A frequent claim with casting lead is that a drop of sweat falling off the arm and in to the melter will cause a steam explosion. That is unlikely to nearly impossible as this fellow demonstrated in one of his videos i can’t currently find.
He put a few drops on the lead surface and it sizzled and danced around like on a hot stove top, but no steam explosion.
He did point out in that presentation not to add wheel weights or range scrap to an already molten pot because moisture could be trapped in the clip or jacket and, if so, it will cause a steam explosion when it goes under.
So i knew better.
Casting some .44 swc over the weekend and i had left some ingots out that were slightly damp so i wiped a couple off to fill up and cast more.
The first one i eased in to the melter sizzled a little, but was uneventful.
The second one did the same at first, but apparently had a void(that i didn’t think was possible) because as it went under what i saw looked similar to a frozen french fry getting tossed in hot oil. That gave me a second to back up and safely watch as a quarter size fountain of lead shot up about 2’ above the melter.
So i got lucky on the reminder and decided to share it as a group reminder.
For a very brief time I worked Quality Control at an aluminium foundry.
The heat by the Aluminum was proboby about 140-160 and in the Summer time in Texas that will hurt you.
The guys running the Molds were constantly drinking beer, but they were also sweating it out as fast as they could Drink it. To hide the fact that they were drinking beer they would empty the can and toss it straight in to the oven.
Being as I was considered “Management” they hid. the Beer drinking from me until they hired a new helper.
The “Helper” Job kept the area clean and took care of all of the sweeping and housekeeping and helped out whoever was short handed Usually this job went to a High School Kid or a Retired Guy padding his Social Security..
So I’m walking from one side of the Foundry to the other and out of the corner of my eye I see the Kid throw something in the Oven and I heard a Pop that sounded like a bat hitting a Ball. I then heard a very long torrent of Swear Words in Spanish intended at the Kid.
He’s been seeing them throw cans in the oven for a couple of days now, so he throws one in, except he threw in a can of WD-40 and the Guy drawing aluminum out wasn’t ready for it.
