Well I've read about this topic and dreaded the day I would experience it given the very short time and limited experience I have. Anyway last night after the last day of the controlled shotgun deer hunt ( unsuccessful I might add) I decided I would finish the evening quietly in the garage trying my hand at casting a few 9mm. While I was waiting for the pot to heat up with a few ingots already in there I went to the basement quickly and retrieved about 6 to 8 more ingots that were given to me by a friend of mine. These originally belonged to his dad. When I got back out to the garage I proceeded to place these and ingots near the hot plate to keep them warm before adding to the pot. After the pot heated up and I started casting it was time to add a couple of more ingots to top up the pot. I took one ingot from near the hot plate and put it in no problem. The second one I put in I immediately noticed a small bit of bubbling and at that point I realized it was too late to take it back out. Next thing I know it bubbled like crazy and literally exploded hot lead all over the place. Luckily I always wear my safety glasses gloves and all other manner of attire to ensure I'm totally covered. Only thing that was really exposed was my beard and my face. Luckily neither were harmed. First thing I reach for was my beard to make sure it was all still there. I've been growing it for 3 years or better so it's a bit long.
So aside from the experience itself I'm curious to know why this happened. I did not introduce any water into the molten lead knowingly or otherwise as far as I know. The ingots that were retrieved from the basement were warm not damp and not at near any water. Is it possible the ingots formed some condensation in the cold garage perhaps while sitting near the hot plate and this is what caused the pot explosion?
It made quite a mess and launched up and under the range hood and everywhere else. Quite a bit stuck to the glove on my right hand. Had I not been wearing gloves I'm sure I would have suffered some pretty bad burns. I'm glad I had the cover on my Harley, and after cleaning up I was really apprehensive about adding any more ingots to the pot and when I did I had a piece of plywood in front of me in case there was a repeat incident. Hopefully I don't have to do that all the time going forward! Hope this might be a good reminder to someone else when casting to wear proper clothing and safety glasses etc.
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