Yesterday, I was out in the backyard with the cookfire going making a roast in the dutch oven. The roast was on and going good. I had to stick around to babysit the fire to make sure it didn't become a forest fire.
![Shocked :o](https://www.cascity.com/forumhall/Smileys/cowboys/shocked.gif)
I trimmed the branches on a boxelder that is west of the house. I cleaned out the kid's/dawg's wading pools (2) and refilled them with water. I decided, since I had the fire going, I would melt the lead alloy outta the 3' long by 4" pipe. I took it over to the fire on a handtruck 'cuz I couldn't lift it. I struggled to git it situated in the fire right. I put the closed end on a couple logs and the open end on an 8" cement block so the it angled down toward the open end. I put my smelting pot under the open end. I got the fire going good with pine branches. We have pine shelter belts 'round the yard. The majority of the heat was in the center of the pipe. I tried getting more fire at the open end but it was hard to do 'cuz the cement block was there. The fire started dying down so I went over to the shelter belt to get more pine branches. As I was collecting them, I heard a noice from the fire that sounded like a tennis ball gun. So, I went back to the fire. There sat a chuck of 4" diameter by 7" long lead alloy 3 feet from the end of the pipe.
![Shocked :o](https://www.cascity.com/forumhall/Smileys/cowboys/shocked.gif)
The smelting pot was covered with lead. Lead was splattered all over the side of the firepit. The pipe had move about 6" backwards. After the chuck of lead colded, I weighed it. It is 28 lbs. My guardian angel was working overtime.
Slim