Warning

[kbstenberg]

Today i was smelting some lead i got from my dentist. Besides the foil he gave me a lead smock the X-Ray tech wears when taking X-Rays.
If you get a lab techs smock. DO NOT TRY TO MELT IT. I found out the hardway that it is rubber backed rather than material backed. I had the smelting pot half full of lead befor i put the smock into the pot. Shortly there after it started smoking pretty bad. Half hour later still smoking.
I thought to myself that whatever the stuff was that was causing the smoke mite burn off with fire. I walked away from the pot about 10 feet with my sloted spoon. I lit 2 kitchen matches an put them on the spoonwent to the pot, an tipped the matches into it. Fortunatly it wasn't a big explosion just like wax when it ignites. That was 20 minutes ago. Still waiting for the flames to clear so i can see if i have to dunp the hole pot or not.
After i lit the pot i did turn the gas off to the propain burner.
Im going back out to see how much damage ive done. Ill report later

[257 Shooter]

I am glad that you are in the boonies. That much smoke would have the local fire department to my house in no time. Sorry that you had a bad experience. At least the lead was free.

[stubshaft]

Good thing you weren't hurt.

Doesn't qualify for the Tinsel Fairy designation.

Maybe the Smoke Monster?

[c.robertson]

kbstenberg, Really glad you were not hurt, but that IS funny.

Remember people, you MUST know what you put in that pot to melt.

Way back in 1969 or so, I droped a defective .44 hollow point back in the pot AFTER it had been droped in water. BAD MOVE!!! No need to tell you what happened. It was on the kitchen stove, no injury, but exploded lead everywhere. That REALLY gets your attention. Mom was not too happy either.

[fredj338]

So you di d not separate the bmat'l. from the lead foil, just dropped the whole thing into a 700deg pot? Hmm, not sure I would have gone that route. For that reason, I separate all the scrpa I get, take out the rubber & ****, but I live in the city so like to keep a low profile.

[littlejack]

kbstengerg:
That was so funny. I got tears in my eyes. Not from crying though.
I am glad you are OK. I could visulize what you were doing. Thanks for the heads up warning. I WILL remember that.
Jack

[jimmeyjack]

Reminds me of the time my cousins neihbor in oregon tried to burn a mattress because they wanted money at the landfill. It smolderd for several hours!

[3006guns]

I lived in a very rural area years ago and ended up with the curse of such residents.....worn out tires laying around. Too far to the dump, what to do? "Just burn 'em!" said my well meaning neighbor.

The column of black, inky smoke was at least a thousand feet high...ever try to blow out a tire?

Wasn't long before a forest service truck equipped with a glum looking ranger paid me a visit. THAT was embarrassing. We live and learn............

[kbstenberg]

Sorry it took so long to finish my thread!
After i went outside. Fire was out, Black sootie stuff all over the pot surface. I tried scrapping the sootie substance with the spoon i use to clean all the clips of off the melted lead. Sootie stuff was granuler but still crusted together. Thats the closest i can describe what it was like.
So by scrapping the sootie stuff with the tip of the spoon i eventually scraped 90% of the soot of the lead. Re-started the burner an melted the lead again. I did a lot of scrapping an fluxxing, an fortunatley didn't loose the lead. I will keep it seperate to test before i mold any bullets though
Kevin

[Bulltipper]

too funny! glad you didn't ruin anything or hurt yourself...

[snowtigger]

It wasn't lead, but waaay back, when God was a boy, found a large pick-up load of copper wire at a local dump. I took it home, way out in the country.
In those days (before all EPA and other alphabet agencies), it was considerably more valuable without the insulation. I had burned small lots many times before.
I figured (dangerous in those days) I would burn her all at one time so I could get it off to Matt's (the recycler) and collect my fortune.
Well, there was this column of smoke. I don't know how high it went, but neighbors came for miles, assuming my house was on fire. We didn't have fire Protection in those days, so everyone would come runnning to see if they could help. Some of them were not so neighborly when they saw what was going on...

I hadn't thought about that in years.
Funny now...

[qajaq59]

I had that happen with a bunch of lead from an X-ray room. It was covered with contact cement and smoked like there was a tire fire. After the first batch I cut it up into small pieces and fed them into the melt a little at a time. That way as soon as they hit I could skim off the cement before it went up in smoke. Took forever to melt a 100 pounds of it though.