Smelting accident- kaboom!

[evan price]

I have been melting lead for quite a while now. I have had a good bit of experience with hot work before this. I do take some safety precautions but I also can be somewhat laissez-faire about anything beyond the basics.

This was Friday the 7th. I had gotten in a number of requests for soft lead ingots and after filling orders I realized I needed another 30-40 pounds to get the last couple orders done. Since I had a bunch of soft lead telephone cable scrap to ingotize anyway, and my dentist had given my 30 pounds of X-ray film foil, I figured I would run a pot and cast some ingots.

It had been raining earlier in the day so my gear (which is stored outside) was wet. This is normal because I cast ingots in cast iron gem pan molds and prefer them nice and rusty so the ingots unmold better. My standard procedure is to flame anything that will contact the lead so the moisture is evaporated.

I got a nice melt going and fluxed with motor oil. When I am running unquestionably uncontaminated lead I run the pot hot so as to not get freeze when adding more lead to melt. My thermometer stops at 750 degrees F and I know I run hot enough to turn pure lead purple quickly, or melt zinc- which exceeds 800 degrees F. As usual my safety gear was good jeans, a long sleeve flannel shirt, ball cap, an MSA respirator, heavy insulated leather gloves, and polycarbonate safety-rated eyeglasses with side shields.

I was worried about the weather report of rain coming, and dark clouds were on the horizon with lightning far away. I wanted to get the pour finished quickly. I got in a hurry. I got sloppy. I slopped some lead into cavities I wasn't filling, slopped some over the edge of the pot. I made a mental note to slow down.

Each cast iron mold tray has twelve cavities. I preheat by putting them in the flame from the burner then put the mold tray on a stack of cement blocks holding it at the height of the pot so I have less ladling to do. I recently rebuilt my smelter using concrete blocks and intended to rebuild it again with more blocks to raise it so I don't have to bend over as much. My usual procedure is to ladle out of the pot and into the molds. One ladle full is roughly one mold cavity which can be 1.5# to 2.5# depending on which tray it is. I half stoop, half crouch beside the pot and mold trays pouring ladlefulls of lead. It's hot work and makes one tired so I am guilty of sometimes being too close to the hot work. I was sweating quite freely.

I had 8 filled trays cooling on the concrete beside me and there was only maybe 15-20 pounds left in the pot along with some dross. I debated wether or not to just stop here and leave the big lump in the pot or not; but I had one more mold tray so I figured I'd just pour what I could before it rained, I might not be able to do a pour for a few weeks and I didn't want to run out of ingots.

Mold Tray #1 is the oldest one I own. It is a knockoff of a Griswold #11 cast iron French Roll pan. I learned how with this tray and it got abused. There's a crack across two cavities and two of the corners are broken off. I don't use it often because it makes two of the twelve as small ingots because of the broken corners and it tends to sit at the bottom of the stack. It was the only mold left so I picked it up and flamed it to preheat it and then started filling cavities.

When I got to the sixth cavity all heck broke loose.

Cavity 5 & 6 are the ones with the crack. The mold was dirt cheap because the Griswold collectors don't want damaged molds, the people who use them for cooking don't want cracked molds, and I didn't care. Once rusted well it dropped ingots fine for me. I had filled the first four cavities and skipped #5, filled #7 and was filling #6.

Suddenly as I finished the pour I heard a high pitched squeaking sound raising in pitch. It was like an electronics sound, a capacitor charging, very similar to the sound effect used in Hollywood when a bomb is going to detonate. I noticed the cavity full of lead starting to bubble. In that split instant I automatically reacted. I was leaning right over the top of the mold tray, maybe 3' away, tops. I twisted my torso to the right and lifted my head.

KA-POCK The sound was a metallic, solid smack, as if someone had hit the bottom of the mold tray with a heavy hammer. 2# of molten lead at 800 degrees F ejected from the cavity, the curved walls of the mold forming it like a shaped charge, straight up into my face.

The first thing that hit me was the knowledge that I'd made a big mistake. The second was that there had been water trapped in the crack in the mold cavity. The third thing was that I was blind in my left eye.

I too two steps back, knocked off my ball cap, and then tore off my respirator. I keep a 5-gallon bucket of water in the smelting area at all times for emergencies- fires, lead spills, or this. I dunked my arms in and splashed water on my face as fast as I could. I could feel my left eye burning. My glasses had not come off and now I peeled them off and kept rinsing.

