A meticulous, careful man.....

[Leslie Sapp]

1. Sorted out 30 lbs of wheel weights, carefully nicking each one with diagonal pliers to make sure they were lead.

2. Placed them in the pot while cold and gently brought them up to the melting point.

3. Picked up skimmer, heated it a little to make sure it was dry, skimmed off the clips and other debris.

4. Found a nice dry cypress 1 x 2 in the barn to stir with while fluxing. Fluxed and skimmed until the lead was nice and clean

5. Placed the ingot molds around the edge of the burner to warm them up so they'd be perfectly dry.

6. Picked up the ladle that I had just brought out into a hot, humid Florida afternoon from a nice cool garage and shoved it directly into the melt........:roll:

[mr surveyor]

volcano?

[Winger Ed.]

Sometimes the tinsel fairy will redecorate your ceiling if you do that.

[Leslie Sapp]

volcano?

Not too bad, I've got pretty good reflexes for an old fart and got it back out real quick!

[Mal Paso]

Propane contains Hydrogen and produces Water when it burns saturating the the combustion gasses which can hold more water due to their elevated temperature. Pass a cold ingot or ladle through that gas and it's instantly covered with condensation.

[Leslie Sapp]

Can't say that I learned anything.
I'm minded of the time my son got some pretty serious burns while conducting some unauthorized experiments with black powder.

When asked by one of my friends, " Well, did you learn anything?", his answer was, " No Sir, I knew better to start with." :-)

[FLINTNFIRE]

I was casting other day using ingots from old coffee cans no problems next day not much different but a ingot I slid in to melt bubbled and splattered a little , just enough of a temp difference to make a difference , worked in a aluminum smelter years ago cool carbon setting bar makes a heck of a pop when it hits the melt .

[44Blam]

Psssssst-POP!

[StuBach]

Glad your ok. Tinsel fairy, she be a....

Good reminder for everyone as casting season begins once again.

[Hossfly]

I usually just set a cold ladle to float on top of the melted alloy for a while just to be safe. I have scooped some with a cool damp ladle and it would do a Clasic thump, thump, kinda reminds you to watch out.

[lightman]

Glad you are ok. Everyone has a lapse in their thinking, sooner or later. I learned that lesson one time in the past.