Smelt dipping was a bust, and with all the sturgeon fishing lately it was time to stock-up on fishing weights.Fortunately, a good friend had all the casting equipment for the job.
We picked up some brass loops, and heated up alot of lead.
The nice weather was great for doing the castings outside.Pretty simple setup - same as for cooking crab or scalding chickens.
We've never done this before, so it was a new adventure.
The molds were nice, and simple to use. Alittle tricky to get the loops in place when the molds were REALLY hot... but we did it all without a mishap.Its important to keep the molds HOT, so the lead fills the entire cavity before hardening too much.
While the lead was melting, we tore out the old thermostats on the outboard motor.The motor is running well, but still getting too hot at slower RPMs - the poppet valve cleaning did NOT fix the issue.
We also put a new layer of 'liquid' tape on the bolts, to keep corrosion down. More on that, later.
Casting the lead into the molds was alot of fun.Pretty straightforward, too. Just keep the lead good 'n hot, and pour slowly and smoothly.
And don't get burned.
Here's a few of the weights cooling.The only other step was to trim the weights and put the excess lead back into the pot.
Out walking the streets alot like we do, we often find wheel weights around and pick them up. They have alot of other alloy metals in them, and make good lead for bullets. The alloy gives them strength and more durability in a bullet.So... we threw them in the pot, too.
Here's the molds, waiting to be unloaded, with other weights ready for triming.We also had fun pouring hot lead into a bucket of water, and other fun stuff... but safety first, of course.
Especially when putting wet items back into the hot lead - pop!
We had so much fun we got alittle carried away - and made ALOT of weights!They sure like nice 'n shiny...
Another fun project here in the great Pacific NorthWest.
