This is not casting weather

[stang68]

Just when I thought I was starting to make some progress in learning to cast good boolits I'll probably have to have short early morning sessions or put future casting on hold until Sept. But it's a "dry heat", right?

Metro Phoenix forecast

* Sun 110 / 80 * Mon 112 / 80 * Tue 107 / 81 * Wed 107 / 79
* Thu 105 / 80 * Fri 102 / 77

[A J]

Dry heat? So's my oven!

[Fly]

You got that right!
Fly

[RU shooter]

The night time temps dont look so bad:p couple flood lights and yer set!!!!What about inside with the A/C on! just dont flux!!!

[mooman76]

I avoid casting in summer but have done it on occasion. It isn't too bad early in the morning in the shade. I know about the heat. My A/C just went out and they replaced the whole system this morning. All I can think is I could have bough a pile of decent guns for the money I spent on that.

[Muddy Creek Sam]

102* heat index, Want to try it with Humidity?

Sam :D

[357maximum]

Metro Phoenix forecast

* Sun 110 / 80 * Mon 112 / 80 * Tue 107 / 81 * Wed 107 / 79
* Thu 105 / 80 * Fri 102 / 77



If I had to choose between that and living in Siberia..........I would choose Siberia in less than a heartbeat......I have no clue how you all do it.

[jonblack]

I am in Louisiana. We always like to think it gets hotter here than anywhere else. Granted it is hot, sticky, muggy, swampy, and whatever else you think might sound miserable. However, we are not 110 °F more like 102 °F. Like someone else said, I don't know how y'all (you guys) do it.

jonblack

[jonblack]

I did my very first smelt the other night. I finally got enough gear together to give it a try. I was about midnight before I was making the sweet stinky smoke that can only be rendered from stick-on wheel weights. Anyway, it's June and that means June bugs! Those suckers were landing in my muffin pans every time I turned around. Luckily I didn't have any get in my pot.

I know I cooked at least one in the muffin pan. After reading about lead explosions and the Tinsel Fairy, I am glad I didn't have any accidents.

So, trying to beat the heat means I have to dodge the bugs.

jonblack

[stang68]

Casting inside isn't an option, I'd be having to find a new place to live.

I spent my first 18 years in Maryland so I know about humidity, but I can't handle it now. Many years ago I took my soon-to-be wife to MD in August to meet my parents. It was 100 degrees and near 100% humidity, she figured I took her there to kill her so I wouldn't have to marry her.

We handle it with A/C and swimming pool. If I have yard work or whatever outside to do, I put on my swim suit and jump in every 15 or so minutes. Same when I have my Friday night cigar. I'd rather have hot weather than cold and snow.

I have about 300 or more of my boolits and about 1000 others so I can make it through the summer, my shooting range sessions will be short in the early morning.

[357maximum]

I do 98% of my smelting in that sweet bit of time between the snowshovel and the lawnmower. Nothing quite like the smell of spring breezes and burnt valve stems to lift ones spirit.

[casterofboolits]

I smelted 140 pounds of 50/50 range lead and WW, then started casting 45C-250-RNFPBB and 45-200- SWCBB H&G 68's. Made 1,800 45C and 900 #68's.

I have an old food servoce bldg with exhaust hoods, so I smelt inside with a Plumbers pot. Also cast under an exhaust hood. With a fan blowing I am fairly comfortable.

Temp was 85 degrees and 90% humidity.

[Crash_Corrigan]

Hello from Vegas. It is as I type this 101 degrees outside. Going up to 105 today and up around 110 on Sunday and Monday.

The air conditioner went mammaries up last weekend. It starting blowing hot air out of the vents at 0200 and woke me up with the smell of something not normal. I had to go outside in my Dr. Denton's and pull the main fuse to the AC to stop it. The control had gone bonkers.

The AC people arrived at noon on Saturday and informed me that the AC was new 27 years ago and that they stopped making parts for the control unit over 10 years ago and there were no parts available to repair the controls. I could heat only and that would be either heat or no heat...no thermostadt controls whatsoever. The AC was toast.

Knowing what was coming as far as weather and heat I opted to replace the unit. $8,615 is what it cost me to get it done. Monday at 1015 AM the boys arrived and it was complete by 12:30 PM.

Having suffered through last summer with an old unit that would not cool the house below 85 degrees on the hot days and being forced to use window AC units to supplement the main AC to keep cool and pay over $300 monthly for electric I am looking forward to more comfort for less cost this summer.

It is over 100 degrees outside right now but a comfortable 76 degrees inside and I am not using the window AC units....just the main AC. Maybe my monthly bill will be lower....we will see.

