Made a mess today

[kyswede]

I was in the basement casting boolits when my son and DIL came over with pizza. I left the Lee pot on and went upstairs and ate, came back down about 1/2 hour later. I looked around and did not see the ingot I was preheating on my hotplate. It had melted and fallen thru the open coils and was laying in the drip pan. I had to turn the hotplate on High and hold it upside down to melt the lead out. No damage done, but I won't do that again.
kyswede

[Bret4207]

I make a very concerted effort not to ever walk away from hot stuff, be it in casting, welding, soldering, or brush burning. Seems every time I do something bad happens. Walked away from a soldering job once and left the old style 3 lb iron on a vice to cool. Well, it fell of the vice (probably when I slammed the door and fell onto the bench. One of my kids noticed the smoke. Nothing like hearing, "Daddy, the barns on fire." to brighten your day.

[mdi]

I had it beat into my head (by my Dad who was a life long machinist/mechanic) to never walk away from any equipment while it is running (or operating, or cooking). So, if I have to leave my casting area, the pot gets unplugged. Yesterday I was "cooking" some bullets/lube in a toaster oven in my shed and decided to use the timer (20 minutes @ 200 degrees) and go inside where it's warmer. I couldn't do it, I had to go back out and sit for 20 minutes until the boolits were done! Thoughts of fire and destruction ran through my head. I'm 64 now and my Dad has bean gone for 25 years, but some things stick...