Water and casting lead?

[ReloaderFred]

One thing I would like to add to this discussion is the introduction of foreign matter to the molten alloy. Many, many years ago (about 30 or more), when my kids were little, they were "helping" dad by picking up the lead debris from the floor around my casting area. There were small pieces of lead from the sprue cutter, along with an occasional splatter or drip. They put them in the box I was using to drop the cut off sprue in. To them, anything silver was lead, and I didn't notice that they had picked up a nickel plated live primer that had inadvertantly fallen on the floor near my loading bench a few feet away. When I put the contents of the sprue box back into the lead pot, there was a violent pop and lead splattered on the ceiling of my garage and about 10 feet in all directions, including on me. There were no burns, as I wear proper protective gear when casting, and thankfully, the kids had gone back in the house.

This was a valuable lesson for me and the kids weren't allowed to "help" around the casting bench anymore. They are all grown now and have kids of their own.....

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Wildfire]

Splats.

Water and hot metal don't get along. Much like you I worked as a die caster for General Electric years ago. You are so right, hot aluminum and water get along about the same hot lead and water.
I cast with a Magma master caster. I forgot to preheat the laddle one day and wow. The ceiling was covered, walls, and 1/2 the stuff near that thing.
Always preheat every thing going in that pot.
I also drove truck for way too long and hauled hot liquid oil. At 435 to 440 degrees.
Used for makeing ashphalt. 6000 gallons at a wack. Saw a truck that had water in the botom off his tanker blow when they cut that hot oil loose. Man, That crap went every where.
Be carefull the glasses are a must.

 

[fireflyfather]

Instead, throw them in a scrap bucket and let them dry out for a few weeks. Use them in another casting session after they have had time to dry out completely!

You could also preheat them on a hot plate or second burner in a preheat pan. Just make sure you use an egg timer or something. Useful during a longer casting session.

 

[WNTFW]

I did see a show where a sailboat keel was being cast & they heated the mold for a long time to dry it out before making the pour. The Boss was "Mr. Nervous" about the potential of the lead being blown out of the mold. No big deal to me, I'll never make a lead keel.

Few years later -
We had a big camera that had a leadscrew nut go bad. I look at it & see it is steel but has a lead filliing to form the acme threads. So my brother decides to re-cast the part with the lead screw in place. He does it but the alignment is off. Melts the lead out & realigns parts after water cooling. Remelts lead & pours into still wet mold. Describes as explosion when I arrive a few minutes later. He now is thinking about water/steam & how he just didn't think about it 5 minutes earlier. It violently blew the lead out from what he said & it looked that way from the lead. He was kind of shaken up. We go to 3rd attempt. I tell him about the sailboat keel show. Brother is all "Mr. Nervous" about making sure there is no water on anything.
It ended up working on the 4th try. Molten metal does demand respect.

similarly
I don't like being around turkeys being fried. I know of 2 guys that had boiling water go down their boot. I really don't like kids around any hot liquids either.
Later,
WNTFW

 

[cracked butt]

does anyone have any experience, or know anyone, who has ever actually 'exploded' a pot of lead from putting in a wet ingot or wheel weight...or somehow putting water into the pot intentionally.

I had a 'pop' a few years ago. I was using Marvellux for fluxing, adding it ot the pot with a spoon. After emptying my pot, I refilled it with ingots, melted them, and fluxed the pot again using the same spoon. The spoon still had a little of thr Marvellux on it fromt he last flux an hour earlier. That little bit was enough to pick up enough moisture from the atmosphere to cause the lead to violently erupt from the pot when I fluxed. I was wearing a flannel shirt, welding gloves, goggles, and a wide brim hat while casting, all of which kept me from being severely burned- the wide brimmed hat was probably 1st in importance as the lead went nearly straight up before coming back down. I did get a few burns on my legs and arms where hte lead did burn through the clothing though.

water+molten lead= pain

 

[Silverbullit]

Howdy mates,

I cast regularly to sponsor my own shooting.
I had several bad encounters.

As I cast bullits I return the still hot spruces in the melter,
at one occation one of the spruces must have been contaminated with water as it exploded straight up and filled most of my home made draft cages fan with melt led, I instinctively ducked but a large splash then returned down and found its way between my sock and my nikes. It really filled that shoe up.
I dont recommend it to anybody...


The closest WORST encounter had I while cleaning and making alloy bars from wheel weights and etc
I used a long iron rod to stir down the wooden chips (used to clean out cupper and other unwanted stuff)
Suddenly something happened that made the iron rod heavily recoil and something past my face clearing it with inches, I just changed the end of the rod from one side of me to the other passing my face *phew*

I had a pretty fat explosion inside that iron rod, and the led shot from down the acre I stood at all the frikkin way up to the house and hit the backside porch...

Oh boy I'm sure glad I did not get that in the face, I wore a gas mask but I did not have goggles on...

Anyway - DONT DO THAT!!!

/Silverbullit *learning by one stupidity after the other*

 

[langenc]

Did not read all posts.

I do recall making duck decoy anchors with a neighbor many years ago. He was melting the lead on the kitchen stove and had water in the sink. One particular anchor did not look right to him so he lifted it out of the mold and set it into the sink. It made a loud sound and about went thru the ceiling. His wife suggested he do the anchors elsewhere and a good thing his toddler was napping.

 

[Shadow500]

I got tinseled last week while casting bullets.

I put an ingot in and about 5 seconds later I lost a few pounds of lead out of the pot. The ingot did not feel wet, but it must have had some water on it.

Luckily I had protective gear on and did not get hurt, but I will be more careful when I add ingots in the future.

Chris