My first job was when I was 14 at the town newspaper at the end of my street. They had a machine called a Linotype. (line of type)

It made type ingots from lead which would print text after being inked up and then pressed onto paper. Sometimes my job was to clean the ink off them and put them into buckets so they could be melted down and used again. My hands would be coated with lead.

I also handled lead type in high school for two years.

Guess I should get tested eh?

When it comes to memory issues, I've had a bad memory for as long as I can remember.

You can see the lead bar hanging on the machine.

Looks to me like rolling out steel ingots into steel bars, flatter and flatter, with heat and rollers---old school style.

Think: like just beyond Game of Thrones technology and the way it's been done for a long, long time.

Your video, Periodic Videos - Red Hot Platinum Ingot, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

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Lands him the chicks...
..using openers like, "Hey baby, you're eyes look like two, red-hot platinum ingots..."

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:
Totally fake. If you've ever seen a cremated human, they don't put them in little teeny ceramic pots. They give you a freaking INGOT. Seriously, the vessel they put the ashes in by itself alone has to weigh 15-20 pounds.


Perhaps the ashes were split amongst different relatives.

Totally fake. If you've ever seen a cremated human, they don't put them in little teeny ceramic pots. They give you a freaking INGOT. Seriously, the vessel they put the ashes in by itself alone has to weigh 15-20 pounds.

On the one hand, I'm on board with the idea that "this is similar to the ingot burst", but I disagree that you'd get an even more spectacular result with a bucket of water, as butt3rnuts suggests.

I disagree because I've done that, and it just liberates a lot of steam.

In my case, the setup was a pot of thermite that poured into (well, through) a coffee can of water and then down into a large beaker of water and sand.

As an aside, the glass formed as the thermite contacts the sand is a pretty neat souvenir.

not to go all psuedo-scientist or anything but...

couldn't it have been caused by the molten aluminum/other metals melting the ice so fast that it instantly converted to steam, and the insane expansion rate caused the explosion?

i mean, that's the same thing that happened in the video where the 2 kids are pouring molten aluminum into an ingot cast, this is just on a much bigger (and faster) scale... isn't it?

>> ^savethecirclepit:
I have actually had this happen to me except on a much larger scale. I used to melt scrap aluminum car parts in a large smelter. One morning I poured the ingot and it exploded in this fashion, hit the roof and rained molten metal down on me. Luckily, very luckily, I only got a couple of minor burns. Two things, the mold was cold and damp. Now I don't know which or both factors caused the reaction but I started preheating the molds with a torch and it never happened again.


They don't teach you that in ingot forming school?!

I have actually had this happen to me except on a much larger scale. I used to melt scrap aluminum car parts in a large smelter. One morning I poured the ingot and it exploded in this fashion, hit the roof and rained molten metal down on me. Luckily, very luckily, I only got a couple of minor burns. Two things, the mold was cold and damp. Now I don't know which or both factors caused the reaction but I started preheating the molds with a torch and it never happened again.

This is why I buy only pop-free ingot formers.

He lied to the teacher about having the face shield on.

Yeah, I'm going with water bubble. Water is extremely energetic when it changes phase rapidly. Think the old "cup of water in a microwave" explosion or throwing water on to burning oil (eg. http://www.videosift.com/video/Kitchen-Oil-Fire-gone-terribly-wrong). Could be easily avoided by inserting the mold in to the furnace for about 10 seconds an end (if that is indeed the cause)

The cooling outer skin of the aluminium would have resisted the expansion of the steam which is why it took a second or so to pop after they had poured the bulk of the ingot, and why it caused such a big spray.

Both guys are, of course, extremely lucky.

As for putting it out, blowing on it??? Yeah, right. The moron trying to bat out a crucible that is up ended (hence there would be molten Al on the bench burning the bench top) and would be in excess of 660 deg cel, the melting point of Al, with a glove is just icing on the idiot cake at this point. /golfclap

Plutonium Ingot

Here's a possible replacement:
http://www.stupidvideos.com/video/just_plain_stupid/Destroying_The_Bosses_Car/

Oh, and according to my buddy, the car is smoking because the jaws on the machine are hot. (It's used to carry hot steel ingots.) And the manipulators are connected to the ceiling for power, like bumper-cars.