Now that the burning was over I felt at my eyes. My left eye could see now, and I was pulling lead out of my eyebrow and eyelash area and rinsing the inside of my eyelid. My right eye was itching and felt like flecks of metal were inside so I did an eyelid peel and solved that. I felt my face. I looked at my respirator lying on the ground and my glasses and saw a cast of lead foil in the shape of my left cheek and the respirator/eyeglasses junction that I had peeled off. The left lens of my glasses had a lead layer on them- at the time, no idea of inside or outside. I picked up the repirator and peeled off the lead cast and crushed it in my hand and dropped it in the pot. I then turned off the propane and shut everything down and went inside to wash up.

Cavity #6 was mostly empty. The adjacent cavities had shed most of their lead as well. A layer of lead spatters covered everything in a 3' radius around the smelting pot. Luckily most of it had gone onto the already-filled molds, the cement blocks around my smelter, and onto the pot itself. The rest had hit me. I had lead splatter all down my {inappropriate language} and pants and a big bloom in my crotch and stomach. Mold #1 was split in half and will be scrapped.

The worst damage seems to have been because when I wear the respirator my glasses no longer fit snugly down on my nose. I have to balance the nosepiece on top of the respirator's nosepiece and that makes my glasses sit out and high. The jet of molten lead had splashed between the gap and under my eyeglasses. My eyelids had been plastered with molten lead. Luckily for me the human eye blinks at incredible speed and I had closed my eye or else I believe I would be blind in that eye now. I think when I tried to turn away that let the lead get a good shot at the side of the face instead of straight on.

I'm not posting this to scare anyone or to get sympathy, just to help everyone know that you need to be aware of your operations at all times when working with lead. Use your safety gear. Don't get in a hurry.

I took this photo in my bathroom mirror right after it happened. I know it will scab over and get worse but hopefully will heal quickly. The lower lid will probably be scarred for life. It was hard to catch the redness of my left ear and cheek in the flourescent light. The eye was swelling shut and this morning I had to wash it in warm water to get it to open.

To re-iterate- posting this as a warning not a plea for sympathy. Don't do like I done. Buying a full face shield before next smelt!

The lead peeled off the inside of my glasses and some on the outside. Ruined the lens. Going to need new lenses but that's better than needing a new eye.

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/ragabash01/leadface2.jpg


Here's another shot taken today, 2.5 days after:

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/ragabash01/leadface3.jpg

Yes, I am missing a number of eyelashes especially on the bottom.

[Wal']

Theres not much one can say is there, except a few Hail Mary's.

Thankfully you're OK, my order for a full face is going straight in. :shock:

[GRid.1569]

Shows we can never afford not to pay attention to what we're doing....

Glad you were "lucky" could have been a lot worse.....

[PbHurler]

My God Evan,
You surely had an angel on you shoulder, this could've been so much worse. Goes to show the importance of safety equipment & attentiveness; and how the most "innocent" of operations we perform, can go awry.
The fact you recognized the sound as an anomoly, saw the bubbling and turned away in time, is probably what saved your vision. This could've been much, much worse.
It goes without saying but, I'm glad you weren't blinded! Someone was looking out for you!

Stay safe out there guys!

[gundownunder]

Glad you made it out OK.
The tinsel fairy is a nasty bitch ain't she.
My missus wonders why I get real cranky when anyone comes to the shed while I'm reloading or working with molten lead, the reason is, because mistakes are dangerous.

[John in WI]

My word--thank you for posting that. That's an ugly burn, but it could have been a lot uglier.

I recieved a similar looking on right under the tounge of my boot. I was using a Goodwill ladle, and it got hot enough that when I pulled out about #1 of lead, the handle melted free of the ladle which dropped to the ground and splashed a good tablespoon in to my boot. And there's nothing you can do but let it cool off. Lesson learned--cobbled together equipment is the first step towards an accident.

[John Wayne]

As I have been away from casting for a while this serves as a good equipment check/think-through. Thank you for posting and I'm glad you're ok!

