There was a video posted the other day about the iron stove doors, and the metal was spewing and splattering everywhere. I was trying to find the photos of my hands from when I poured hot iron into steel ingot molds that I had apparently not pre-heated enough, and the metal popped, sending molten iron splatters up my leather jacket, which then rolled down the jacket and into the tops of my gloves. I had one spot on the left hand and three spots on the right hand. Initially they seemed pretty minor, but a few days later the full extend of the damage became apparent (3rd degree burns). They were never painful; I think all the nerve endings got vaporized with the flesh. It took a while for the burns to heal, but they all did heal up well. I will post these so perhaps others can avoid the same problems. Perhaps consider tucking your gloves under your leather jacket sleeves? (I don't think that is very feasible due to the number of times the gloves are taken on and off during a pour). Be safe, be careful, be vigilant, be prepared.
Merry Christmas Pat and all. Those pictures are yummy. Fortunately my flasks are the only thing that have gotten that kind of damage. I've only suffered nuisance burns so far, mostly in learning what not to touch barehanded and when to have my gloves on (everything and always, respectively). This is a good reminder though. You'll never dodge molten metal no matter how "ready" you are. Pete
Merry Christmas all. I ate way too much yesterday, and I am going to eat way too much again today, with no regrets at all.
I always burnt myself way worse working on the car than I ever did in my home foundry or in the 17 years at the steel mill. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas everyone! Santa left me some cool stuff under the tree this year, the mitts should prevent me from getting a burn on my pinkie like I got one time skimming dross with a short handled skimmer back in my charcoal furnace days. Pretty sure I had tossed aside the hot glove in time, but I put it back on while it was still too hot and I got a little blister for my troubles. Only other burn was when I brushed the inside of my left forearm against a hot piece of pipe I had been welding on trying to make a muller that still is not fully operational. Not sure how well it will show up here but I can definitely still see the scar in person more than a year later. Can't wait to see how the new gloves work when I finally get a chance to try casting some of that everdur everyone's always raving about! Stay safe in the new year, everyone! Jeff
Some of you have seen this. I was pouring lead into the legs of my anvil stand. I heard it gurgling and was kinda prepared for it to over flow. I stepped back and got a cool fountain. No I didn't preheat... should have, but was lazy. Looking forward to you messing with bronze jeff. It's cool stuff, you'll like it.
Wow, you're lucky you stepped back when you did, a face full of that stuff would be really nasty! Editing this in since I had the last post already: Burns from yesterday's bronze pour, another test of my new sand. I had the crucible a little too full and that much bronze is pretty heavy... A little bit sloshed out as I approached the first mold. It splashed everywhere when it hit the damp ground, and taught me a painful lesson. I was wearing leather safety shoes with steel toes and still got it this bad! The small burn on the side/underside of my foot was from a BB of bronze that found it's way through a tiny spot where the stitching connecting the leather to the sole had worn away, to rest against my foot bacon once it burned away my sock. A new pair of shoes might have prevented that one. The two burns on top must have happened right through the leather, which appears untouched. There must be a thousand bronze BB's on the ground scattered all around my pouring area, my daughter and I were out there a couple hours later picking them up, we must have looked like addicts in a shag carpeted crack house after somebody sneezed... Anyhow, I'm treating it with polysporin and bandages. Limping a little, but hopefully it will heal up well. Definitely could have been a lot worse. Gonna buy some new shoes before my next melt; not gonna fill my #12 crucible that full again either. Edit - kinda embarrassing burns and slo-mo splash footage of my dumbass move, but maybe it helps someone else avoid trying to manipulate heavy crucibles containing more molten metal than they can safely handle or working in worn out PPE. It'll probably show up again as part of a longer video; I will likely keep this short clip unlisted, but ready to whip out as a quick example when threads like this come up: I even caught the two drops of bronze that burned my upper foot bouncing back into the frame off my shoe (watch for the text and the little arrow pointing to them in the lower right of the screen at the end). Even at only 20% of normal speed as shown here, they weren't sitting on my shoe for very long at all... So, I take it back about how I may as well have been wearing flip flops; that layer of leather clearly saved me from a much worse injury. Jeff
