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Lessons learned...
3 years ago
It was a normal Saturday. I hauled the furnace outside to smelt down some brass for some artsy things. The sky was clear, birds were chirping and I had 2 freshly filled propane tanks and no other plans for the entire day.
So when I get brass for smelting it is all from my gun range. I will go up, pour buckets of spent casings into my big blue "To Sort" bin and drive home. Then I will sit down in front of the TV to sort through and divide up between good brass(that I will give/sell for reloaders), bad brass(damaged for the furnace), aluminum(direct to the furnace since you can't reload it) and steel(sold to a metal scrapper). When I have a surplus of some calibers they go into the melt bucket. I also pick out all the rocks, twigs, sticks, dead bugs, and misfired rounds. Those misfires get put into a metal bin that I had made of AR500 steel(same stuff they make shooting targets out of) for a friend that will take the round apart and reuse what they can.
Apparently I was a bit dozy or something because a few little 22 rounds got past me and I tossed them into the furnace. They may not have gone off when someone tried to use them at the range, but a 900 degree fire seems to have helped. 2 loud pops sent me diving for cover. Thankfully without a barrel the rounds were harmless and didn't even crack my crucible.
....They did however make my neighbours call the police. 3 cop cars pulled up with lights on as I was sitting there in my driveway, wearing a faceshield, respirator and apron looking like a slightly hairier Heisenberg. Once I explained what happened, I had 3 cops cars hanging around because they wanted to see how it all worked. One of the officers even stopped into my work and brought me a giant bag of brass from one of their training days to use for making arts.
So when I get brass for smelting it is all from my gun range. I will go up, pour buckets of spent casings into my big blue "To Sort" bin and drive home. Then I will sit down in front of the TV to sort through and divide up between good brass(that I will give/sell for reloaders), bad brass(damaged for the furnace), aluminum(direct to the furnace since you can't reload it) and steel(sold to a metal scrapper). When I have a surplus of some calibers they go into the melt bucket. I also pick out all the rocks, twigs, sticks, dead bugs, and misfired rounds. Those misfires get put into a metal bin that I had made of AR500 steel(same stuff they make shooting targets out of) for a friend that will take the round apart and reuse what they can.
Apparently I was a bit dozy or something because a few little 22 rounds got past me and I tossed them into the furnace. They may not have gone off when someone tried to use them at the range, but a 900 degree fire seems to have helped. 2 loud pops sent me diving for cover. Thankfully without a barrel the rounds were harmless and didn't even crack my crucible.
....They did however make my neighbours call the police. 3 cop cars pulled up with lights on as I was sitting there in my driveway, wearing a faceshield, respirator and apron looking like a slightly hairier Heisenberg. Once I explained what happened, I had 3 cops cars hanging around because they wanted to see how it all worked. One of the officers even stopped into my work and brought me a giant bag of brass from one of their training days to use for making arts.
