17 Apr
2004
17 Apr
'04
6:43 a.m.
stuff. I've got basically everything I need, I
just need to form the
box out of clumps of lead. What I need is a blast furnace to melt the
lead; my stove sorta works, but not quite well enough.
I needed to melt some lead recently, to make a weight [1]. I used a
propane blowtorch -- one of those ones sold for light brazing jobs. It's
like the typical home butane blowtorch [2], but the flame is considerably
hotter.
It took a bit of time to get it started, but once it did start to melt it
was pretty easy to keep it molten. This was to cast a block about 6" * 3"
* 3".
[1] For a DeVere 504 enlarger. The copyback (copying camera attachment)
is considerably lighter than the light source assembly, so you need this
weight to counteract the springs in the column when you fit the copyback.
[2] Tried a butane blowlamp first, didn't do anything much
-tony