare time was spent haunting the ranges at FT Bragg NC. He was always bringing in the oddest stuff, sometimes by the case! :) Amazing what you can find with a 4-wheel drive, a lot of time and 50,000 acres of range! :)

So, anyway, one time he brought me a three gallon pail of lead projectiles, about .50 or a bit less, nearly 2 inches long and each a couple of ounces of lead, no jacket! Interesting stuff! I had an old Lee electric pot nearly full of alloy so I warmed her up and when it got melted, I dropped a handfull of the beauties into the melt and went for a brew! The tinsel fairies called a convention and had a party! It seems that each one of those projos had a primer or some type of detonator in it! I had 10 pounds of lead in places where I was still finding it for years!

Turns out these were sub-caliber rounds for mortar short range practise. They are usually loaded in 20 gauge shotgun hulls and fired from a 82 mm mortar and give off a smoke puff on impact. These had all apparently functioned by impact but there was something still "live" in them. Oddly enought I recently saw the Ammunitionstore was selling the loaded rounds (briefly) and talking about what fun they were fired from a shotgun! I didn't see them listed long and I wish I had bought a can of them!