Casting in home without dedicated ventilation.

[30Carbine]

Traffer you should learn to under stand what you read before you type out in correct info. to scare people?
Arsenic (and some arsenic compounds) sublimes upon heating at atmospheric pressure, converting directly to a gaseous form without an intervening liquid state at 887 K (614 °C). now understand 614 degrees C is 1137.20 degrees F well above what we cast at. The USA's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) states that the long-term effects of arsenic exposure cannot be predicted. Blood, urine, hair, and nails may be tested for arsenic; however, these tests cannot foresee possible health outcomes from the exposure. Long-term exposure and consequent excretion through urine has been linked to bladder and kidney cancer in addition to cancer of the liver, prostate, skin, lungs, and nasal cavity.

[frankenfab]

Traffer you should learn to under stand what you read before you type out in correct info. to scare people?
Arsenic (and some arsenic compounds) sublimes upon heating at atmospheric pressure, converting directly to a gaseous form without an intervening liquid state at 887 K (614 °C). now understand 614 degrees C is 1137.20 degrees F well above what we cast at. The USA's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) states that the long-term effects of arsenic exposure cannot be predicted. Blood, urine, hair, and nails may be tested for arsenic; however, these tests cannot foresee possible health outcomes from the exposure. Long-term exposure and consequent excretion through urine has been linked to bladder and kidney cancer in addition to cancer of the liver, prostate, skin, lungs, and nasal cavity.

Thank You

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Do not cast inside without ventilation. It is not so much the lead but what "might" be in there. Did you know that arsenic (which has been used in lead to purify it in the past), will transfer from solid to gas without going to liquid first? And one whiff of arsenic will either put you in the hospital with possible irreversible brain damage or kill you....ONE WHIFF!.

...SNIP

I've never read anything like that before, do you have any links to reference resources that include more info about this, that is specific to casting boolits or melting/cleaning/fluxing scrap lead alloys? I sure seems like important info for a boolit caster to have.
Thanks,
Jon

[warf73]

IF what Traffer posted is true then there are a lot of people on this board with brain damage ....... maybe that's why we are so addicted to casting boolits we all have brain damage.

Seriously I cast at 725 according to my thermometer and have cast at higher temps when needed. But from everything I've read unless your face is over the pot huffing in the air above it, there isn't much of anything that can harm any of us at normal casting temps. Most folks get lead levels elevated from poor cleaning habits after fooling with lead.

[JimB..]

Most shop vacs pick up large stuff and throw small stuff in the air. Lead dust might not be any real concern, but if it is and as long as you're thinking about venting outside anyway, think about how to run the vac exhaust outside.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I reflect on Dr. Louis La Garde's x-ray photographs, showing minié bullets embedded in Civil War veterans who were alive and well in the twentieth century. You would have to be even more careful than usual about not overheating the lead, and I would only start from ingots which are clean and bright on top. It is far easier to contract lead poisoning from the salts, particularly the oxides, which are lighter and finer, than it is from metallic lead. Other than that, I don't see any harm in doing it indoors. A table covered with aluminium foil or heavy paper, which you can wrap up and dispose of complete, might be useful.

Arsenic does indeed sublimate directly from solid to gas, but it does it at 1137 degrees Fahrenheit, while lead melts at 621, wheel weights at little more, and alloys containing tin at less. See "overheating" above. The only alloy likely to contain much arsenic is lead shot, which have it to increase the surface tension and let them go globular more easily. People have been melting lead and pouring it down badly ventilated shot towers for two and a quarter centuries now.

[6bg6ga]

Casting without ventilation is like peeing against the wind. If your unhappy with your IQ and wish to have it go down 20 points then by all means cast in the house without ventilation. Most of us plan ahead and cast enough to see our needs thru the winter.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Traffer you should learn to under stand what you read before you type out in correct info. to scare people?
Arsenic (and some arsenic compounds) sublimes upon heating at atmospheric pressure, converting directly to a gaseous form without an intervening liquid state at 887 K (614 °C). now understand 614 degrees C is 1137.20 degrees F well above what we cast at. The USA's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) states that the long-term effects of arsenic exposure cannot be predicted. Blood, urine, hair, and nails may be tested for arsenic; however, these tests cannot foresee possible health outcomes from the exposure. Long-term exposure and consequent excretion through urine has been linked to bladder and kidney cancer in addition to cancer of the liver, prostate, skin, lungs, and nasal cavity.

Ah, so temperatures with F and C on them mean something different... Only a very small proportion of documented arsenic poisoning cases, if any, arise from its having been in vapour form, and none at all while it actually is. 1137°F is the temperature at which sublimation begins - and also, as temperature declines, at which it is reversed, and the arsenic falls upon the place beneath. Now if, when casting ordinary casting lead, we got a breath of air at the melting point of lead, wouldn't we notice it?

But if it could solidify as an airfloat powder, is bench level or on the way to an overhead extractor fan the best place for it to do so?

[PerpetualStudent]

If you're married and there's any chance of your wife becoming pregnant, that might change things. What's an accaptable risk right now for you, your wife and your pets might become an intolerable one once pregnancy is in the equation. Be aware of that.

[HABCAN]

'Much ado about nothing'..............or almost. I've been casting (NOT smelting!!) indoors without more than a cracked-open window (sometimes) for about 70 years now and that seems to have had no ill effects of any kind, looking at it from the inside out. Common sense has a lot to do with it: just don't be dramatically stoopud! You are far more likely to be burned than poisoned. YMMV.

[dragon813gt]

Edited because it's not worth it.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

'Much ado about nothing'..............or almost. I've been casting (NOT smelting!!)

Now that is a distinction worth making. We melt down all sorts of scrap lead, already coated with lead oxides and perhaps other oxides. That needs to be done outdoors, not adjacent to any fruit or vegetables we plan to eat, and the skimmed-off dross carefully disposed of. But I don't see any danger in carefully conducted casting at normal temperatures.

[Rickshaw]

I cast in my basement with no to little ventilation. Clean lead
BUT I SMELT IN MY GARAGE WITH PLENTY OF VENTILATION!!!!
I will sweep the area clean rather than vacuum, but I mist the
area to keep it from getting airborne. I also put cardboard down. I see
no reason why you can't cast in your basement if you are using clean lead and follow reasonable fluxing techniques. Roto Metals is a reasonable supplier of clean lead and
makes sense to boot.

[mozeppa]

i only smelt or cast in reactor core #4 at three mile island.

i'm foine!

[6bg6ga]

And I wonder why some of you voted for Hitlery.

[tankgunner59]

I have a cheap source of soft lead, however, not clean. So I have a 30 pound propane tank my wife got at a yard sale for a song. If the cold is a concern for me I'd get a mesh propane heater head and heat my area with it. I always smelt and cast outside the house. I quit smoking in '99 mainly to protect my family so I'm not gonna change. Just an idea, I have a small shed and I can use it but it's not heated either.

[PaulG67]

I cast in my garage, ac in the summer and heat, wood stove, in the winter. I don't understand why anyone would not heat and ac their shop. The cost, at least for me, is negligible to heat and ac my two car garage for the amount of time I am out there working.

[mozeppa]

And I wonder why some of you voted for Hitlery.

i said i was foine....not stoopid!

[6bg6ga]

Some here have lost a few billion brain cells by casting without a decent vent so anything is possible. Sorry, but casting indoors doesn't make sense. Waiting for the weather to warm up does however and casting in the spring and fall make far more sense than doing this in the house. Since you shoot a lot its very easy to plan your needs a head of time so you don't have to put your family in jeopardy.

[dragon813gt]

Please cite studies that prove brain cell and IQ loss from casting indoors.