Steam explosion

[Zaneiel]

I thought you all would get a kick out of this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls7vCiaB8rg&list=UU0Rqj935iQVNVjyL8FDZAlA&index=12

[Rcmaveric]

Its only bad if it gets more than a few inches below the melt. I had tensile fairy visit when I forgot to heat up the ladle. It had corrosion on it that had moisture in it still. Stuck it to the bottom of the pot without thinking. Boom!

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[unique]

That guy is an idiot.

[jonp]

I thought you all would get a kick out of this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls7vCiaB8rg&list=UU0Rqj935iQVNVjyL8FDZAlA&index=12

"don't put water into your melt or it will explode all over your face and you'll look like nasty dude?[smilie=l:

[ubetcha]

That guy is an idiot.

I agree

[Hickory]

Not much will happen unless the water gets under the lead.

[GARD72977]

He may be a member here. That would be real funny.

He will learn the hard way.

[Duckdog]

Wow. That's just plain stupid. There's firtin' with disaster, then there's this. Good way to loose some hide.

[Gtek]

Being a life long Southern Boy I recognize a card carrying member of the "Hey, hold my beer watch this" club. Unfortunately it appears to have multiplied and thus passing his showcased intelligence along. Good job dad, you make us all proud!
After thought- He is making boolits, that means he's reloading. I wonder what marvelous things he can do over an open powder jug? Maybe that is why I don't like being next to people at range? hmmmmm?

[robg]

Now fill a bit of lead pipe with water seal the end and drop that in the pot. Guys an idjet

[Hickok]

One day he will get a lesson that will be a 'significant emotional event."

And he wont be able to say the F word for a few seconds, because the pain will overload his speech process.

[Pine Baron]

What in the wide world of sports! I can't watch stuff like this. It makes me sad.

[Lefty bullseye shooter]

Guy is an idiot! Just because it didn't happen in his very extensive test doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It very much exists and I had it happen once. I was pouring ingots outside and right as I was pouring lead into my angle iron ingot mold a drop of water off a tree branch dripped into my mold. As I'm watching the lead run towards this single drop of water I'm frantically backing away when BOOM! I didn't get any lead on my glasses but my coat and hat had plenty. I'd guess not more than 40gr or so of lead was expelled and it scared the daylights out of me. Can't imagine what a whole pot would be like.

[jdfoxinc]

If your ingots have been stored outside and rained or snowed on, the cavity that always forms just under the skin of hardened lead will contain water. I had one cause a steam explosion that ruined my new sweater I just received for Christmas.

[Hossfly]

1 tea cup of water will change to 10,000 tea cups of steam. Ratio very bad when in wrong place. That steam has to go somewhere, in a boiler, controlled, that’s good. Under molten alloy, be it lead, aluminum, or whatever, 1 drop will go to 10,000 drops very quickly. Be careful.

[robg]

Steel works have been destroyed by water in the wrong place.

[lightman]

His cameraman is not very good either! It made me dizzy trying to watch it.

[Spiffy7]

I have heard it said that wisdom is learning from others mistakes

few bricks shy of a load he is

[JSnover]

All that popping and lead splattering was all the proof I'd need, but as he said before signing off:

"This is uh, the guy disproving the... thing."

[nun2kute]

[smilie=l: Idiocracy :holysheep

[reddog81]

I like how at 1:40 the guy pouring and the cameraman both jump back because stuff goes flying out of the pot and they realize what they are doing is a terrible idea.

[country gent]

If he had dunked one of those bullet in the water and dropped it in he would have gotten the explosion. Water o top boils away. when its carried below the surface and encapsulated in a hard shell the steam cant expand and builds pressure to the breaking point.

We had a furnace let go when being loaded with scrap ( mish metal die casting). It was determined than in the scrap being remelted ( trees bad parts run over), some one had tossed a water bottle partially full in one of the containers. when dumped this material cooled the material in the furnace and encapsulated the water turned to steam then super steam expanding and building pressure to the yield point. When ot let go it was heard thru the plant and felt thru a lot of it. It threw a few hundred pounds of molten material out when it let go,

[TNsailorman]

Trouble is --those people breed and vote.

