Some days

[RED BEAR]

Some days its better to stay in bed. Started to cast some 32's using rcbs 77 gr rn. Started to warm mold while waiting for lead and thought the spruce was a little loose and tightened it a little. Once every thing was up to temp started casting no good i would get one good for about 5 bad. Fought that mold for more than an hour. Then like a light bulb maybe the spruce needed to be a little loose. Loosened it back to where it was to start with and perfect bullets every time and i remembered going through this before. Came in and started sizing some 32's i had done earlier thought i had been sizing for my revolver top punch marked the first bullet i sized so changed it and went to sizing after a few hundred it dawned on me there was a reason that i had that top punch in. Measured one of the sized bullets and yep wrong size i had been sizing for 32acp and dumping in with ones that were sized right so had to sort through 15 pounds of 90 gr bullets oh what fun. Wish i had just stayed in bed.

[JBinMN]

I had a similar day like that yesterday. The "highlight" of the bad was fairly minor & could have been worse, and some folks would say "no big deal", but it got me thinking more about what I was doing & what I was dealing with at the time.

I was casting some 55gr boolits 6 at a time with a Lee mold and at the same time, on occasion I was chacking the temp of the alloy with basically a brand new Lyman digital thermometer that I had only used once before during the pours.

Well, after I had run about 250-300 boolits, I suddenly started to get what the Dr. calls, "essential tremors", and I call, "the shakes". When I get them, my hands & fingers tremble slightly & my grip is sometimes questionable. ( I have neurapathy & have had UNT surgery on both elbows, but still have issues with my hands)
So, I took a short break to see if they would let up.

Well, after a while it seemed as though I wasn't having them much, so I thought I would just take it easy for the rest of the casting session. I added a bit more alloy to the pot & then put in a bit of beeswax for flux, put on gloves & picked up my spoon with the holes in it, to stir the pot lightly.

Well as I started to put the spoon in the pot & had extended my arms out to do so, the tremors came back with a vengeance all of a sudden. The scoop of the spoon was facing me & it was only in the melt about halfway, but the shake caused me to scoop some alloy & lightly fling it towards me while I tried to get the spoon out of the top of the pot.

The hot alloy splattered a bit and never toughed me, but the new Lyman thermometer was right on the edge of the bench by my belly and got the majority of the splatter right on the doggone right half of the plastic display, with a small splatter on one of the buttons for setting the readings.

I was lucky things were not worse, and the stuff did not hit me. I have scars from a similar experience from some time ago, so I am always somewhat prepared for accidents to happen, as they sometimes do, but this was so unexpected at the time, I was a bit startled by it.

I quickly took off a glove & pulled my pocketknife from my pocket & got the tip of the blade under the splatter & started to try to lift it off the display. I got it off fairly quick & well, but it still marred the surface of the display so it is a bit hard to see thru it, but I will just have to make do.

Lesson learned, is to put the thermometer someplace not directly in the path from the pot to where I am standing from now on, as well as anything else that might get damaged by a similar experience.

Well, other than the little bit of a startle I got & the slightly damaged thermometer, everything else was fine, so I walked away a bit. came back, stirred once again with care, watching for any return of the trembling, and then continued to cast to real my goal of around 500 boolits.

So, the other issues I had during the day with other things were relatively slight over the course of the day, but it was "one thing after another" all day long. Just "one of those days", I reckon.
I am glad they don't happen often.


I know how ya feel, RED BEAR!

[Winger Ed.]

yep wrong size i had been sizing for 32acp and dumping in with ones that were sized right so had to sort through 15 pounds of 90 gr bullets oh what fun.

Reminds me of the expression: 'Trying to pick fly poop out of pepper'