[GT27]

I was casting(without gloves,overconfidence struck) 2 weeks ago and dropped a sprue glob back in the pot and had a splash of Miss Galena to land on my left hand index finger nail,the same feeling when you slam your finger in a car door!!!!!!!Gloves from now on,NO exceptions!
GT27

[lwknight]

Evan, I feel for you bro. I have been there.
Here's tough love for ya. Stupid should hurt , otherwise we never would learn anything.

I have had my face fragged by a burn barrel explosion and have lead scars on my arms too.
Safety glasses is the absolute minimum. We only have 2 eyes to start with.

[jlm223]

Good post, Thanks for sharing, good reminder for all, glad your OK.

[I'll Make Mine]

We only have 2 eyes to start with.

Absolutely -- issuance of two eyeballs should not be taken to imply that one is a spare.

[abqcaster]

Luuuuckeeeeeee!!!!! glad you're still with us!

[500MAG]

Thanks for posting. Glad your OK. Just so happens, I have about 300 pounds that I was getting ready to smelt tomorrow and if Loews does not have a full face sheild in stock it will be posponed.

[DrCaveman]

Dang. Scary. Humbling.

It brings to my mind the old adage: wrong me once, shame on you. Wrong me twice, shame on me.

Seems the powers that be offer those with brains ONE freebie within most dangerous activities of life. Those who dont learn from it will be hurt/dismembered/killed. The human body is an amazing specimen, able to recover and regrow from pretty serious wounds. But of course there is a limit and violating this rule will often take you past that limit.

I think you have done quite a few people a favor by letting us potentially skip the experiential learning step and proceed right into the "dont ever do that again" status. Thank you for the post.

That being said, everyone out there, LEARN from your mistakes and dont roll the dice twice. Walk away a winner or a loser but dont let it ride.

Most of all, I am glad you are OK.

[1Shirt]

Life is a learning experiance, glad nothing worse happened!
1Shirt!

[shredder]

Thank you for posting that important information. I believe a full face sheild may be in my future......

[Gator 45/70]

Mr Price,Thank you for posting that important information,I now wear my clear safety glass'es more than ever..Get well man..

[sqlbullet]

Glad you are OK!

[Freightman]

Had a small explosion, I wasn't burned but my boots got leaded, it was hot and I was sweating about the time right before I was pouring in the mold a drop fell into the mold I held up but a 1/2# hit the drop, I jumped back but it is amazing how fast and high the lead emptied out of that cavity. I now wear a hat and a sweat band to catch the drops.
Scared the bejebers out me, you had a lot worse so you have my sympathy and glad you are OK.

[rmark]

as a kid I saw lead splatter from water getting into it, I always use a full face shield. Glad you are ok.

[Lead Freak]

It's a little hot to wear at times, but I always wear a full-faced shield over a cap everytime I smelt or cast.

[454PB]

Wow, you were very lucky.

This is one of the reasons I never sit down to cast......you just can't move out of the way fast enough if something goes wrong.

[a.squibload]

Glad you're OK, thanks for posting this.

I wear a face shield when near the pot, they're cheap insurance.

I'm thinking of making a sturdier ladle, my big one is a mushroom can
bolted to a rebar handle. Could do better. No telling where it would splash
if it hit the floor.

[I'll Make Mine]

This is one of the reasons I never sit down to cast......you just can't move out of the way fast enough if something goes wrong.

If you think being on your feet will give you the ability to dodge a steam explosion, you don't understand reaction time. The OP had some warning on this (the whistling sound of steam in the cracks, building up pressure before the explosion) and still managed to move just enough to compromise his protective gear. Most steam explosions will give much less warning that he had -- usually none you can detect.

If you're a normal human, it takes you about a second to determine there's a need to react, then another quarter second (give or take) to actually do something -- or, in the case of something that triggers a reflex, just the quarter second (pulling your finger out of the lead pot, for instance, would be just the shorter time -- and the blink reflex is a good bit faster than that, because shorter nerve paths and fewer intermediary ganglia). On the highway, that second and a quarter contributes 20% or more of your stopping distance; at the casting bench, it's several times the event time for a melting pot or ingot mold steam explosion. Standing up does typically put a little more distance between you and the molten lead, but that just means you'll have a thinner layer of lead on you...