[sundog]

I have heard it said that wisdom is learning from others mistakes

few bricks shy of a load he is

The stove is hot, do not touch.

[redhawk0]

Just no words for the stupid....no words.

redhawk

[dondiego]

They both sounded like Santa's elves!!!????

[Smoke4320]

Hey Ma hold my bandages and Aloe I will need it in a minute

[Walkingwolf]

Lead poisoning is serious, just look what it did to this guy in the video.

[OS OK]

He doesn't understand what he's trying to disprove...now with this unbridled confidence, he's gonna get there sooner than later.
I doubt he'll video that...that one I'd like to see.

[mdi]

Man, I hate wobbly videos, gives me a headache trying to focus...

For all the safety experts that condemned the video; I have been doing this since I was 12 years old making sinkers on Ma's stove. I wanted to clean up before she got home so I poured a bit of water on the molten lead to cool it off so I could move it. No tinsel fairies, no eruptions, no lead all over the stove (I wonder how many of the "you'll make an eruption and blind yourself" crowd has actually tried or seen this done or are just parroting something they've read? "It sounds "right" and I read it on line, so it's gotta be right, huh?"). I keep a spray bottle of water on my casting bench and can cool a mold or when I'm done I can cool the melt in the pot. Making sinkers for mebbe 50 years and bullets for 25+ and no lead showers from water on top of molten lead. Granted, if water somehow got below the surface so it could rapidly turn to steam and expand many, many times almost instantly (I don't know the ratio of water to steam expansion), there would be an "explosion", but water on top will just boil off. Everything else is "internet wisdom" or "old wives tales", repeated by the Chicken Little thinkers...

[unique]

For all the safety experts that condemned the video; I have been doing this since I was 12 years old making sinkers on Ma's stove. I wanted to clean up before she got home...Making sinkers for mebbe 50 years

Still doing this or something you did when you were 12 years old? I blew up Ma's kitchen making black powder when I was twelve years old but don't do that anymore.

[JSnover]

Water on top doesn't necessarily 'just boil off.' I've had it splatter and scald, and had lead spatter (just like in this idiots video). After picking droplets of lead off my eyeglasses I decided to be more careful about making sure everything is dry when casting.

[WILCO]

Convincing someone to go full retard isn't a success story.

[sniper]

Wow! not exactly how mine went!:shock: Darwinism at work! [smilie=b:

[mold maker]

If I'm told that an avoidable act will cause me loss and pain, I see no need to prove them wrong or right. I'll take your word for it. I can tell you for a fact that sawing off the end of your thumb hurts, and causes you loss of function. What you do with that knowledge is up to you., but don't say you weren't warned. :-(

[jmort]

I wish I could unwatch that. Harmful to my eyes and ears.

[mdi]

Nope, still do this today. Never, never had any of the problems claimed. Just a simple, safe method I've been using for many years. Splatter, nope. I guess I'm just doing something right. But my mechanical aptitude and logical thinking has separated me from a lot of forum members' tragedies...

[brass410]

This guy's got all the dogs harnassed and hooked to the sleigh he just hasn't noticed some of them arnt barkin. Like has been said before hold mah beer an watch this, my sister works at hospital in a city with 4 nickel smelters and nickel tinsel fairy burns are her least favorite. She's probably gonna meet this do dah dumb ---- one of these days.

[mdi]

I think what I'm seeing here is "band wagoneering". One or twi guys say something and a bunch more "jump on the wagon" to be "cool" and/or acceptable to the group. I speak from many years of experience (and I've been working with metals and a lifelong machinist/mechanic) and unless I am a rare individual that has a halo over my head, I don't have the percieved problems posted here. I guess if I tried I could get the results some claim but I won't drop a quart of water in a 20 lb. pot all at once, just to prove something...

[GARD72977]

Trouble is --those people breed and vote.
Very well said!