As far as casting....only in the AM on the porch in the shade with a cool adult beverage at my fingertips.

[Bill*]

As far as casting....only in the AM on the porch in the shade with a cool adult beverage at my fingertips.

HMMMMMM......I always waited till noon for the adult beverage so the neighbors wouldn't talk HeHeHe :rolleyes:

[GP100man]

But it`s all preheated & ya can melt it faster!!!!!

Think of the propane ya savin !!!

[Echo]

HMMMMMM......I always waited till noon for the adult beverage so the neighbors wouldn't talk HeHeHe :rolleyes:

It's always after noon somewhere!

Tucson is cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, than Phoenix, but we are still doing the 100* shuffle here. But when we say 'Dry Heat', we mean it. Being born & raised in Houston, I understand humidity. But when it's 103*, with a dew point of 20*, it's just hot, not AWFUL! 103* and a dew point of 70* is AWFUL! Seldom sweat here - the perspiration just evaporates out of our pores. We perspire, just hardly ever sweat, and that can be a problem, as we are losing moisture unbeknownst, and can get into a medical emergency with little warning. I always warn my museum visitors (drive a tram for Pima Air & Space Museum - see pimaair.org) to maintain hydration. Plenty of water coolers around, and bottled water if so inclined.

And I do my smelting outside, and cast in my storage room turned into a reloading room in the garage area. W/AC.

[kirb]

I would be happy if it would get 60 degrees, no AC needed year but still lite a fire at night.

Kirb

[GeneT]

I'm having a hard time feeling sympathetic. It's not casting weather here, only because it won't stop raining. I haven't seen a day over 80* in many months...

GsT

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

Yesterday we only had 102, but it was only 10% humidity, dry heat, but still hot, no ac on yet, (but we have used the ceiling fans) our house only got up to 83, cooled down to 79 this morning before I opened the front door and turned on the fan, then it dropped to 74 inside.

I cast in the carport in the morning while it is in the 70's, no problems!

We live at 4300' elevation, about 8-10 degrees cooler than Tucson usually.

I don't miss the humidity and black flies and skeeters from Vermont!

[44fanatic]

Yesterday we only had 102, but it was only 10% humidity, dry heat, but still hot, no ac on yet, (but we have used the ceiling fans) our house only got up to 83, cooled down to 79 this morning before I opened the front door and turned on the fan, then it dropped to 74 inside.

I cast in the carport in the morning while it is in the 70's, no problems!

We live at 4300' elevation, about 8-10 degrees cooler than Tucson usually.

I don't miss the humidity and black flies and skeeters from Vermont!

I do miss those Sierra Vista summers. Comfortable compared to Phoenix and Tucson.

[buck1]

110 yesterday, 105 today!

[blikseme300]

I cast, lube and reload in our short winter here in deep south Texas. Anything less than 60* is considered "very cold". Yeah, it is humid & hot or hot & humid most of the the year down here.

I recently upgraded my play room to have proper insulation and A/C so I can now reload in comfort. Yee-Haw!

Bliksem

[stang68]

We have a "cold front" moving in this week-end, supposed to be 92 on Sat. and 95 on Sunday but I'm having surgery on my right eye to remove a large floater today, don't know what I'll be able to do but I'm thinking it should be OK for casting by then. Wish me luck please, I shoot bad enough as it is, don't want anything to happen to my right eye.

[ghh3rd]

I'm in Florida - not as hot as where you are, but the garage does get uncomfortable. When SWMBO goes out, I slip into the garage and use a fan to pump cold air from the house into the garage. Another fan pushes fumes away from me to a half opened garage door.

Probably use a couple bucks worth of air conditioning, but sure does feel good :-)

[Down South]

It was raining this past Saturday morning and I couldn't mow grass. I decided since it was nice and cool and I couldn’t do anything else outside anyway that I would clean a few buckets of WW that I had. Just after I got set up and had started cleaning the WW, the sun came out and it got hot. I was casting under the drop shed of my shop. I made it through two buckets and called it quits.

[qajaq59]

I cast in the garage but I have a fan setup that cools me. Plus a 24 inch high shield that keeps the breeze off the pot. Without that shield though it's just a waste of time.

[The Dove]

Set up a swamp cooler and get some Leon Freon!!!

The Dove

[dakotashooter2]

Thats what I like about ND. It may get cold in the winter but you just put on more clothes. But for you boys down south it doesn't get any cooler than "nekid". LOL

[FISH4BUGS]

Winter - 0 - 10 degrees. Just crank up the heater in the shed to cast. Cast a ton all winter. Spring - 50-60 degrees high temp - perfect weather for smelting. Summer - 80-90 - still OK for smelting. Fall - 60-70 - perfect for smelting. back to winter.
There is no bad weather here. And no sales or income tax either! Smelt cast, reload and shoot....it doesn't get any better than this!

