Once hardened on the box, though, the lacquer is harmless.
After the sand has hardened, the molding box is split open to allow the pattern to be removed and used again, and then the box is reassembled and molten metal poured into the cavity to create the casting.
A leading advocate of the "strenuous life" was America's 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, who had overcome childhood sicknesses by hardening his body through riding, shooting, boxing, and wrestling.
In 1958 Arakawa Shusaku poured a gloppy mixture of cement and cotton into a coffin-shaped box and let it harden; it lies there still, like a puddle of mold or a corpse dissolved in quicklime.
As part of their modernization in the 1980s, each of the Iowa-class battleships received a complement of Armored Box Launchers and "shock hardened" Mk. 141 quad cell launchers.
The pack method involves packing into a steel box the parts to be hardened along with a compound of charcoal or coke to which carbonates have been added.
Yet the box scores and the modest role obscure Harden's true worth.
Place box open in a cool dry place till it hardens.
Scrape into a lidded freezer box, cover with waxed paper to reduce exposure to air and freeze to harden.
Wait for it to harden, then take your "lake" out of the container and place it in the shoe box.