[MT Gianni]

1 tea cup of water will change to 10,000 tea cups of steam. Ratio very bad when in wrong place. That steam has to go somewhere, in a boiler, controlled, that’s good. Under molten alloy, be it lead, aluminum, or whatever, 1 drop will go to 10,000 drops very quickly. Be careful.

Expansion ration of steam is 1700 to one, ie, one cubic inch of water gives you 1700 cubic inches of steam. If it expands where it only displaces air there is no problem. If it expands where it displaces hot metal there are big problems.

[Sailormilan2]

I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who does stuff like this!

[country gent]

A light spray of water on top turns to steam with the spray it may not even touch the alloy at first but torn to steam above it carrying heat away quickly. I have seen old time die casters play a spray hose on molten metal when the furnace spigot wouldn't shut off. Not into or under the material but on the top surface outside edge to contain it and keep it a thicker smaller puddle. They used a very fine spray and played it along the outer top surface. Turned die cast into a sauna also. In reality the steam is as dangerous as the molten metal though, Steam displaces oxygen, and if inhaled will burn internally nose lungs respiratory.

[GregLaROCHE]

This is the type of video and presenters that YouTube should ban. No not safe videos on firearms and reloading. This guy is going to get people hurt. I posted my opinion in the video comments. I urge others to do so too.

[mdi]

Well, to all you unbelievers, Have a Merry CHRISTmas anyway. And nope the sky is not falling, it's just Santa...

[Ohiopatriot]

Reading this thread makes me think of the saying "God watches out for children, drunks and fools."

Water and molten lead certainly has the ability to go bad, quick.

[NyFirefighter357]

Man, I hate wobbly videos, gives me a headache trying to focus...

For all the safety experts that condemned the video; I have been doing this since I was 12 years old making sinkers on Ma's stove. I wanted to clean up before she got home so I poured a bit of water on the molten lead to cool it off so I could move it. No tinsel fairies, no eruptions, no lead all over the stove (I wonder how many of the "you'll make an eruption and blind yourself" crowd has actually tried or seen this done or are just parroting something they've read? "It sounds "right" and I read it on line, so it's gotta be right, huh?"). I keep a spray bottle of water on my casting bench and can cool a mold or when I'm done I can cool the melt in the pot. Making sinkers for mebbe 50 years and bullets for 25+ and no lead showers from water on top of molten lead. Granted, if water somehow got below the surface so it could rapidly turn to steam and expand many, many times almost instantly (I don't know the ratio of water to steam expansion), there would be an "explosion", but water on top will just boil off. Everything else is "internet wisdom" or "old wives tales", repeated by the Chicken Little thinkers...

I did this exact thing many years ago with a plumbers pot full of molten lead. I turned the faucet on all the way and the lead went everywhere including on me! I didn't get burned very much but I did learn a lesson.

[8mmFan]

I just can't think of one good reason for doing that. I've had the "tinsel fairy" visit twice--once I was wearing long sleeves and gloves, and once I wasn't. I got burned, in several places. Not extensive enough to go to the ER, but bad enough that it hurt like hell and the burns didn't heal really quickly, either.

I can't think of a single reason to do what this guy did. To control the temperature of the lead? I don't get it.

I do water-drop quench my bullets, but I am **** careful--maybe even nervous--about it, all the time. To the guys that pour water in their molten lead and haven't ever had an issue: I wish you well and I hope you never get hurt. But why do it in the first place? Why tempt fate? Why do it enough times that on the XXXth time, something goes really wrong and you burn the heck out of yourself or somebody that's there with you?

It also looked like, in this video, there was a hell of a lot of steam. I can't believe that that was a good thing to take a nice big breath of, either.

Again--not condemning, and I wish you all the good luck in the world.

8mmFan

[725]

To paraphrase Will Rogers; Some can learn by watching, some can learn by reading, some just have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.
Mr. Condescending water experimenter is likely to run into a life long series of troubles. Just hope he doesn't hurt others.

[ghh3rd]

Try sticking a dowel rod that isn’t 100% moisture free into your pot to stir it... it rumbles and shakes violently in your hands. Fortunately when I did that early on in my casting ‘career‘ that’s all that happened.

