Because, as my wife is so apt to say, "I have more balls than brains" I once upon a time bought a heavy, huge, milsurp soup pot for melting lead. It was of course, aluminum. The thing was as thick as thick as the sides of a Bradly troop carrier (having actually seen one in action I refuse to call it a fighting vehicle. The guys who designed it should have to endure an RPG attack in one. Then lets see who votes for aluminum armor next time). So, I fired up the turkey fryer (did I tell you that these are your friend?) and loaded up the pot with a couple of gallons of wheel weights. I dialed in FTB on the temp knob (full-tilt-boogie) and sat back to wait for the magic to begin. Well, I got distracted, (little woman showed me some new jeans she bought and , well, you know, they just seemed to fit so well and it was Spring time after all... :grin: ) Anywho, I returned about 45 minutes later and discovered that all was melted. The Lyman thermometer read 900 degrees. I fluxed, skimmed, fluxed again, skimmed again and decided to start pouring ingots. I turned around to grab my ladle and when I looked back, I noticed that my pot was now pear shapped. As I was watching it, it shifted from pear shaped to more fig-like. I did a quick check of my senses, noted that the breeze would have blown any toxic fumes away from me so I couldn't be halucinating and no matter how good-looking those jeans were, that particular activity has never yet cased my vision to fail. I was just getting up the gumption to investigate up close when, without any real warning at all, the sides of the pot just sagged down over the burner and a torrent of melted lead rolled out onto the ground. It immediately started a small grass fire, melted the rubber tires off of the lawn mower and threatened to melt the hose on the propane bottle thus turning me into a sexually satisfied but unwilling Roman Candle.
So boys and girls, what did we learn from this? Aside from the obvious, (the GAP has jeans that make my wife's caboose look really good) I also learned that steel or cast iron are the only materials suitable for lead melting. I also learned that the tires on my mower cost $17.00 ea and that my patio does not look good lead plated. Further, I also learned to keep a CO2 extinguisher near my melting activities. When I went to put out the fire I used a hose. That didn't work out so good. It had its interesting moments though. I think I'll save them for a future intallment on bullet casting. No sense in sharing all of my "expertise" at one time. Folks might be overwhelmed. :hatsoff:
So boys and girls, what did we learn from this? Aside from the obvious, (the GAP has jeans that make my wife's caboose look really good) I also learned that steel or cast iron are the only materials suitable for lead melting. I also learned that the tires on my mower cost $17.00 ea and that my patio does not look good lead plated. Further, I also learned to keep a CO2 extinguisher near my melting activities. When I went to put out the fire I used a hose. That didn't work out so good. It had its interesting moments though. I think I'll save them for a future intallment on bullet casting. No sense in sharing all of my "expertise" at one time. Folks might be overwhelmed. :hatsoff:
