We've got to collectively know hundreds of stupid things we've done while casting....my offer comes from this Sunday's run of .358311s...

Don't adjust your safety glasses with your fluxing spoon in your hand....you'll burn your forehead....

Regards...

hmmmmmm......Buckshot/Whitworh 92374 allegedly uses huaraches/jackstrap/and campaign hat as summer casting uniform, but I have no first-hand knowledge to verify this info.

........eshell, Of course that's not wrong! What're you thinking? :-) I have after many years finally arrived at the perfect boolit casting costume for me. You milage may vary.

.......Buckshot

........Stupid casting stunt, eh? I guess that'd have to be this one. Sometime back, on a rainy afternoon (wife was at work, heh, heh) I decided to batch some ingots. Got the trusty stainless steel salad bowl I used and set it on the electric range, and started the vent.

Took the ash pail from the wood heater and went out to the toolshed. After picking some of this, and some of that and a bit of that over there I staggered back into the house. I started stacking in these odd ingots in a rather artfull way, so as to allow a maximum initial amount to be melted.

Came back out from the utility room and things were going swimmingly in the pot. The ingots and stuff were dropping down well so I gingerly stacked in the balance of what I'd brought in. Back into the utility room to putter around some more.

It wasn't too long and I smelled hamburger or bacon. Odd. I'm cooking lead. Going into the kitchen I see that the big lead pot has collapsed the electric element, tipping to one side and allowing a quantity of molten lead to flow down into the nether regions. Obviously heating up some hamburger or bacon drippings.

No bueno por ca ca I'm thinking. Not because of anything other than possibly the War Dept getting home before I can rescue myself. Happily I'm still alive, so you should rightly assume that I did in fact get things in order. A quick trip to Home Depot for a burner element while the lead solidified got things started. I managed to finish up in plenty of time. And peeling runners of lead out of the stove's guts wasn't as bad as I'd figured it'd be.

.........Buckshot

I believe my worst one was with a WW with some moisture under the clip. I pushed it down into the melt, causing a blowup. Most went onto my right hand.

The immediate reaction, of course, was to jerk my hand away.

Into my crotch.

At high velocity.

Result?

Boxer shorts with two black lemons for several days.

Couldn't even get the X to kiss it and make it all better.

This one wasn't mine (honest!)but it happened to a good friend who was relatively new to casting.

He and his family lived in a mining-camp duplex, and one Christmas his wife gave him a nice new Saeco furnace. Having very limited space in their digs, he set it up on a card table in the living room....over their one-week-old new carpet.

Once things were all nicely melted-down and heated-up, I believe he had occasion for a dash to the telephone, forgetting the furnace cord which was stretched across his path. Yep.....20 pounds of melted alloy DOES spread a fair distance on new carpet. Burns pretty well, too.

So, ANOTHER expanse of new carpet is added to the cost of setting-up for casting. Did someone say this is a good way to SAVE money??? Things were also a tad frosty on the inter-personal level, too.

Regards from BruceB (aka Bren Mk1)

Hi guys!

My computer went south and I don't have access at home anymore. I got sent to LA for work and the hotel room has free access so thought I would drop in for a spell. The pictures are great! I sure miss talking to you guys. Took me awhile to find you all with shooters down, but I remembered the address for Castpics and saw sundogs notice to try here...so the emergency room worked. Then it took me a while to remember my password for here.

I am going out to grab a bite to eat. I'll check in when I get back.

ammohead

My misshap and very great luck came when melting down some WWs I grabbed my lyman spout pourer and there must have been a dead bug inside. I could have sworn I looked in before I set it on the melt to heat up. It slipped down in and a eruption went away from me a few feet. to close for comfort as I was working with my daughter the pyro nut and lord knows I would not want another burned by my blunder. JB (thankful and lucky- that time......)

Mine was close to waksupi, but luckier.

I was outside on the driveway casting some pure lead down for the ML, when I added a small "roll" of sheathing to some half melted stuff in the 20 lb pot. It had been "stored" by the shed (outside), but it was a very warm day so no thought of dew down in the depths of the roll.

Then I wandered off looking for some old battery (this was a LONG time ago) plates I thought were around.

Next thing I know there is a great eruption with lead everywhere, except on ME!! In 2001 we put a new roof and soffit on the house and finally got rid of the last traces of that lesson.

Good thread bltsandwedge (I guess you're just down the street from me, over by Aptos somewhere?).

Regards,

Mine resulted in a good scare, but no bodily damage. A friend of mine was temporarily without a garage, so I let him set up his press on my casting bench. Under the bench were a couple of buckets of WW. I noticed my friend was a little sloppy with primers, dead and live, and got him to promise to be more careful. Must have been too late because one day I was smelting some WW when the pot erupted. Lead went up 10-11 feet and after eleven years is still stuck to the garage ceiling. I went through the WW buckets and found two live primers, one of which was STUCK UNDER THE CLIP OF A WEIGHT. I moved the buckets and took to sweeping John's area daily! Neatness counts, curmudgeon

C1PNR,

I actually work in Aptos....PB is jus' south of Monterey. Good to hear from a neighbor! I'm easy to rcognize, I got a bandaid on my forehead....

Regards.....

Here's one that involved me. This happen when I was a very little boy just into grade school. My dad, being a fisherman, cast his own sinkers. He did this in the basement on an old gas range. He used a cast iron skillet, one with the handle being integral with the skillet except it was surrounded with wood so the handle wouldn't be hot. He was getting ready to take the skillet to the moulds as the skillet had one of those little pour spouts on it. He knew lead could be dangerous and told me to back away. I probably moved 7 or 8 feet away. As soon as he pulled the skillet off the burner it pivoted because the heat had charred away the insides of the wooden handle and all 6 to 10 lbs of molten lead fell on the cold concrete floor and from there jumped right down my high top shoe on my right foot. It took my dad what seems like ages to catch me as I was running around crying and going crazy. Had to take me to the doctors to get my shoe off. I looked like when you use to get baby shoes bronzed except mine was lead. It burned a hole all the way to the bone right under my ankle bone on the outside part of my foot and burned another hole just right under the edge of my sole. My dad was crying too he was so upset. This incident didn't stop me from casting stuff from lead. I'm very careful because of it and don't let my son near when casting and explaining the hazards of it. Don't know how you guys cast but you should never cast without safety glassed or gloves. A burn will heal most places on your body but you can never replace your eyes.

Joe

When I was a kid I would put lead in a test tube and melt it on the stove. Then I would take it over to the sink and drop it in a pan of water. The test tube would shatter and the lead would turn into a "sponge". I wonder if I gave my family high lead levels by doing things like this in our dishes.