Just heard a guy at the scrap yard say he always pre-heats his ladle with a torch for small pours. Tried it on a 20lb bronze job and the metal flow was way smoother.

4 comments

4 Comments

Isn't that just adding extra steps for no real gain? I've never bothered pre-heating a ladle for pours that small. The metal is already so hot that it just doesn't seem to make a difference in my experience. You're pouring into a cold mold anyway, so the ladle cools down almost instantly. It feels like a good way to waste gas and time. I'd rather just make sure my metal is at the right temp and get on with the pour.

abbyp612mo ago

Wait, you pour into a cold mold?

emmaking2mo ago

But what if the ladle cooling down is the whole problem? A cold ladle can make your metal temp drop way too fast before it even hits the mold, giving you bad fills.

torres.blair16d ago

Did you catch that old article from a jewelers forum about how preheating ladles actually changes the flow dynamics of the metal, not just the temperature? Seems like a small detail but might explain why some pours look better than others.