by craig on Fri Sep 30, 2016 7:43 pm
Keep in mind that there is plenty of room under the floorboards for ballast of all types - not just lead. If the idea of procuring an extra hundred pounds of lead is not appealing to you, look for scrap metal or a some bags of sand. Technically, when using less dense ballast, you need to add more to account for the average weight being higher in the bilge. I'm assuming this is a pretty small effect on a lightly ballasted boat like Pocketship and didn't worry too much about it.
Lead wheel weights are pretty disgusting. The residual oils give off a black smoke when melting. I made sure to stay far upwind and held my breath when stirring or pouring. None of the big chain stores would sell the weights to me, so I ended up visiting the local places. I still overpaid compared to what lead sells for in bulk (it was $1 a pound at the time, but has since decreased), but was a lot less expensive than lead shot.
I really enjoyed seeing molten lead. Everything floats on it - dirt, rocks, and other metals. You expect a liquid to be "wet", but of course all water has evaporated from everything inside the pot. When you scoop out the dirt, grime, etc, everything just crumbles when you expect it to clump together. Solid lead tarnishes but when molten it looks just like mercury or molten silver. Very cool stuff.
Remember that EVERYTHING you put into the pot of already melted lead must be absolutely dry. Any water will vaporize instantly and explode.
Titania, launched January 2015