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View Full Version : POW! primer in casting pot!



Randall
06-15-2010, 09:53 AM
I had just loaded my allready hot pot with sprues and floor sweepings, turned away to place my mould on a stove to keep warm when POW!,my right ear rang a minute after I pulled my fingernails out of the ceiling and my heart stopped racing.I thought for a minute what it could have been and figured it must have been a stray primer that was swept up with the lead splashes and dribbles from the floor. I fluxed and cleaned the pot and sure enough,a prmer with no dent floated to the top of the melt. I have to thank Jesus it didn't get under the molten lead and spray me as I was only about 3 feet away from it when it popped. A reminder to myself I can't be to careful.

257 Shooter
06-15-2010, 10:24 AM
Glad that you did not get hurt. It really pays to double and even tripple check what you are putting in the pot.

Bill*
06-15-2010, 10:32 AM
So, when are you going out to buy the lottery ticket? :)

44fanatic
06-15-2010, 01:07 PM
So, when are you going out to buy the lottery ticket? :)

No sense now, with all the luck used up, wont even find a dime on the street...

Glad it didnt turn out worse

montana_charlie
06-15-2010, 02:00 PM
If I drop something on the floor that I want to keep, I will look for it and pick it up.
But, I can't imagine sweeping the floor, then emptying the dustpan into a casting pot.

Of course, your floor may be a lot cleaner than mine...
CM

lwknight
06-15-2010, 02:25 PM
I hate when that happend. It makes a circle of sparkley stuff on the ceiling. And walls. And me.

wistlepig1
06-15-2010, 09:10 PM
Glade you were not hurt! You were LUCKY

BarryinIN
06-15-2010, 10:27 PM
Glad you dodged that bullet.
Odd, because I was just thinking about this possibility today. I picked up a box that I had been tossing culled bullets into and started to take it to the furnace, when I looked in and saw a (spent) primer. I don't know how it got in that box from across the garage, but it was, and that showed me you never know what can get in there.

Johnch
06-15-2010, 11:15 PM
I guess before you started casting , you had to change your shorts

Just glad you are OK

John

Randall
06-15-2010, 11:45 PM
I cull boolits as I size and lube at the same bench where I reload.I keep a can for rejects on the floor and toss culls in as I go. It looks like a primer found its way in the can or I swept it up with the lead off the floor. Anyway I am going to move the cull can to the top of the bench and empty it after every sizing session to eliminate that possibility.And yep,it was almost time for some new shorts!

cbrick
06-15-2010, 11:59 PM
If I drop something on the floor that I want to keep, I will look for it and pick it up. But, I can't imagine sweeping the floor, then emptying the dustpan into a casting pot. CM

:roll: No kidding!

I get an occasional sprue dropped on the floor but what could there be on the floor that would need to be swept up and then dumped into the lead pot. Other than primers anyway . . .

Glad you weren't hurt, keep things tidy.

Rick

geargnasher
06-16-2010, 12:03 AM
Just wait 'till you throw one of your "dummy" .45 acp rounds (you know, the kind that accumulate from checking COAL and setting the seating die with unprimed brass) in the pot because you're too lazy to pull the boolit and it turns out it's not a dummy, it's actually a cull from the progressive that didn't get a primer, but DID get powder! I did that a few months back, actually put a handfull of rejects and dummies on top of the half-pot of alloy before turning it on (I DID know better than throw the dummies into molten lead!) and my ears are STILL ringing from the explosion. Never have gotten a ladder and extracted the brass shell fragments from the blades of my overhead ceiling fan. Ya'll be careful

Gear

MT Gianni
06-16-2010, 12:23 AM
A few years back I dumped some cull boolits from my bench in the bsmt into my pot in the garage. I had just hit the garage door on my way out when I heard a boom and a lead splash occurred. I put a primed nickle 38 case in with them. Being carefull requires a lot of vigilance.

NSP64
06-16-2010, 07:59 PM
Never dumped a primer in the melt(yet). My casting is in a shed out back, reloading in the basement. I have blown primers loading and it does make you think. Glad you OK.

Hardcast416taylor
06-16-2010, 09:53 PM
That`s why I cast out in the barn and reload in the house. Anything that goes into the melt pot is identified before it gets remelted. I thank the stars I`ve never had your experience with a primer and melt pot, thank goodness you didn`t get burned.Robert

casterofboolits
06-18-2010, 10:04 AM
I was smelting down a batch of range lead ( 60 pound plumbers pot) and just happened to look out my front window (old food service building with exhaust hoods) and saw the nieghbor kids pull up in a pickup and start to unload a deer, so I strolled over to the window for a better look, just as I got to the window....CRACK and the tinging started. Almost at my feet was a 380 case. The HP was still in the pot when I looked. The primer was also blown out of the case.

Needless to say, I check the range lead I smelt a lot better than I used to! [smilie=w:

Harter66
06-19-2010, 01:46 PM
I'm glad I'm not the only 1 to pop a range scrap round I got a dud 22 in the pot that wasn't very duddy. I too had stepped away just long enough to be clear. It made me more carefull about that.

klcarroll
06-19-2010, 02:04 PM
I too have had an unexplained "Pop-in-the-Pot"!!

Just one more testimony to the fact that eye/face protection and proper clothing are MANDITORY when casting!! …….It can happen to you!!

Kent

deltaenterprizes
06-19-2010, 02:28 PM
Been there, done that too!

1Shirt
06-23-2010, 10:08 AM
Guess thats why I load in the basement and cast in the garage. Good thoughtful post however as a reminder to remember.
1Shirt!:coffee: