Smelting accident: pot collapses

[jeepyj]

Was "hopping" a Freudian slip? He'll be more than qualified to teach hopping after trying to get around with that foot for a while.

Give the man credit for not hiding his mistake. And sharing the pictures (I hope it was with his consent) for others to learn from.

I had to look it up."Freudian slip" I originally wasn't trying to be funny but after re-reading I laughed for five minutes. Sometimes I should re-read prior to hitting the post button

[RogerDat]

Yeah it is not "funny" that someone that is participating in our hobby got hurt. And accidents do happen but .... come on crocks to wear while casting molten metal? I'll give small props for sharing as long as the original post was not all about "look what bad luck I had". Early after I found this forum I asked about what has gone wrong and how can it be avoided. Most of those posts started with when "I forgot to.... and then ", or "was not being careful and...". In short honest assessments of what they could have done differently to probably avoid the accident. Some were clearly in the realm of things you would not tend to think of such as sweaty palm making an ingot wet enough to call the fairy. Or condensation issues, or getting distracted and having a drip-o-matic make a mess while you were busy not paying attention. In short these are honest mistakes owned up to and learned from, and shared so that those that don't need to tinkle on the electric fence to figure out how that works out can benefit from the reported accident.

Spend a 1/2 century doing stuff and unless you are perfect and lucky there will be times when you slip, or the tool does, or something accidental happens. You just don't want to be saying that you tripped over the chair where you left your safety glasses and gloves when you splashed lead all over yourself. If I lose an eye by god I want to at least be able to say it was because the safety glasses broke not because they were laying over on the bench someplace.

Frying bacon naked - that is just too funny!

[truckerdave397]

That pot looks like it was made out of a tube type truck rim.

[c1skout]

That's not a truck wheel..... but it does look about that size. I thought maybe an old water heater or air compressor tank? Regardless it's surely much larger than a 20lb propane tank.

[Love Life]

Wow. Just wow.

[Stewbaby]

Surprised his foot don't look worse.

[GabbyM]

Yes I was thinking I'd see a foot not attached anymore. He may still loose that foot. I feel sorry for the guy as he is in for some serious pain. Obvious he has low comprehension of structural strength of assemblies. Way to big of a pot. All that means is he's no engineer. Looks like something a doctor would do.

[kryogen]

Seriously, molten lead wearing sandals.... Thats an idiot.

[NavyVet1959]

Surprised his foot don't look worse.

Maybe he thought that Nomex socks were all he needed?

[Stewbaby]

...Way to big of a pot. All that means is he's no engineer. Looks like something a doctor would do.

Might be one of them imaginary or sparky engineers (IE)

[S. Galbraith]

That's looks painful. I always wear boots, jeans, long sleeves, gloves, and a face protector when casting. Not worth the risk. Get a AC unit if it gets too hot.

[mac60]

That's pretty bad! I hope he learned his lesson. I'm a little bit curious about the rest of his attire on that day - shorts and a wife beater? Maybe talking on his cell phone and got a little bit distracted and couldn't get out of the way in time.

[S. Galbraith]

That's pretty bad! I hope he learned his lesson. I'm a little bit curious about the rest of his attire on that day - shorts and a wife beater? Maybe talking on his cell phone and got a little bit distracted and couldn't get out of the way in time.

Which beer was he working on too?

[leadman]

Maybe the toenail fungus will be gone by the time he is healed up. There many things in the photos that are just not good practice. That foot will probably get worse before it gets better.

[Catshooter]

Looks like an aluminum leg to support the pot.

Schools should be teaching us to ask: "What could go wrong?"

And in the What could go wrong department, is that a lead-covered rubber propane hose I see in the lower right of the pic? Just how bad could that have gotten?


Cat

[lightman]

At first I thought it was a water hose, but his shop looks like it may be in the country. If so, it could be a propane hose from a large bulk tank. It sure is a large pot for such a wimpy looking burner! Hope the guy is healing ok.

[RogerDat]

If you open the picture and hit ctl - + you can enlarge the picture for clarity. In that you can clearly see a fairly long straight leg sticking out from under the pot, this makes one think there was some sort of stand with legs. Long spindly legs. I would say zoomed in the "base" is not even part of the pot but part of the stand.

You can see what looks like a pile of skimming and dross in the foreground toward the left. Then there is a wood piece in the background with a groove, has a weed burner sitting on it attached to the long hose. Along with a shovel laying in the puddle, possibly for skimming dross OR for adding material. Looks like a set up cobbled together for bulk processing.

I wonder if there was a homemade stand with a weed burner or turkey fryer stand plus a weed burner. Never seen one of those fryer stands that could take that weight, the one leg visible does not look large enough and does not appear to have any side bracing. Legs would have to be wider (by a lot) or be tied together at the bottom and with angle bracing.

Shovel if adding material to a molten pot is a good way to meet the tinsel fairy but I don't see any sign of lead going in all directions, just down and in the one direction. If skimming or stirring I would think it would pull a lot of weight and momentum around toward the side, good way to tip a wide top heavy pot or create peak or side load on the legs. Combined with the shovel laying right in the middle of the lead I'm guessing the person was stirring or skimming the pot when it went over.

As bad as that set up was and as bad as the resulting mess is the most basic of safety practices would probably have left nothing but a mess to clean up. Leather boots and jeans would probably have managed most of the risk and prevented most of the injuries. Now having a poor set up may be inviting trouble but stuff can go wrong for even the most careful of us. You don't have to care about life jacket until something goes wrong with the boat.

[jmorris]

How fast do you think the shoe came off that foot?

If the sound coming from his mouth didn't drown it out I bet one could have heard the sonic crack.

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

Looks like flimsy legs on the stand.

I got on top of my stand (while holding onto the wooden fence), and did a dynamic weight test of the stand. I was 265 lbs then, and the stand passed without any wobbling or flexing. My smelting pot is the bottom half of a propane tank, which has that bottom ring that acts as a support too. I don't think I've every had it more than one-half full.

I prefer to wear my boots when casting. And, the heavy cotton pants leg are over the top so nothing can be poured into the top of the boot. Seems like a no-brainer.

[Ola]

Just a week ago a beginner caster sent me a picture of his self made smelting pot. I replied with a question: " are you sure those flimsy looking legs can take the weight?"

He responded after he had smelted the first batch of lead:" it seems they can take the weight"..