hardening wheel weight lead?

[bfox]

I drop my bullets in a five gallon bucket of water .
Have an old t-shirt bungy corded on top with a slit
for the bullets to fall threw .

I put in a 1lb ingot in my pot before and didn't know
it had some condensation on it .
Believe me don't get any water in your melt .
Scared the crap out of me .
Didn't get hurt but I sure don't want to do it again .
I never want a visit from the Tinsel fairy again !

Bill

Davinci
I think you were Lucky .
Your lead must have cooled off fast .

 

[First Shirt]

I work in a steel mill and have seen the results of "molten-metal-on-top-of-water." It's pretty impressive! Water on top of molten metal is OK. IIRC the expansion rate @2800 deg. F. is 1500 times. Don't quote me on that, but it sounds right.

JWB

 

[davinci]

So, what you guys need is actual proof that water in lead isn't a huge problem before you believe this myth is false?

I have an experience that tells me the opposite, as I watched the rain fall into my hot pot of lead without any trouble. I guess I'm going to just have to try it myself on my pots.

How, oh, how do you get water beneath the surface of lead in the first place? Last I checked, lead was heavier than water.

 

[bfox]

Davinci
You do what you want but telling people its a myth is Bull .
Good Luck and God be with you when your casting .
Ask on any other board water and lead don't mix.
I tried to get some from Glocktalk to post here but no luck .
Lots of knowledgable folks there posted on a thread I started .
I don't want to argue with you . I just don't think telling folks here its a
myth is right .

Bill

 

[Walkalong]

So, what you guys need is actual proof that water in lead isn't a huge problem before you believe this myth is false?

No. We do not need proof. We already have the proof. Be carefull casting. We are not trying to give you or anyone a hard time. We just don't want to see anyone hurt, possibly badly, unnecassarily.

I guess I'm going to just have to try it myself on my pots

Please wear protection, especially eye protection.

 

[zxcvbob]

How, oh, how do you get water beneath the surface of lead in the first place? Last I checked, lead was heavier than water.

Dropping a wet piece of metal into the melt will do it. All it takes is one drop of water hidden in a crack and you have a minature version of a BLEVE explosion. (exploding steam engine boiler, water heater, etc) The cold metal sinks to the bottom just before the water explodes.

I think spilling water into the lead pot is probably OK but I haven't tested it.

 

[davinci]

see, that's the whole thing... if you can somehow trap the water under the surface of the lead then you may have a small crater or 'pop' like what happened when it started to rain on my pot.

I'm going to do this now, not to prove anyone wrong just to understand how it is possible. I really just don't understand how it's possible is all. Is lead really that much thicker than vegetable oil when melted? How can it produce a glob big enough to cause any trouble?

I'm starting another thread.

 

[USSR]

I'm going to do this now, not to prove anyone wrong just to understand how it is possible. I really just don't understand how it's possible is all.

There are some scary people on this site.

Don

 

[skua44]

OK, I'm convinced. Straight WW, no big effort at tempering. I was a little leery of using the kitchen oven anyway. The "Secretary of War" would probably grimmace..or worse.

I've always been a little gunshy of molten lead. Hardhat with full facemask, gloves, long sleeves and an apron. That is sweat-your-butt-off gear in this part of the woods at this time. Maybe it'll cool of one of these days. Thanks for the comments and advice.

 

[Paul "Fitz" Jones]

Being the distributor for the original Saeco Co. of California I have sold about a thousand of their Burnished Steel lead hardness testers which are a very handy tool measuring a lead bullet or similiar sized chunk of lead reading from zero for pure lead and ten for average linotype.

In my casting into water starting as a hobby and promoting it with the thousands of Saeco 4 cavity molds with beautiful handles I sold, I have been able to read an increased hardness 2 weeks later of 1 point of hardness. Whenever I cast by hand or with my 4,800 bullets per hour with my pair of Bulletmaster machines I always lubed, sized and loaded them for police Dept orders promptly so they still had time to harden.

 

[bob kk]

Lead & water

I was at a friend's casting years ago. I was about 10feet away from the pot with my back to him. He added a ingot to the pot and My back got covered with lead . Had a down vest on with a high collar, It was covered .Also my back had a lot of lead on it. Had to throw the vest away leaked feathers bad. Must of had water on or in it. Bob