[1_Ogre]

Ain't the tinsel fairy nice? Happened to me also, water trapped in a crevace in a wheel weight. Sounded like a 38 going off and if it hadn't been for my glasses I would be blind in my right eye. No warning like you had, just an explosion and 10lb of hot lead flying all over. Still have some in the overhead as a reminder. Won't remove it either, keeping it there as the proverbial reminder of the tinsel fairy and for others that want to cast to see what really happens, even if you are safe. Thank GOD you didn't loose your vision, but you did learn a very good lesson.

[bumpo628]

First off, I'm glad you're ok Evan. It could have been a lot worse. Thanks for posting this too since it is easy to get overconfident and let the safety gear/procedure slide. One time I smelted in flip flops. Nothing bad happened, but it shows how I wasn't taking as seriously as I should have been.

Regarding this issue:

This is one of the reasons I never sit down to cast......you just can't move out of the way fast enough if something goes wrong.


Standing up does typically put a little more distance between you and the molten lead, but that just means you'll have a thinner layer of lead on you...
Another reason to stand is so that the lead won't pool in your lap.

[Springfield]

Some good quality Aloe Vera burn gel will make it scar less and heal faster, in my experience.

[Defcon-One]

Glad that it was not worse and that you are gonna be OK! In my opinion, you are a very lucky guy!

Lessons to us all:

1.) Make a safety checklist and adhere to it! (Gloves, clothing, safety gear, etc.)

2.) Always avoid anything that could be wet! (We already know this, but seem to make compromises as you did!)

3.) Do not use damaged molds! (The only time that I ever had a problem like this was a cracked cast iron mold. Same thing, that sound then action. I turned away just in time!)

What a mess it makes. I was lucky too!

[I'll Make Mine]

Another reason to stand is so that the lead won't pool in your lap.

That one makes a lot more sense than anything based on reaction time. By the same token, long pants worn over boot tops (and preferably boots with no exposed laces) keep lead out of your shoes, and long sleeves over your gloves keep from winding up with a glob of lead held against your hand by the glove.

[**oneshot**]

Caught a small dot of lead in the right cheek just below my eye while casting boolits. Stopped where I was at, drove to NAPA and spent the 40dollars that I thought of spending many times before while I was there. I feel much better, and now that I think of it, it saves me from ruining my glasses as well as my sight.

[AndyC]

Damn glad you're ok - what a scare!

[Alchemist]

Glad you weren't hurt any more than you were! Watch that burn carefully...infection is a very real danger with burns.

Hopefully your misfortune will save someone else from learning the hard way. I discovered the ways of the tinsel fairy back in the summer of '79...a small amount of molten lead, an even smaller amount of damp lead (I figgered to moisture would "burn off"-boy did it!) and it still sounded like a firecracker went off and I had lots of little splatters all over.

[DukeInFlorida]

I have two old cast iron backing molds. They're both old and rusty. The rust seems to really hold onto the moisture, and I have to be real careful to lean them up against my smelting pot prior to use. Have had two instances where they popped at me from trapped moisture.

I now use those only as a last resort when I am doing an extra large melt. I have enough muffin pans in my inventory to manage most batches.

[shoot-n-lead]

If you think being on your feet will give you the ability to dodge a steam explosion, you don't understand reaction time. The OP had some warning on this (the whistling sound of steam in the cracks, building up pressure before the explosion) and still managed to move just enough to compromise his protective gear. Most steam explosions will give much less warning that he had -- usually none you can detect.

If you're a normal human, it takes you about a second to determine there's a need to react, then another quarter second (give or take) to actually do something -- or, in the case of something that triggers a reflex, just the quarter second (pulling your finger out of the lead pot, for instance, would be just the shorter time -- and the blink reflex is a good bit faster than that, because shorter nerve paths and fewer intermediary ganglia). On the highway, that second and a quarter contributes 20% or more of your stopping distance; at the casting bench, it's several times the event time for a melting pot or ingot mold steam explosion. Standing up does typically put a little more distance between you and the molten lead, but that just means you'll have a thinner layer of lead on you...

I do not think that he was insinuating that he could move quickly enough to avoid being touched by the lead, but rather, he COULD move quickly enough to mitigate some of the injury by creating more distance than he could when starting from a sitting position.

