Water drop blobs. | |||
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| Water drop blobs. This globular stuff is what happens if you pour molten aluminum into a deep bucket of water. You can pour any kind of molten metal into water and each kind will give you different shapes. The shapes depend on how high you pour from, how much above its melting point the metal is, and how deep the water is. According to certain traditions, the shapes also depend on your fate, hence can be used to predict it (most traditions specify lead, but I don't see any reason why aluminum would be less likely to work for this purpose). Any time you combine water with molten metal, there is a danger of the metal splattering. Generally speaking, if you pour metal into a reasonably full bucket of water, it sinks and cools too fast for any to splatter back at you (which is not to say it can't happen, so use a face shield). But if you pour (or even drip) water into a container of molten metal, it's a different story: That is quite likely to cause a steam explosion that throws liquid metal all over. So when you're pouring metal into water, the biggest danger is if any water happens to splash back into the bowl you're pouring out of. Pour away from you, so the bowl is between you and the metal, don't lean over it while you're pouring, and wear thick clothes and sturdy shoes along with a face shield or at least glasses. (I should talk: I made these lumps barefoot in shorts and no shirt. It's OK because I'm a trained professional idiot. And no matter what other precautions I don't take, I would never do this without glasses on. I can risk missing a few square inches of skin, but not missing an eye.) These were made from the same wire as the sample above. Source: Hardware Store Contributor: Theodore Gray Acquired: 15 April, 2002 Price: $1/foot Size: 1.25" Purity: >95% | |||
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