You do what you have to do when the lead is hot

[Bigscot]

Last week while is was smelting a couple of 5 gal buckets of weights, the last one did not have it's lid on tight and got water in the bucket. (Now don't flame me about wet weights and molten lead. Know all about it). Well I hated to shut down until they dried or the pot cooled. So, I grabbed on old plow disc with about a 1.5 in. square axel hole in the center and put it on top of the pot. As I sorted through the weights I would place them around the disc. The disc would heat up and dry the weights. I would then take an old golf club shaft and push the weights through the hole in the disc. If one happened to have a little moisture and pop, only a tiny amount would escape though the hole and that went staight up. Maybe had 5 weights to pop and in the whole 5 gal bucket. Production slowed some but did not stop.

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc231/1Bigscot/discandweights.jpg

[HORNET]

That's a creative aproach to the problem. I usually put any doubtful ones on a tray in the toaster oven at 350 degrees for a while. That's one of the things I got it for (cost $1 at a resale shop).

[Nueces]

Mmmmm.....stir fried wheel weights....

Wok & roll

Mark

[joatmon]

Wok & roll, I love it!!!!

[Nazgul]

Good solution. I spread them out and hit them with a weed burner from Harbor Freight,$19. dries them well enought to drop in.

[mooman76]

What I do is turn the pot off and after the lead hardens but is still hot put the suspect WWs on the lead and turn back on. The WWs will evaporate the water before it melts again and you've only slowed down a little!

[Wayne Smith]

Humm, the advantages of a working farm. We called it a disk harrow, btw. That was in New England, probably regional differences. Here in the suburbs no such thing available. I try, but my garage is full! LOML says the next place has a separate shop, I said I want a barn.

[AZ-Stew]

We set them outside on a June day. In an hour or two the 115 degree, <10 percent humidity desert air sucks so much moisture out of them the ingots shrink.

Regards,

Stew