Cold Weather - Casters beware
Well I learned a valuable lesson today and consider myself VERY fortunate..... The weather were I live in RI has been pretty cold lately, today the high was only about 20 degrees. I do my jig casting in a dedicated "Casting" shed that is unheated. I went out to the shed at about noon today and plugged in my two melting pots and hotplate and then went back into the house while they heated up. After about 15 minutes I went back out and got my work station set up to cast some road runner heads. As I always do before I start pouring, I attempted to skim the slag off of the top of the melted lead with my old metal spoon - well as soon as I put the spoon in the lead I heard a loud POPPPPPP. In a fraction of a second the lead had exploded all over the front of me !!!!! Luckly I had some protective gear on - Saftey glasses, gloves, and several layers of shirts. I literaly had splatterd lead all over my pants, shirt, and hat..... but no burns what so ever - I got VERY LUCKY today.
Now I am new to casting, but I assume the explosion was caused from putting the cold spoon into the 600-700 lead pot - I know that the spoon was dry so I dont think it was caused from moisture.
I know I deserve it soooo - please go ahead and give me my lecture for what I did wrong - I would like to learn from my mistake so I can cast more safely in the future.
Do people just not cast in the winter to avoid accidents like this from happen???
Tom D