Too Hot to Smelt

[lightman]

Like the title says, Summer has made it to the South! I had plans to have a couple of shooting buddies over this afternoon and melt down the rest of my wheelweights. Maybe 800# or so of coww's and 60# or so of soww's. I also found a 5 gallon bucket of older coww ingots made from muffin and cornbread molds that I don't use anymore that I was going to recast into the Lyman style molds that I use now. Then again, they may just get put in the casting pot like they were intended to, years ago. I'm torn between blending the older weights with the newer weights, or shooting them like they are.

That was the plan anyway, but we are going to wimp out. It would have been a fairly easy afternoon, but its just too hot, humid and miserable outside. I'm still having trouble adjusting to retirement life! I don't have to plan my off time around around a demanding work schedule anymore.

I'm selling all of my electrical inventory and this "want to smelt thing" is part of my cleaning up plan. I was looking forward to posting up some pics tonight and causing everyone to drool! Oh well, later.

[imashooter2]

Even up here in the Northeast, I keep my smelting to the spring and fall. 50 degrees is my target temperature.

[2wheelDuke]

Here's it's hot enough that the lead should be softened up already before you even light the burner. The high chance of rain lately is no good for smelting though. I'd hate for it to start raining on molten lead. Being doused in cold water from the sky might crack my dutch oven too.

[Mitch]

i just came in from working my bees and you are right it is way to hot for melting lead and working the bees.i have ingots to mark and put away might do a bit of that in the air today.It will cool off soon enough and we can get back to casting and melting lead

[John Boy]

An England AR dedicated smelter would be making ingots when the temperature is better ... 79 degrees @ 5AM!:bigsmyl2:

[lightman]

Ha Ha!

[Beagle333]

It's going to be close to 100° again here with steam aplenty from a fast storm last night. But I'm casting and smelting. 8-)
I got a nice spot set up in the shade and a big fan and several of those mosquito coils smoking around me, so it's just another day in paradise. (if your paradise is hades-hot and steamy and filled with mosquitoes.) LOL

[Budzilla 19]

Lightman, I'm south of you about 200 miles, and yep, summer has made it to the south for sure!
Heat index in the 100+ range, humidity at god knows what! I have to agree John Boy, 5am sounds really good! Hahaha! Good luck to you.

[lightman]

I usually set my smelting operation up in the shop. You'all have seen my pictures before. I have an exhaust fan built into the gable end of the shop and set my 48 in shop fan up near the walk in door so that they work together. You can feel the air moving and when the junk in the ww's starts smoking you can see the smoke moving towards the outside rather quickly. But its still hot and you'll be soaking wet in a matter of minutes.

[RegisG]

Well, does this mean that all of you do your casting in air conditioned space? Or don't cast in summer months?

Regis

[bangerjim]

105 here. I still re-melt and cast! No big whoop.

bangerjim

[lightman]

RegisG, casting in 95 degrees and 90% humidity ain't so bad but smelting 400# of lead in same conditions is pretty tough! Banger, whats the humidity at your 105 temp?

If ya have never been soaking wet at 0700 and still soaking wet at 1900 ya ought to try it. Its hard to work with one hand and wipe blinding sweat out of your eyes with the other! Not really whining, its just a way of life and a different set of conditions that some of you don'y know.

[scottfire1957]

Yep. T'were it necessary, I would smelt in these temps. It is NOT necessary however, so I don't.

[LAGS]

The Humidity is up this time of year because of our Monsoons.
I had a concrete pour canceled Friday Night because of the Rain and Lightning
But , Our humidity is nothing like it is down in Your South,
We have a mostly Dry heat, and A Dry Rain sometimes that doesn't even hit the ground called Verga
Looks like next weekend is supposed to be 110 degrees

[imashooter2]

Hmmmm… when I searched for a definition of verga, the results didn't have anything to do with the weather.

[RogerDat]

Smelting has to be early or late, otherwise I sweat so much the bug spray washes off and I'm nothing but a mosquito feeding station. Managed to get a pot of pewter into ingots using a hot plate. The dutch oven over propane burner to smelt some sheet lead was less than pleasant but I owe some soft lead on a trade and needed to get that dealt with. Don't expect Aug. to be cooler than July.

I must say it is nicer at the loading bench in the basement than out in the garage with molten lead.

Out in the desert it tends to get cool at night and without the humidity I seem to recall it being fairly pleasant after dark in the SW corner of Colo. and the four corners area. Daytime in the sun was pretty harsh however, same down south. I suppose one gets used to it (like a northern winter) but that does not make it pleasant.

[odinohi]

Just one drop of sweat could make it a bad day. Wear a dew rag

[Petrol & Powder]

It's miserable here. Even light work is difficult.
Looks like one more really bad day and then some relief.

[6mm win lee]

One hundred degrees? Parka weather. Brrrrrr. Try 110 to 119 a few weeks on end. Even had some virga the other day with the humidity that blew in from Iran.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virga

[Short Range]

The dutch oven over propane burner to smelt some sheet lead was less than pleasant but I owe some soft lead on a trade and needed to get that dealt with.

I bet most people wouldn't mind if you waited till things cooled off to get that soft lead melted [smilie=s:
Best to find some place nice and cool and get some reloading done!

[lightman]

Kudos to You Rodger for toughing out the weather to hold up your end of the deal! I posted up a thread a few weeks ago about smelting some lead from pole top and cross arm pins. I did this in a dutch oven, in heat about like now and it was not too bad. That only took a little while and netted 27 or 28 pounds. When I do wheelweights I do batches of 350-400# and that really heats up the shop! My burner sounds like an F-18 on takeoff in order to get that much weight liquid.