[qajaq59]

There is no bad weather here.Let me know how that cold works out when you're in your 70s will ya? LOL

[GOPHER SLAYER]

We don't have those problems here in Southern Ca. since this this is the best climate in the world. It doesn't get very cold and nothing like the heat you speak of in the summer and since we don't have much water,we have very few bugs. I have spent time in all the above mentioned places and while I love the people who live there and the weather is good some time, they all have there draw backs. Charleston, S.C. is a lovely place. I would love to own Drayton Hall. If you have seen the movie, The Patriot, it is the plantation house seen in the background when the British ship is blown up. What a great range that place would make. I played golf in Tuscon, Sept. '93 and it was 112% to 115%. We had the Ventana Golf course to ourselves. I must say I do prefer Tuscon to Phoenix. At least it doesn't have smog. The only problem with California is the nut cases that are in charge. Shooting ranges have become an endangered species. I am now diving 100 miles round trip to shoot and the price for the day at that range is 14 bucks. At my age, moving is not a realistic option.

[randyrat]

It sure is entertaining reading about all the extreems from every corner. We get some extreem temps around here also.
I'm at that jucture where the long underwear comes out earlier every fall. I do look forward to winter but not the extreem tormenting cold way below zero.

One thing always blows my mind is some of your temps are over 100 degs, thats HOT, killin hot, oven temps.
When we do get a hot day, i drink a couple shots of pickle juice in the morning and afternoon then start pounding water. It seems to help me through the heat.

[stang68]

For sure not casting weather today, high of 113 but only 111 tomorrow!

[Elkins45]

I tried to cast some rifle boolits using my Lee bottom pout pot and its acting strange. When I dump a few sprues back into the pot it freezes up on me. The spout even began freezing, which has never happened before.

Is it possible that the incredibly high temperatures inside my garage are messing with the thermostat somehow, making it think the pot is hotter than it really is? Anybody experience this with their Lee pot?

[qajaq59]

It sounds like your thermostat may be going bad on you? I've cast when it was pretty hot and I've never had that happen.

[Fugowii]

102* heat index, Want to try it with Humidity?

Sam :D

SC low country - most uncomfortable place I have ever been in July. I feel for you
folks. I hope you have A/C. I love the area though! It's the heat & humidity that
ruins it. Maybe you get used to it living there, but for a northern boy it was tough.

[Tom-ADC]

Good friend lives in Surprise always tells me that when we visit, but when its a 110 how can it be anything but dry. Only three reasons I don't live in AZ June, July & August..:holysheep

[captaint]

Today's weather today was about mid 80's. So I went out about 3 o clock and poured up 18 lbs of Lyman 452460's and H&G 130's. Enjoyable... And, Elkins, my pro melt spout freezes up anytime I take a 10 min break. I just keep a little torch outside and roll on.
One other thing - somebody remind me never to buy a single cav mold again. To think what I could have had with even a 4 cav!!! enjoy Mike

[qajaq59]

captaint, don't buy a single cav mold again. There, now you've been reminded. LOL

[blikseme300]

I cast in the garage but I have a fan setup that cools me. Plus a 24 inch high shield that keeps the breeze off the pot. Without that shield though it's just a waste of time.

I don't know what melting pot you are using but I could not run my A/C when I used my Lee pots. The cool air would cause the Lee pot spout to freeze up. The reason is that the Lee pots have no thermal insulation. I added kaowool and this problem disappeared.

When I built my own melter I incorporated a good insulating layer of kaowool. This prevents me from getting cooked by radiated heat and also helps to keep the melt temperature stable. See my melter here: http://bliksemseplek.com/boolits.html

If anybody on this list needs some kaowool PM me.

Bliksem

[qajaq59]

I don't know what melting pot you are using but I could not run my A/C when I used my Lee pots. No AC, just the fan. The pot is a 20# Lee and I've never had a problem with the spout cooling.

[armoredman]

I cast in the garage with the door up to vent and fan running. Yep, it's hot, but the dogs get me up before 6AM sometimes, and the new place has the garage on the side away from the rising sun. It's halfway decent in there up until about 9AM.
Will be trying it out with the new end table casting bench soon, as soon as we get everything unpacked - I hate moving.

[wmitty]

There's a new weather term here in north Texas. It's called the Misery Index; a combination of the temp and the dew point. e.g. 98 degrees F plus dew point of 70 = M.I. of 168

Anything over 150 is Terrible; anything over 160 is Miserable, anything over 170 and I'm movin' to Alaska!