[badbob454]

yeah i dont even wear safety glasses ....... gonna start next time .... thanks for your post and a reminder to us all

[RoGrrr]

I've been doing more smelting than casting lately and many times I'm just wearing shorts and t-shirt. But I ALWAYS put on glasses AND wear leather shoes when I do anything at the pot. I value my eyes, especially since my eyes got a flash burn while welding some time back.
I had a small spit from the pot which landed on my hand and I still have a mark from it. I heal but my eyes won't so I don't take chances with them.
Did a hundred pounds today too while building a dueling tree for pistol shooting.

[merlin101]

I've been doing this just long enough to get cocky and not use the gear I know I should. Thanks for reality cheak Evan! I WILL START USEING IT!

[Smithy]

Yours was more a "Didn't check everything totally" type of thing, but I'm afraid to admit that my bad one with lead was simply put "Pure Stupidity". I think part of this was probably illegal as well. The first gun I ever touched was when I had just turned 18 and went down to JC Penny of all places and bought me a 12 gauge, Winchester model 37A. None of my family (close or extended) had a thing to do with firearms so I was all alone in learning stuff by myself. Sure I picked people's brains now and again when I thought that they actually knew something. I got good and sometimes very bad information. That and I read a lot of earlier print Lyman books and the like.

Now comes the low budget college days and yes by that time I had a few more guns, black powder, shotguns, and a pistol or two. I always loaded my own including casting since I couldn't afford real ammo. I went through a lot of the original Lee loaders with die, hammer, and a steel plate to pound on. Now mind you this was well before seeing national availability of sabot'd rounds of any sort. I figured out that if I folded a regular business card a certain way it would incircle one of my 58 mini's perfectly to put into a Winchester shot cup. A slug shooting I went.

I then came up with the first part of stupid. If I drilled a certain diameter hole in the nose of my 58 to a certain depth, I could insert an upside down primer and with a spot of hot glue, mount a steel BB so that just half the BB showed above the tip of the slug. Fine, it worked in theory and in practice. I shot at a discarded tailgate and it blew a whopping 6" hole through both sides of the sheet metal tailgate. Then after shooting I did as I always did and got my bucket out to collect as many bullets I could find in the dirt backstop (this was really good after a rain had uncovered a bunch).

Back at home I loaded my pot with a bunch of the days pickings. Fired it up to high and sat in front of it waiting for it to melt. Well as you know with electric pots, the element is near the bottom of the pot so I basically had 18 pounds of molten lead topped with a crust of floating jackets and non-melted bullets. One of those bullets just happened to be one of my super slugs I'd shot earlier only it did not hit the tailgate, it hit sloped earth. The BB had popped out and the lead had sealed over the primer.

You know what happened next. I had no clue what was happening. I knew to stay away from water, but all my stuff was dry as a bone? The lead shot up in a funnel pattern (seen on the apartment wall). A good bit fused itself to the carpet. And yes, thank God for the blink response which was the only thing keeping my eyesight. I had to cut lead out of my hair, peel it off my skin, regrow eyebrows and put "STUPIDITY" as the first thing to avoid in my little mental book. My approach to lead now resembles the 10 foot pole theory with all the fans, welding gloves, two pair of glasses (one to see better with and the full coverage one for protection). I now stand to melt lead instead of crouching over as before and have a fire extinguisher nearby. Everyone else in my family is scared of lead so when I cast it's just me, myself, and I so I can solely concentrate on the job at hand.

I only wish I had posted this a lot earlier so that you might not have had to go through what you went through. Glad you are on the mend and I certainly know how you feel. It is not fun at all. Smithy.

[Canuck Bob]

Thank you all for your candor. Glad you dodged a nastier accident Evan.

Full shield and on my pegs for me going forward.

[Suo Gan]

WARNING: This is a fatherly talk so be prepared for it. If you don't want to hear it, don't read it. Just move on. I AM NOT TALKING DOWN TO ANYONE.

I am glad that you are okay, no eyeball injury, etc.

This kind of thing takes away pride and that is a good thing when doing anything like this.

But the number one thing that you can do is never have water enter the pot or anywhere molten lead can get.

If you take the precaution of preheating lead, rendering equipment, and never let primers or FMJ bullets in the pot, this kind of thing will NOT happen ever.

In my mind, it would be like someone wearing full body suits to help protect them from double charges while shooting. Is that THE part of the problem or the fact that people treat things with a lazy attitude?

