After the original quick unsuccessful attempt at melting 5000lbs of lead in mid November,
the wooden form for the keel was moved back into the garage,
and snow was allowed to pile over the melting pot....
Early January 2015 saw some nice deep storms and
the dark asphalt was not seen for many weeks.
In late January we were anticipating a winter visit from Mark Smaalders....
planning a little skiing and keel pouring...
Fortunately for keel pouring, but unfortunately for skiing,
we experienced a very warm weather window, in the low 30s-40s, for a couple weeks....
Richard managed to dig out and uncover the melting pot,
as well as clear packed ice from an area of asphalt around the pour area.
On Sunday morning, the weather was predicted to be dry and in the 40s....
the form was hauled out of the garage and re-setup. Let's see if we can pour a keel!
The guys decided to try and cut some of the wind around the base
with some concrete block.
Note all the ice on the driveway nearby.
Look at those huge hunks of lead!....
Richard had already taken a chainsaw to them, reducing the size and height of the blocks, and stuffing the smaller pieces deep into the pot...
Richard added a little shed roof in an to attempt to keep in some of the heat.
Jane expressed concern about the lead splashing on the driveway
when the spout was lowered,
so a quick funnel was designed....
I am not sure if they are trying to convince me that it will be OK,
or maybe themselves....
When Eric showed up for the big day,
he anticipated a long slow melt and brought along tasks to be completed...
I thought the stools were only for comfort but he had just made them,
and wanted to add the tops and buff them up...
Set up complete. Ready to fire up with one row of burners down the center...
One 100 lb propane tank and a small tank to apply extra heat, if needed,
with the hand held weed burner.
Not to worry, organic vapor respirators and face shields for everyone.
The number of people involved was kept to a bare minimum for safety reasons...
we really had no idea how this was going to go...
We have ignition....at 1 pm...
As Quinn says...it looks and sounds like a jet propelled dog house.
We were still working with one row of burners,
under the center of the tank, between the I beams.
The fourth guy in the melt group, Jon Derry, showed up....
hoping for the project to be further along, I think....He and Mark have each successfully done a "backyard pour", but of course no one can quite predict if this will work in these circumstances....
Eric tweeks for more heat...
Conclusion: This will take a while.
About 1:30pm
Hmmm....could be a long day....
Richard and Jane take to chipping and clearing the ice from a large portion of the driveway...with the intermittent help from others wanting to burn off some calories and get the satisfaction of a black driveway. Maybe it will last until spring...
Eric buffs his creations....
Mark and Jon talk boats.....we have been contemplating a lifting bowsprit.
They are weighing pros and cons and complicating factors...
The burners are warm....
But Eric gets out the hand held weed burner....
Joy is afraid of all the noise, but accepts a "nest" inside the open shop door.
3:30 pm....Hmmmmm.....
Could be a VERY long day.....watching lead melt!
What you think? Is it going to work?
Of course, the response is that the lead doesn't care what we want.....
So of course, the boys have fun with the hand held burners...
Mark gets some flame going....it is starting to smell funky....time for the respirator.
About 4pm.....those blocks are starting to get warm.
Although, we aren't sure of the accuracy of the laser thermometer.
The green flame is reported to be burning lead oxide.
Alright, we are done messing around.....Eric fires up his Dad's glass blowing torch.
More torches are always better.
Getting good readings, but they aren't consistent.
Getting intense heat on those big blocks...
These guys are persistent.
The big blocks are finally starting to sag...
Joy is getting bored with the whole thing...Jane rustles up some food and beer.
About 3 hrs into the melt....
All the directed heat on the blocks finally starts to get some soft lead in the tank.
Poking at it is fun...and coating a rod with lead...
And a few old keel bolts are loosened and removed from the large chunks.
Jon checking for leaks, as the tank gets hotter....
Torch directly on the blocks...
Getting a larger area of liquid lead.....about 5:30 pm.
Keep the heat coming....
Come on!
