In the dead of winter we seal the keel

So this December has been a month full of not boat building. First the weather, 27 degrees in Houston! Ice and snow! Then my work had me pumping 60 hour work weeks for two week straight to get a major project completed. But through out it all I chipped away at the things that I needed to do and finally! Sealed the keel, only step left on the keel is to glue the keelson on the top. I do have to fill a hole in the keel with Epoxy so the keelson will wait till Tuesday or Monday.

But enough bitching, more boat building. Early December the weather was nice but the work was hard, so I snuck out in between router updates to hit up the local scrap yards to purchase lead. There were two near me and they had more then enough at a buck a pound. I filled my trunk up with lead roof flashing and fixtures and I also found a pile of really cool dive weights.

Then the weather came and it was FREEZING cold in Houston and my garage spring broke! I had my car trapped in my garage for a bit till it was repaired, I also I got some weather striping put on the garage door so it stays relatively warm in the garage.

Just after Christmas I got the boat keel out on the back patio and leveled and ready to pour the lead, it was easier than I thought. I had a 20 dollar turkey burner, a 3 dollar goodwill pot and salad tong and 250 pounds of lead.

Steps melting lead fast:



  1. Use the thinnest lead you have and smash it as flat as you can to fill the bottom of the pot. 
  2. Crank the heat (making sure not to go over 900)
  3. Once you see liquid lead gently move the solid lead around and it will melt fast.
  4. Keep adding lead till you get a sane amount, remember lead is HEAVY so a little will be hard to move.
  5. Every now and then and just before you pour spoon off the ash from all the nasty shit (tar etc.) from the roof flashing.

I think the biggest I moved was about 30 pounds, or 3-4 inches deep in my pot. I had my mechanics gloves and then some double skinned leather gloves to keep from getting burned. Also my eye protection and my respirator mask. Once I dumped it into the keel it would hiss and bubble and smoke but nothing super exciting. 

I had a bit of lead left over so I did some math and found 10 pounds of lead is 24.something cubic inches. So I screwed together some 2x2x7.5 molds and put some aluminum foil in to hold the lead and made lead ingots. I will screw some handles on them to use them as hold down weight for my project. 

Once the lead was poured and cool, I finished up the rear keel cap and glued it in as well as the keelson scarf glued together.

Next steps after the keelson is clean up the garage and build the cradle! Then its on to stitching a boat together.
Leveled and ready to pour, once the front of done I jacked it up and leveled the back part.

The melting setup, notice the tiny ash pile on the bricks.
I topped off the front lead to be even with the surrounding plywood.
Just after dumping the molten lead in the front.
Soon to be boat!

Aft keel sealed

Aft keel sealed 2
Keelson glued together


I had extra lead so I made ingots to use as weight and in the future the removable ballast.

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