Double charges DO happen, and it is not always Elmer Fud doing it, it happens to smart people WHO GET LAZY! But it seems that folks think of lead explosions as a bit of a mystery that strikes like a tornado, sometimes here and sometimes there, randomly. They have even given it the nebulous name "Tinsel Fairy" I have always thought that name was stupid. The name takes away the personal responsibility of doing these stupid things. Like calling double charges something like, "Angel shrapnel". "Oh darn it all, my pistol blew up in my face today, blast that 'angel shrapnel', next time I will be sure to wear a bullet shield when shooting."

Like double charges, lead explosions are the direct result of doing something wrong. They are not the result of not wearing full body suits.

If you need to wear a full body suit to protect yourself from this kind of thing, may I suggest that you can get cast bullets reasonably cheap from many commercial sources.

When smelting I wear a pair of welding gloves and my regular pair of eye glasses. When casting a person should never need to wear more than regular shooting or eye glasses.

I do not bring this up to rub salt in your wounds or come off as smarter than the next guy. I am NOT. That is why I have to do things the same way every time, and force myself to not rush and do stupid things. I know you brought this up because you want folks to be more cautious. That is very commendable. This is a dangerous hobby. Preheating all things that come into contact with molten lead are a strict must...like always having your gun pointed in a safe direction.

All the safety gear won't help someone that is foolish about these things.

As a kid I shot a hole in Dads garage roof...Dad did not need to get tougher shingles...I just needed to STOP AND THINK AND STOP BEING SO DARN LAZY!!

Again, I am happy that you are NOT hurt more seriously.

Take care. Here's to all of us being less stupid and less lazy.

[evan price]

UPDATE:

Well, I made my first smelt since the accident yesterday.

300# of soft lead.

I had run out of ingots and had two orders to fill. Yesterday was the first day post-kaboom that I've had off that it was not raining.

I'll be honest- I knew I needed more ingots. I had checks on the shelf. But when I get home and it's raining, it's "Whew, I don't have to smelt, it's raining."

Yesterday I loaded her up and lit the fire. Wen it came time to work the pot it was like I was handling a hornet's nest. Face shield, gauntlets, denim, and sweat. I was fogging my glasses up.

This time I took a plumber's propane torch and flamed all the mold cavities until they smoked then leaned the molds against the furnace. I made sure I flamed all of my utensils. I made sure all my lead was preheated.

And nothing went wrong. I took my time, worked responsibly, and 2 hours later I had 300# of nice ingots stacked up.

It really let me regain my confidence. I had been taking smelting for granted. Look what happened to Sigfried & Roy- they had worked those tigers for decades...one careless moment and BOOM.

Feels good to be back.

[I'll Make Mine]

Back on the horse. Good for you.

[Downunder]

I'm new to casting and this has opened my eyes to what safety steps I will and should take. I will also now be using a full face mask not the safty glasses I was going to use.
Thanks for telling us all what went down. You may have well saved me from myself! I have had a big rethink about my set up and that can only be good!

[Smithy]

I've already posted my mishap with a live primer and molten lead, but as you've read in other posts, the biggest threat to lead smelting is good ol H20, water. I remember another time I was melting and ingotizing a bunch of lead. So much so that my normal method of slow and steady that I use when done casting and draining the pot seemed a bit to long for the amount of lead I had to go through. With a cast iron ingot mold (which I had brazed on a solid padded metal 12" handle) I thought that a tub of water would be perfect. I'd cast the ingots and just as soon as the lead glazed over I'd submerge the ingot portion, dropping the ingot's and immediately pull out the mold. With the temps running so high, the mold quickly evaporated the water that was on the mold and I was good to go.

After I got a full tub of water and freshly cast ingot's, I drained the tub and dried off the ingots carefully stacking them against the wall in my shed. Two months mind you after that day I went to cast some mini's for my 58. The pot was almost full and I added just one more ingot. The explosion was horrendous and was almost as bad as the primer in the lead trick. Moisture is a hard thing to get rid of when it is incorporated into an ingot. NEVER cool any cast lead piece in water if it ever is going to have a chance of being remelted. I don't know where the moisture was? The ingot seemed dry as a bone, but it was there somewhere. In a pocket or the pores of the ingot itself. Smithy.