I'm still adjusting to retirement time. Not having to "get her done" right now because of a demanding work schedule is taking some adjusting for me. Being able to "wimp out" is taking some getting used to on my end!

If I ever get all of my stuff sold and moved out of the shop I have plans to build another steel work bench to use as a dedicated casting bench. It just takes time and I ain't good at waiting!

[MBTcustom]

I'm with you lightman. It's about the same up here in Conway. I live in a particularly low spot, so it's humid as all get out. I need to smelt. (those 45-70s do vex my lead stash keenly!).

I've got a bunch of COWW buckets to do, but one thing that is bugging me is that my burner is on the fritz. Last time, it kept a yellow flame, blew black soot all over the pot, and kept backing up the flame to the mixer. I tried blowing it out, but that didn't do any good.
Gotta get a new smelting burner. Couple that PITA with the horrible heat, and it's not hard to decide that smelting will have to wait for cooler weather.

[LabGuy]

I’ve got about 10 five gallon buckets of sorted wheelweights waiting for cooler/dryer weather. I like to smelt in the December- Februarytime frame. I’ve got at least a ton alreadyprocessed. So I can wait for betterweather. I have 3 new and 4 new to me moulds, but I think I’ll wait until ourfirst cold front, typically the first two weeks of October to try them out. This is kind of like farming there is aseason for everything. This is theseason for shooting and indoor reloading.

[dragon813gt]

It was 94 yesterday w/ a dewpoint in the mid seventies. It was straight up oppressive. I don't mind smelting when the temp is up. But the dewpoint has to be in the low sixties to even consider it. At this point smelting is behind me. But I did enjoy doing it at night in December. May have used more propane. But the ingots solidified quicker and I was able to increase my production a lot. All the safety gear kept me nice and warm as well :)

[lightman]

Goodsteel, I use a homemade burner and would gladly share the design. Its real simple. You're also welcome to wander down this way and use my set-up or look at it. Its about an hour drive.

[LAGS]

Verga is a real thing.
It is so hot next to the ground that the rain evaporates before it hits the ground.
We also have our Haboobs.
That is the Dust storms with a 60 foot tall wall of dust that blows across the city.
It sort of looks like the wall of dust in the movie The Mummy.
We also have Micro Bursts this time of year, where the rising air hits the colder air, and makes a sudden downdraft that is like a Mini tornado for a few seconds.
I was out in the back yard one time when we got a sudden Monsoon storm.
Before I could cover the lead pot, the Tinsle fairy came to town and silver coated my patio.

[Ihsarah]

Here in Texas it stays around the hundreds until 8pm so I'm usually drenched in sweat while casting. It's a fortitude of character and stick-to-it-iveness that keeps me at the toxic silver altar.

[RogerDat]

Guy the soft lead is for is very easy to deal with, would not mind waiting. He sent his part of the deal already but said whenever on my side of it. I just don't like having it to do when I could get it done. Besides that sheet lead was just sitting there taking up space and I'm sure getting smug about not getting smelted. Guess I learned it about being smug.

I used to load and unload trucks, would come home with salt lines on my work pants down to... bottom of my pockets shall we say. Sweating was how you know it was a good work out, and these days it is going to need to be hot for me to sweat because I would only unload a truck with a fork lift. Going with older and wiser here.

Really not too bad late at night and even better early in the morning, the cool night tends to decrease the mosquitoes early in the morning, most days.

Spent some time in Texas, dang glad I'm not working in it. Hot and windy but even the wind was hot. More like a blow dryer than a cooling breeze.

[KMD]

64°f here today and it feels great. It was around 100°f a few weeks ago and my pasty white northern skin just can't handle that for long.

[dragonrider]

"Well, does this mean that all of you do your casting in air conditioned space?"

YES I DO.................doesn't everyone????:bigsmyl2:

[MBTcustom]

Well, does this mean that all of you do your casting in air conditioned space? Or don't cast in summer months?

Regis

That would be a big fat "ten foe" Red Ryder. AC is lovely and I use it. Helps the lead to turn solid once in a while this time of year.

BTW Lightman, I really need to take a trip your way one Sunday afternoon. Been meaning to for a while!

[lightman]

Well, PM me for a phone number and directions and we will make it happen.

[Landshark9025]

I grew up in Michigan and survived the "Blizzard of '78" where we couldn't even get out of the house for 10 days. Live in Florida now. Yeah, it's warm, but you don't have to shovel humidity and nothing falls off due to frostbite!

I cast on the covered patio with a ceiling fan above and three open sides. I'll smelt either in the same place or out on the drive where I can catch a breeze.

Heat is like a hangnail. Hurts a lot at first, but if you just accept it, pretty soon you realize life goes on and you forget to notice it. Those "snap towels" can help a lot though.

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

I would smelt in 100 degrees and humid. But since I don't need to, I'll wait til it's cooler. I already have enough ingots ready to last me a summer or ten. :bigsmyl2:

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

Heat is like a hangnail. Hurts a lot at first, but if you just accept it, pretty soon you realize life goes on and you forget to notice it. You are right about that. I used to dread summer. Then a few years ago, I just decided it was time to stop complaining and feeling sorry for myself about something I can do nothing about. It's not so bad now. I'm still ready for Fall. But I guess I'm always ready for Fall.

[Chris24]

I've been reloading for years, but finally started smelting and casting a couple weeks ago. It was 95 and very humid. I felt like I'd been in a sauna; I must have lost a few pounds. I didn't mind taking a shower to wash the dirt and lead off! The good news is that my first ever boolits turned out great.