Finally the blocks are gone....with the lid off, they are hoping to get more heat to the top.
They then start working on those long junk keel bolts.
Poke it, grab it, heat it, and twist....
Way more fun to play with torches.....but not really progressing.
6:30 pm....and the sun is starting to set.
Get the lights out!
We are having fun now! I am thinking Mark might start regretting this trip!
Oh no! A leak!
But I am told not to worry about my asphalt since it is only a tiny leak....
Try it with the lid back on....
Are we getting anywhere? We have been burning for 7hrs....
and running low on propane. The sides of the tank seem to be cooling, and the bottom only burners aren't keeping it all hot....
Alright...call it a night.....and re-assess and re-group and rebuild....
Next attempt was two days later....but we got a late start.
Eric built two more torch bars, one for each side of the tank,
along with the bar of torches down the center.
They had also jacked up the tank, with a house moving jack,
so that they could place crossways sleeper bars that would help
the heat distribute across the tank better.
Unfortunately, now we had one huge hunk of lead to try and heat to temp.
We were hoping that throwing a few more dead dinosaurs at it would make the difference.
And more blocks were placed on the ends,
since that seemed to be an area of huge heat loss.
It got dark quickly during this attempt...
And we only lasted 5 hrs on this attempt before throwing in the towel...
This pour seemed to take on a life of it's own....and it couldn't be allowed to win.
Richard and Mark got really serious about bringing in every suggestion put forth by anyone to increase the heat and retention of the heat.
Mark even consulted his brother and got an estimate of 70% of the btus being lost from the tank. We needed SERIOUS insulation....
Richard and Mark spent the non-burn day building a kiln from cinderblock.
Mark got out there at day break on Thursday and insulated the whole thing.
He placed reflecting metal flashing around the tank with a 4 inch dead air space, then pink insulation between flashing and block....
The tank was entirely enclosed....no messing around this time!
Pretty in pink...
Moving the block to connect the three rows of burners to the propane
....then replacing it all.
Prepped with two 100 lb propane tanks and two 25 lb tanks.
And one really big, 500k btu torch....
With Eric having reworked the side burners, drilling them out more, Richard estimates they had between a million to a million half btus in the kiln...
The top was made of flashing layered with drywall then plywood.....
it even has cute wooden handles.
Fired up...
Starting to steam and smoke by 10:45 am.
Melting well before lunch the lunch break....and ready to work and pour after lunch.
SWEET! A molten mess....
Look at the color of the insulation....I think it got a little hot...
Mark and Richard took turns skimming off impurities, and placing it in old varnish cans.
More keel bolts, tire weight clips, and even one half of a beer can were removed.
Best to get all the stuff out now, since a pipe clogged by debris would be tricky to fix.
The lowering of the outlet pipe went well, after a little heat was applied to the pipe.
The lead bubbled and gurgled as if it was boiling for about an hour and a half
while it was going into the mold....
it seemed to flow evenly, and level, across the entire mold to the vent pipes at the ends....
Lots of steam and drama, but not one leak in the mold, and no charring....
remember the "water glass"?
The last tiny bit of lead was ladled from the tank into a pan, then transferred to the mold.
That made a nice smooth top.
The next morning, the mold was still about 200 degrees....the mold will be cooling for quite a while prior to removal from the form.
We can hardly wait to see how smooth the pour was,
and see how much fairing is needed....
Lessons learned from the pour:
1. Dead dinosaurs alone can not tame 5000 lbs of lead.
2. Smaller pieces of lead to be added in stages is much easier to melt,
but possibly more dangerous.
3. No amount of btus or insulation should be considered "too much".
4. A seriously reinforced wooden mold with water glass coating is perfect.
5. Nothing is better than having loyal friends that are willing to help in locating and delivering lead, designing melting techniques, and hang out through unsuccessful attempts, brain storming to finally give Beckon her keel!
Thanks to everyone for your hard work and a safe pour...
and a special thanks to Mark for his friendship....
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