major screw up yesterday

[Lloyd Smale]

Casted about a 1000 105 lees 38s and about 500 out of a group buy lee mold to have some bullets to load in 380 brass. I casted them out of 1/3 lino 2/3 scrap lead and sized each and every one of them to 357 then tumble coated them. Stuck them in the oven out in the garage and came back later to two pans of melted lead. All I can figure is that it was right around 0 outside and was cold enough in the garage that the gas oven I use just kept on running and the thermocouple never shut it off. Two days of work down the drain!! Looks like the 380 project will have to be put on hold till spring.

[Smoke4320]

Well that sucks.. Sorry

[Wayne Smith]

Ooops!

[Petrol & Powder]

At least you still have the lead.

[pworley1]

I hate when that happens.

[Mr_Sheesh]

Dang.

Thermostats do stick, so do relays. I usually go to thermocouples & optotriacs for that reason.

[Walter Laich]

think we've all been there

I feel for you

[skeettx]

Pleased you are safe, have the residual lead, and we ALL learned a lesson
Thank you
Mike

[Lloyd Smale]

casted a bunch more but I think this time there going through the star. At least a 100 or so of each of the three designs so I can at least see what runs well in the lcp. Ill wait to spring to do any more powder coating though. Casted some 120 rfs too. Bit heavy for the 380 but ill give them a try too.

[Grmps]

This is a good example as to why you need to check your oven temperature setting every time the ambient temperature around the oven changes. Simply put an oven theremometer on thshelf you'll be baking on and see where ends up when the oven reached " the proper temperature. If the temperature is off, adjust the oven setting until the inside thermometer reads what you need.

[kingstrider]

Bummer. At least you didn't come out to a fire. I nearly burned my house down once from an unattended grill. Now I don't stray too far from anything that puts out heat and tend to stay close to babysit.

[rototerrier]

Been there and know the feeling. Having time wasted like that definitely stinks. PID that thing.

[arlon]

So you didn't accidentally grab a bar of cerrosafe instead of Linotype? (-:}

[merlin101]

I did a similar move with some 9mm I cast and coated black, I caught them before the melted totally. they ended up looking like dark chocolate chips, I should've saved a few.

[swheeler]

Lloyd, a few hot toties to ring in the New Year?;-)

[Lloyd Smale]

nope. I had one beer on new years after supper and it was the first beer I had in about 2 years.

[6bg6ga]

I found that trying to cast in the garage when the garage was less than 55 degrees wasn't too smart in my case. It turns out that my Ballisti-cast MKIV's heater couldn't keep up. As much as I would love to cast during my vacation time between christmas and new years it just isn't efficient or cost effective when you have to replace parts. When its -15-20 outside my garage doesn't get above 32 degrees and that is too cold for me to cast.

[dverna]

Like others pointed out, it could have turned out worse.

It does cause me to wonder how those ovens regulate heat. It had to get over 600 degrees to melt bullets.

[Lloyd Smale]

I don't have any problem casting. Ive got a heated reloading room but I don't want to bake pc bullets in there. Kind of conserned about the fumes and mess so that stove is out in the main part of the pole barn with no heat.
I found that trying to cast in the garage when the garage was less than 55 degrees wasn't too smart in my case. It turns out that my Ballisti-cast MKIV's heater couldn't keep up. As much as I would love to cast during my vacation time between christmas and new years it just isn't efficient or cost effective when you have to replace parts. When its -15-20 outside my garage doesn't get above 32 degrees and that is too cold for me to cast.

[Lloyd Smale]

pure lead melts at a little above 600. Lineotype is closer to 450. this alloy was 2/3 ww 1/3 linotype so my guess is a bit over 500 is all it would take.
Like others pointed out, it could have turned out worse.

It does cause me to wonder how those ovens regulate heat. It had to get over 600 degrees to melt bullets.