[alamogunr]

As usual my safety gear was good jeans, a long sleeve flannel shirt, ball cap, an MSA respirator, heavy insulated leather gloves, and polycarbonate safety-rated eyeglasses with side shields.

.

As others have said, glad it wasn't more serious.

One more tip that I got from a professional welder. When I told him I wore a flannel shirt while cleaning up WW, he recommended a new well starched denim shirt. According to him, splatters will adhere to flannel and burn thru. Splatters will bounce off the denim. He practiced what he preached and always had on a blue denim shirt at work. This wouldn't have prevented your injuries like the face shield would but might prevent some discomfort sometime.

[evan price]

Bumping this- because it came to my attention, and it's a great learning tool for young and old!

[Pinsnscrews]

Thank you for your message, much appreciated!

[MaryB]

I wear an old denim hooded jacket, pull the hood up then the full face shield over that, leather apron, gloves, boots. Had one visit when a friend was watching and he grabbed a wheel weight from the bucket and tossed it in the pot from 6 feet away. Besides splashing lead the water in it emptied about 20 pounds out of the pot and all over the deck. He got lucky and just had a few splats, I had to peel lead off an arm and hand but the gear saved me, I saw the wheel weight mid air and turned and got a step further away. Friend got a 15 minute chewing out that he still remembers. I may pick up some seconds leather that has to many scars and range marks and make a longer apron with sleeves like a welders jacket but almost to the floor.

[steve817]

Only having had one pour under my belt, this has been a good read. Glad it wasn't any worse than it was. While I wholeheartedly agree about not needing all the safety equipment if we are paying attention, I'll continue to wear mine. i wore a helmet when I rode a motorcycle for years even though I never went down.

I saw someone mention that sitting was a bad idea. My setup is a turkey fryer with a 4 quart cast iron dutch oven. My knees are shot and standing over my pot or molds is also a bad idea because I sweat like Mike Tyson in a spelling bee so I try to stay at arms reach away from everything because of that. Should I consider raising my burner?

[JSnover]

I saw someone mention that sitting was a bad idea. My setup is a turkey fryer with a 4 quart cast iron dutch oven. My knees are shot and standing over my pot or molds is also a bad idea because I sweat like Mike Tyson in a spelling bee so I try to stay at arms reach away from everything because of that. Should I consider raising my burner?

I don't think sitting is that bad, i just don't like the lack of mobility. Seems like there's always something I can't reach. Burner height (IMO) is less important than a clean work area. Don't have anything on the floor to trip you or any random junk on the bench to get knocked over.

[w5pv]

I had something simlar happen when I poured some melt over a spider in a mold,not near as bad as yours though.

[mold maker]

A rolling chair on a clean floor is the only way I can deal with melting WWs.

[alamogunr]

Several posts in this thread have recommended full face masks. I have one but don't use it. Only safety glasses w/side shields. The face mask I have has a plastic shield and it seems to introduce distortion. I just can't see as well as with glasses only. I don't clean up WW any more, or very rarely, but the next time I have to deal with a large pot full of molten lead, I will give it another try.

[Pinsnscrews]

BTW,

If you have a "Fogging" problem when wearing a full face shield:
1)Any of the soft bar soaps can be rubbed onto the shield, then polished with a cloth.
2)you can use Rain-X. Either the mix your own, or the premixed. Spray on, wipe off with a soft cloth
3)Various Motorcycle Shops (Parts and Accessories) have various products that can be applied to the face shield.

If you need to, you can use window tint from an auto supply store/walmart/kmart etc can be used. Just be sure to apply the tint to the Inside of the face shield. Note: If you wear glasses that have Transitions or Polarization, when looking through the tint, you will get odd colorizations. This can cause Nausea in Some People. It is an effect of the polarization not playing well with the tint.