[Budzilla 19]

We installed a brand new $1.3 million dollar furnace (rebuilt)in a refinery, some knucklehead leaves a blind in the water supply line! Furnace up to temp, “ how come we got not steam pressure??? “ well, they pulled a blind, and then,in a flash of brilliance ,decided to turn on the water!!! Shut it down and let it cool off?? Nah, too much time lost!,, We will go slow, it’ll be ok!!! Not even a hundred gallons went in, turned to steam, expanded and ruined a new boiler!!!
All we salvaged was the steam outlet headers. That’ll convince you about the power of steam cooped up!!! This knucklehead is gonna learn a HARD LESSON one day doing the stupid stuff!!!! Tinsel fairy got me ONCE in 40+ plus years of casting, I learned my lesson!! My Dad was an old school plumber who taught all of us about lead and moisture in lead.

[am44mag]

I have the scars to prove why water and lead don't mix, and it was just a tiny bit of moisture in my case. That dude is an idiot, and probably used up 5 years worth of luck right then.

[Forrest r]

Well, to all you unbelievers, Have a Merry CHRISTmas anyway. And nope the sky is not falling, it's just Santa...

Relax, you can lead a horse to water only to watch them drown. It's hard for most people to put 2 & 2 together to make 4 when you have the monkey see monkey do parroting mentality going on.

2
As others have stated steam is water that expands
+
As the water turns to steam it has to be encapsulated (/trapped/confined)
2
The more steam in the encapsulated space, the more the pressure builds
='s 4
The pressure of the steam becomes greater material encapsulating it.
https://i.imgur.com/6JHFfkj.png

A bullet that had a water drop go into the cavity when being cast.
https://i.imgur.com/HC0XSLh.jpg

So much for the 2 +2 ='s 4. Now the tricky part, namely using that knowledge. Let's see:
Only encapsulated/trapped/confined steam that expands creates pressure
Lead is heavier than water
Water has to encapsulated/trapped/confined in the molten lead to have the steam expand enough to explode/make tinsel

https://i.imgur.com/Fvcm0KG.jpg I got idea's from the knowledge I learned from my 2+2='s 4 test
Next time I seal cast iron pipes with lead/oakem I'll cool the molten lead off with water in my melting pot so I can pack everything up faster and move on to the next job. Remember, time is $$$$
When I do 100# batches of lead ingots @ 1 time I only need 1 ingot mold. Simply fill the ingot mold (4-cavity lyman) with molten lead and submerge the ingot mold in water. It's nothing to make 100# of ingot in less than 15 minutes with 1 4-cavity ingot mold.
https://i.imgur.com/KqMCmvs.jpg
Get tired of the "perfect" cadence when casting, waiting for the sprue's to harden, bullet bases with tares, using 2 or 3 molds to make use of the dead time??? Try a rag with that evil water on it and cool the puddles of molten lead on the sprues. The end result time after time as fast as you can pour them.
https://i.imgur.com/A5tTsSc.jpg

water & lead
This thread is an excellent example, you either get the "OOOO MMMYYYY, lions, tigers & bears.
or
nothing more than another tool in the bag of well, people like plumbers or bullet casters

This thread is a perfect example of the use of knowledge vs the lack of knowledge. But then again you have to have enough knowledge to know the difference let alone use it to your advantage.

[unique]

I know from experience that a burn from molten lead is horribly painful and I do everything I can to minimize the risk. We owe it to all newbie casters here to make sure they understand the realities and try our best to give good guidance to help them stay out of trouble.

Here is what Recluse wrote in the Sticky Why some new members will do better than others here

"We stress safety here above anything else. Knowledge equals safety. Old-timers know what happens when water gets under molten alloy. We can laugh about the Tinsel Fairy, but the reality is, she can hurt and maim you bad and do it so quick you won't realize what's happened until the ER docs explain it to you."

[JSnover]

No one is ordering anyone to Stop Doing That!!! Go ahead and dribble some water in there if you want, the rest of us don't feel the need.
The safest way to cast boolits is to buy them, anything else is a calculated risk, right?