Mold ready to shape the sides of the keel Ballast Lead running out of the melting box. The rough surface is the lead actually bubbling as steam escapes from the concrete boiled out by the hot lead. This one one pour was 1230 pounds of lead. One more pour and we will have one side of the Ballast completed and ready to assemble with the tandem fins after the other side has been formed. https://sites.google.com/site/marazulles/pictures-exterior?pli=1
Another 1000# added to day. Dang, need about 200 more and my fire died and the lead set. Oh well, finish this one tomorrow. Ladled this in by hand today, worked much better. Didn't blow shit all over the place, but that is a hell of a job for one ancient mariner.
Ballast part is lead reinforced with steel rebar. The fins are steel fleshed out with concrete in the upper part, lead in the lower section with chromoly steel rod reinforcement.
Reminds me of when I made my own toy soldiers from molds as a kid. We'd get used tire-balancing weights from the Shell station for the lead.
You playing with lead as a child explains so much. So how many pounds of the stuff do you think you ate?
About half the lead I am using is wheel weights. I started collecting them about 10 years ago, most of it, I obtained for nothing, just a yarn about what I was going to do with them. They are excellent for casting because they are much harder than pure lead. They add arsenic to them to make them hard. They are also good for casting bullets if you load your own. Being hard as they are, you can push them to higher velocity than soft lead bullets, not as high as copper jacketed, but considerably higher.
