Michael Koblic wrote:
"Buerste" wrote in message
news
Can I use one of there for my lead pot and casting molds? I see them for
as little as $30 or do I have to spend more? Or should I get a contact
thermometer? Or try to find my thermocouple digital one?(buried in "The
Move")

I suspect the answer is "maybe". I assume you would get one with the
appropriate temperature range. I use one regularly for many purposes: The
quickest way to determine the room temperature in my garage is to take the
temperature of the walls. It was great when trying to determine where are
the heat leaks in the house. It works well when cooking (frying pan
temperature), it is quite reliable in measuring the temperature of the
etching bath (ferric chloride - a big advantage as you do not want to dip
things into that stuff). The one area where it consistently fails is on
shiny metal surfaces. For my heat transfers I use an aluminium plate and it
under-reads the temp by quite a bit. However, it reads the temperature of
the items *on the plate* and that for my purposes is sufficient.

I understand there are thermometers which correct for emissivity but I doubt
that they will be $30.

What I am saying is that even though the thermometer my not do the job of
reading the temperature of the surface of the molten lead for you
accurately, there may be creative ways of getting around that problem.


The easy way is to attach a thermocouple to the outside of the pot. I
used a simple wire clamp that holds the couple to the exterior of the
pot. Then fire up the pot. When the lead melts use a contact unit and
compare the readings.


--
Steve W.