Finally bought a proper infrared thermometer for checking mold temps, and that $120 tool just saved a whole pour from going cold.

I was about to tap a 1600-degree iron pour for a gear blank yesterday, but the gun showed the mold face at only 1350, so I held off and re-fired, avoiding a massive waste of metal and time.

3 comments

3 Comments

james_campbell129d ago

Your uncle was going by feel for a brisket? That's a level of confidence I can't even picture. I get nervous if my kitchen oven is twenty degrees off for cookies. Being a hundred degrees wrong on a big piece of meat is the kind of mistake you only make once, when you're eating dry, sad sandwiches for a week.

wadem898d ago

Yeah that part about being a hundred degrees off on a brisket hits home. I read a whole article once about how our senses are just terrible at judging temperature, especially with big things like a smoker or a mold. You can feel the heat on the surface but have no clue what's going on inside. That's why those tools feel like cheating, they give you superpowers you just don't have.

robinson.hannah9d ago

Oh man, that is such a win! It reminds me of the time my uncle was convinced his homemade smoker was at the perfect temp just by feeling the outside. He nearly ruined a whole brisket before borrowing a neighbor's basic oven thermometer. Turns out he was almost a hundred degrees off! It's crazy how wrong you can be without the right tool staring you in the face.