The Princess keel is 3 1/2 by 3 1/2 and 7 feet
long. Specs call for 400 pounds. I melted and poured 450 pounds.
| I had to have a crucible built to contain the lead while
being melted. This is built from a HEAVY section of square
steel pipe. It's 9 1/2 x 9 1/2 by 16 inches tall. |
(click images to enlarge) |
(click images to enlarge)
|
And of course a collection of lead. This is only a part
of the lead. I had gathered just under 600 pounds all told.
Some wheel weights, some bullets from Martin Tidswell's
bullet trap and some lead from Jon up in New York. |
| And here's the setup all fired up and heating lead. I
put in 100 pounds at first then added new stuff in 50 pound
lots. The shields kept the heat closer to the crucible and
made the thing very effective. |
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(click images to enlarge)
|
And here's a look down into the pot- that's
450 pounds of very hot lead. When adding lead to the crucible
it is EXTREMELY important that there be absolutely NO
moisture on the lead being added. If there is ANY moisture,
when the damp lead hits the molten stuff, you will get
a violent blowup. What happens is that the damp lead sinks
under the surface and the moisture becomes superheated
steam which blows lead up and out.
it isn't shown in any of the pictures but I was wearing
a double cannister respirator any time I was adding or
skimming dross. The fumes coming from the molten lead
and from the heated dross are not to be breathed. |
| Heating the pipe. The molten lead flows into the pipe,
but cools up at the top so you have to reheat that plug
of cooled lead to get it to flow. Once it flows things BETTER
be right cause there's NO stopping it. |
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And here's when it let go! Took it about 30
seconds or so to fill the mold. Looked pretty cool (If molten
lead can be called cool) made waves back and forth in the
mold. |
| Here's a shot of some HOT stuff. Yeah - those are bubbles.
|
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I did have one small leak in the threads where
the pipe was connected. It was only hand tight so it could
be pushed over to let the lead flow out. Made a pretty neat
stalagmite. |
Altogether it took 2 1/2 hours and used slightly
less than one tank of propane. The wooden mold scorched but
only slightly. All in all a very successful day
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Here is the bottom of the Princess 22. Having
a chain fall fore and aft sure worked great to position
the boat. |
| Here's the lead keel all cleaned up and ready to position
under the boat. |
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Done! That's masking tape above the keel;
keeping the epoxy off the paint. |