[DukeInFlorida]

I like this type of shield:
http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_13100.jpg

At harbor freight, $7.99

Never fogs!

http://www.harborfreight.com/mesh-face-shield-97010.html

[Smithy]

As far as the sitting angle? When I first started and had a lead pot, mold, and Lee loader for 30-30. Oh and a cake pan for pan lubing those tall 180 grain bullets prior so Lee sizing and gas checking. That was it and it all fit into a ammo box larger than the normally seen 50 caliber can (20mm maybe?). Well I had already learned not to cast in my dorm room as other residents decided that it wasn't acceptable to do so. Much like letting loose with a few rounds of black inside an indoor range. Kind of frowned upon. I didn't have anything to put my Lee production pot on, so it went on the ground and I on a stool. Otherwise I'd be sitting on the ground with my legs spread around the pot. Even I figured out the possible problems with that idea. Even at age 18, imagine about an hour and a half of casting that way and then trying to get up to a standing position? Not fun at all. I'm old enough now that I couldn't even get down to the stool to sit in the first place. The height I build my bench is such that all of my reloading and casting is done standing up, although I do have the option of sitting on a rather high shop stool. You can still get into trouble standing up with too much stuff in your way or laying on the ground like power cords and the like, but on the stool (or chair), you're stuck period. Not voting one way or the other as now my back is such that standing is the only way I can reload regardless of whether it is safer or not. If I need to sit for a spell, I simply turn the pot to warm where the lead just barely solidifies but is at or near melting temperature. Smithy.

[MrWolf]

Posts like these have helped me when I started smelting. I wear a full set of clothes, welding gloves, full face shield, respirator mask, and my sunglass safety glasses as the reflection from the lead is tough to see through in full sunlight. Overkill? Maybe but makes me more comfortable when doing a full propane tank full at a time - bout 150lbs or so. OP had an angel on his shoulder that day.

[Smithy]

Posts like these have helped me when I started smelting. I wear a full set of clothes, welding gloves, full face shield, respirator mask, and my sunglass safety glasses as the reflection from the lead is tough to see through in full sunlight. Overkill? Maybe but makes me more comfortable when doing a full propane tank full at a time - bout 150lbs or so. OP had an angel on his shoulder that day.

MrWolf's addition above reminded me of my younger days when lead was something you had to scrounge up. To buy lead meant buying a bag of shot or fishing sinkers both of which seemed to be a waste. Well I started collecting lead from various sources. Anytime I was in a gun trade I'd add "And I'll take 20 pounds of your lead too" on the end of each trade or sell. Then I had folks giving me lead. Namely the local tire shops with their used wheel weights. A friend of mine gave me a military wing ballast which was lead at 1.5" thick in a weird sort of trapezoid shape (took two to move). Well now I had more lead than I knew what to do with and it was in every concevable shape and form. I needed a way to mix the lead to get one homogeneous blend of lead that could be busted down to ingots as the need came up. Then I found it. A company that made lead pots. Big ones that could handle the amount and odd shaped chunks of lead I had. The reason I was given some of the lead was simply, the owner could not bust the large piece down into a pot usable chunk so it was worthless to them. Well I bought the smallest pot that they had (175 pound capacity, propane fired). It was a bottom drop pot and you could actually cast a normal sized mold with that spout, but if you lifted the handle all the way the lead poured quick. You could easily fill a 12 pound sinker mold in the time a regular pot would handle a 158 grain slug. The thing was awesome.

Well lifting, letting it glaze over, moving, doing it again and two more times after that just to fill a four cavity Lyman ingot mold was going to take forever so I had to figure out something else. I had a welder make a rack that held four 2X2 pieces of angle iron and that became my little ingot mold. The pieces were short enough that if watched could be fed into a 20 pound normal pot, but I had much more lead than that so I found another answer. I bought a used lead pot that filled would hold about 35 pounds of lead. So I'd end up with bowl ingots. I had a plastic barrel that I lined with bricks and filled just enough water so that the 35 pound pot would sit just 2" or so into the water (that way I'd not get any explosions if careful). I cast and cast and cast until I had everything down to 35 pound bowl ingots and around 20 or so of the angle iron ingots. Now I could count my collection and I ended up with just over a ton of lead since I filled 62 of the bowl ingots. The lead pot company sold different spigots for this pot and molds. This addition included an extra burner to allow the lead to flow down the extra piping and into six different openings for the lead. The set up utilized four cavity molds (not sure of the maker?), so you'd have four cavities at each and every spout coming from the pot. So every lift of the handle and you'd get 24 boolits. I never had enough money to equip myself with what I needed to do this so I finally gave up my lifetime collection of lead and sold it to a fisherman who cast those 12 pound sinkers mentioned above. Smithy.

[osteodoc08]

Wow! Talk about a new found respect for molten lead and water. Glad you're ok. Thank you for the reminder.