We all know it is bad. I thought I would post this picture to show how bad it can be. This happened yesterday about two miles away. It rattled my office window.

This company recycles aluminum, somehow they got water in one of the furnaces.


http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k191/KGKILBY/071129111720_explosion_400_112907-4.jpg

Hope nobody was injured. The damage is just awesome.

:eek: :eek: Being new to this casting myself, that a great visual.

A guy I know from the gun club lost an eye and scared up his face from a drop of sweat in the melting pot when he was casting bullets

That reminds me of why I put up with the discomfort and annoyance of a full face shield when I am casting.

That reminds me of why I put up with the discomfort and annoyance of a full face shield when I am casting.

That's probably a good idea. I wear glasses and have them made up with polycarbonate, but that wouldn't protect me from a really big splash. I try to never get any part of my over the top of my pot but usually manage to have a couple of small splatters catch me on my fingers when I'm filling from the bottom spout of my RCBS pot.

I'm religious about washing up before eating or touching around my eyes, etc. I've got a local friend who found out too late that lead builds up in your system over time. His doctor made him give up casting after too many years of being casual about lead handling. The levels in his system were getting out of control.

Ok I am going to step off here and say that yes molten alloys and water are dangerous, but I don't think that a drop of water on top of an alloy melt will do anything except dance around until it has evaporated. Now introduce that same drop of water below the surface of the melt and then you have an explosion or at the least a visit from the tinsel fairy. I have dropped sweat and water on top of liquid lead and all that happened was the droplet evaporated after jumping all over the surface of the melt. I have also introduced water into a molten alloy by submerging metal implements under the melt surface and OH what a mess and yes some splatter burns. Just my worthless 2 cents worth......Wes

I agree with Hammerhead -- water is a problem only when it gets beneath the surface of the molten alloy. The easiest way to accomplish this is to add ingots with water trapped in them to the pot. Same with ice, if you're casting in the winter.

Steam at one atmosphere fills about 1700 times as much volume as it did in liquid form -- water, and a large heat sink (like a pot of molten alloy) will flash small quantities of water almost instantly into steam.

Those of us who are old enough to remember steam engines on the railroad (prior to 1960, except in museums and tourist railroads) can appreciate the tremendous energy in steam. A firebox not more than five times as large as your fireplace heated water to steam, which then pulled trains of thousands of tons as it expanded against a piston.

Steam "explosions" also destroyed many buildings before heating engineers figured out how to prevent those failures with the Hartford loop on boiler piping.

Enormous energy, indeed!

The Old Guy

Thank you Hammerhead. There are a lot of stories of explosions of small drops of water on a pot, but they are difficult to believe. Water drops onto the molten alloy cannot penetrate, and they will simply steam off.
Now, any water or moisture into the mix will create almost instant steam, which will throw lead around. I suspect most of the damage and stories come from using ladles, which might have come into contact with water, or additional lead being added to the pot. If any of the lead has moisture, then you have a recipe for disaster.
The above photo is a case in point, as it mentions someone getting moisture into the furnace. Not dropping some water onto the melt.

Another source - your moulds must be perfectly dry. Especially, watch out if you spray a mould with mould release... A little blob of wet release in your mould will get really dramatic if you fill that mould with molten lead!

:eek:

I'm at a loss,here.
My only experience with this wa s many years ago,so I can't speak with certainty.A drop of sweat dropped into the pot,and ,as I recall,spit right back at me.It did not erupt,but if it merelydanced around the pot,I'm sure that I would not have been so scared.
A friend had a problem with water dripping from condensation on an overhead pipe.However I'm not sure just what the oitcome was.
sorry for this hslfazzed account.
Frank

Ever since my dad taught me to cast bullets I have heard and read "never let water get in the lead".

I took that advice seriously and I never have. As far as what a drop or two of water on top of the melt would do, I have no idea.

I posted this picture to show the power of a steam explosion, granted, on a larger scale than we would ever encounter casting bullets.

Sadly, the man that was burned the worst passed away today.

Sorry to hear about the mans fate it would be a very terrible way to go. In my previous post I said that I had only experience this when introducing ingots or implements into the melt and I will try to clairify this. If a person will preheat ingots or implements prior to submerging them in the melt there will be not eruption of lead due to steam production. If you don't preheat said ingots or implements then be prepared for and eruption or at least a boiling motion in the melt. I think this is the key to prevent an accident, preheat everything that you will introduce into the melt this would include ingots, ladels, skimmers, flux stirring implements, etc.......Wes

Well, I read all this carefully.

I'm not experienced with casting, but I've been carefully converting wheel weights I get for free, to ingots and bullets that seem to shoot pretty well for a few years. Not high volume, as I use them for plinking in .38 & .44 Spcl class loads, as I've not hit on getting the proper alloy for higher velocities.

But I'll get a better eye protection rig, and add some thought to the moisture issue.

Thanks,

Be very careful here guys. The last thing we want to do is to give someone the impression that a drop or two of water is not a problem. There are those who are new to casting lead bullets coming into this forum for basic information on how to get started.

Reading the casting safety thread at the top of this forum is very important. Of everything we do in re-loading, bullet casting is the most dangerous.