Lead pouring extravaganza

[Quilbilly]

This is a link to a Youtube video of me pouring one half of a bulb keel to replace a lead filled steel fabrication for my 27 foot trailer-sailer. I ended up doing it by myself because my wife was asleep after doing the RhodyRun, I would strongly recommend having somebody there to give you a hand, especially if you are filming it at the same time. If anyone wants to use my lead melting pot in the Port Townsend area I am all for it. I hope I wont be needing it anytime soon. Todd

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0zHeQijtWjw

[JimD]

Very cool, Todd. Or hot, as the case may be. I especially liked the floating iron bit.

[Duncan Gibbs]

Great stuff! What did you use for your mold material?

[Yeadon]

Man-oh-man, isn't boat building fun? That's just the sort of project that I'd love to do on any given afternoon. An old sink filled with ingot, a campfire, a blowtorch, and finally, a long slow pour of lead into a form.

Good work.

[The Bigfella]

Excellent, but please, no letting the missus slack off next time. We expect to see her doing a bit of work too.

[Thermo]

That looked fun. When I poured my 6 pounds into my leeboard over the winter, it all leaked out of the back of the board and became one with the gravel underneath. So I had to chuck the whole lead-gravel mess back into the coffee-can crucible and put it back on the camp stove to separate again. I love the iron sink.

[outofthenorm]

:cool::cool:

[Quilbilly]

I made a styrofoam plug of 1/2 of the bulb and cast mortar around it. I let it harden and dry out for a couple months as I didn't want a steam explosion. Then I made a left and right hand core of one half the thickness of the fin itself and cast that in mortar too. After it hardened I mortared it in place so that when the lead was cast I chipped out the fin core and only had to fuss with it a bit. I did this for both the left and right halves of the bulb. Then I sandwiched the fin with the two bulb halves and put thickened epoxy between it to make a tight fit. Next step it to drill through the whole mess for the keel bolts, maybe this weekend- Todd

[Ray Frechette Jr]

If you haven't drilled lead before allow me to give a few tips.

If you can get an impact dril, do so! The impact drill will casue small chip formation that makes removal much easier. Spray some sort of oil from time to time to keep things lubricated and remove bit from lead frequently to clear the flukes.

If you don't have an impact drill, make sure you FREQUENTLY pull out the drill bit and remove the lead shavings from the flukes.

It is incredibly easy to fill the flukes and bind the bit in lead. And then you will bne melting the whole thing down and re casting.

[john welsford]

Ray is correct, but for drilling lead the conventional engineering twist drill is not ideal, try using a single start barefoot auger at very slow speed with lots of pressure and a bit of paraffin oil or white cutting oil.

John Welsford

If you haven't drilled lead before allow me to give a few tips.

If you can get an impact dril, do so! The impact drill will casue small chip formation that makes removal much easier. Spray some sort of oil from time to time to keep things lubricated and remove bit from lead frequently to clear the flukes.

If you don't have an impact drill, make sure you FREQUENTLY pull out the drill bit and remove the lead shavings from the flukes.

It is incredibly easy to fill the flukes and bind the bit in lead. And then you will bne melting the whole thing down and re casting.