I'm just getting into casting. I have been reading through "From Ingot to Target". And some here and there on the internet.
I smelted one pot of lead into ingots this morning. It was about 30' outside. I had a couple doors open, but I had a heater running in the garage. This afternoon it was in the upper 40s, so I decided not to run the heat. With the same doors open. About 10 minutes into this session, I heard a pop. It turned out to be the thermostat dial switch zapped and tripped the breaker. I'm getting a 17 ohm reading on the meter for the heat element.
My main question is, was the weather to cool out, that it taxed the melter too much? This is a new pot, 1st time using it today. I don't recall anyone mention the importance of the outside temperature when casting, only about ventilation.
Next, I only left about a half inch of lead in the bottom of the pot from the 1st session. Will that be too much added stress on the heat elements on the following heat up?
This should be straight scrap lead, but when I poured the ingots, there is some blue tint to the ingot surface. Too much heat? Or just a pour into cold molds?
Thanks for any guidance. I would rather not repeat this lesson if I caused it.
I smelted one pot of lead into ingots this morning. It was about 30' outside. I had a couple doors open, but I had a heater running in the garage. This afternoon it was in the upper 40s, so I decided not to run the heat. With the same doors open. About 10 minutes into this session, I heard a pop. It turned out to be the thermostat dial switch zapped and tripped the breaker. I'm getting a 17 ohm reading on the meter for the heat element.
My main question is, was the weather to cool out, that it taxed the melter too much? This is a new pot, 1st time using it today. I don't recall anyone mention the importance of the outside temperature when casting, only about ventilation.
Next, I only left about a half inch of lead in the bottom of the pot from the 1st session. Will that be too much added stress on the heat elements on the following heat up?
This should be straight scrap lead, but when I poured the ingots, there is some blue tint to the ingot surface. Too much heat? Or just a pour into cold molds?
Thanks for any guidance. I would rather not repeat this lesson if I caused it.