Comments | ps238principal: It's Monday, must be time for Torchwood musings. But there's other things, too...

ps238principal

It's Monday, must be time for Torchwood musings. But there's other things, too...

Aug 15, 2011 02:48

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torchwood miracle day, t-mobile, the dark knight rises, batman, drawing, at&t

Comments 23

That thing helljack August 15 2011, 09:53:13 UTC

I would use caution in using that thing for any food preparation, as it closely resembles a "casting ladle", like the ones used in casting ones own bullets.

Just a thought, is all...

Re: That thing ps238principal August 17 2011, 08:10:41 UTC

Your link does give me hope it's "clean," I think. Nearly all of those have handles made of wood and/or have them much farther away from the crucible, the better to handle high temperatures in regards to one's hand (I'm guessing).

I don't know if it means anything, but the spout on mine is a lot longer, narrow, and more pointed than the ones I'm seeing. If it is for metal, could that be for smaller, more controlled pouring?

"This thing"... ext_297296 August 15 2011, 11:33:19 UTC

Um, Aaron...

Regarding "this thing the previous owners of my house left behind;" that looks a lot like a smelter, which is usually used to melt lead, either for minis or bullets.

Either way, I'd be very, very careful about putting anything you're going to ingest in that thing and heating it up. And I don't know if any of the younger members of the household should be near that at all.

It may never have melted a single ounce of lead, but just to be sure, you way want to buy an unused one to replace this if you really like having this tool.

Re: "This thing"... gillsing August 15 2011, 18:07:23 UTC

Yeah, I too thought that the thing looked like a smelter, though it seems a bit thicker and the handle is a lot shorter than the one is used for making my minis. Which makes me wonder if it really is a smelter, because if it's thicker, doesn't that imply that it's made for greater heat? And if it's made for greater heat, shouldn't the handle be longer rather than shorter?

Oh well, better safe than sorry. A little lead fumes didn't kill me when I was a teenager, but it just seems unnecessary to risk one's long term health by using a smelter for cooking. Kind of like insisting on looking straight into the sun. (Of course, as a kid I did that anyway.)

Re: "This thing"... ps238principal August 17 2011, 07:58:24 UTC

Not to mention the handle is made of plastic or bakelite. If it's for metal, it'd have to be at a pretty low melting point.

Could it have been for chocolate?

Re: "This thing"... gillsing August 18 2011, 23:39:54 UTC

It looks like Bakelite to me, which ought to be able to handle the heat that it takes to melt lead. I base this assumption on the fact that I smelted my lead on an electric stove, and I'm pretty sure that an electric stove can't get hot enough to burn a Bakelite handle. The smelter I used had only a regular plastic handle, though it was a lot further away from the heat. It looked pretty much like the one in this image:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4143/5448088826_b329be775b_o.jpg

Thread 10

Metal thing anonymous August 15 2011, 14:33:31 UTC

That looks exactly like the pot my Dad used to melt lead to pour in Bullet and sinker molds. I would not eat or drink anything out of it.

Re: Metal thing ps238principal August 17 2011, 08:04:24 UTC

I would never have thought of casting one's own sinkers.

And the way things are going, maybe I'd better hang onto the thing; you never know what jobs might be in demand in a few years (though I hope not). :)

"this thing" anonymous August 15 2011, 18:57:21 UTC

That small metal pan like thing looks a lot like something I remember seeing the director of a boy scout rifle range use to melt metal (possibly lead) for casting shot for a black powder rifle, a quick internet search for "stove top metal melter" showed a lot of similar looking devices.

Considering the possibly melted metal looking marks on the "thing" and it's unknown history I would highly recommend you do not drink anything else that has been prepared with it in the future.

Re: "this thing" ps238principal August 17 2011, 08:03:36 UTC

I didn't even know stove-top melting was "a thing." I may have to take up a new hobby... and find something else to use for food prep, it seems.

Your hand tea maker... anonymous August 15 2011, 19:36:22 UTC

I don't want to be alarming, but that looks very much like an old dipper used for pouring lead for ball ammunition. You may want to get that checked for contaminants.

Sorry for the damper :(

Re: Your hand tea maker... ps238principal August 17 2011, 08:03:00 UTC

If it is, the previous owners of my house are even stranger than I'd come to suspect. I'd heard stories from the neighbors, but ammo-making wasn't in the list of things they'd had the police drop by to ask about. :)