Casting indoors

[darkman]

Can anybody give me advice about their set-ups for casting bullets indoors. By indoors I mean in my heated garage. I know lead fumes are toxic, and I don't want to end-up a simpleton from breathing them in. I was thinking about hooking-up a range hood, ventilated through a window to suck-up the fumes as I cast. Pictures of some set-ups would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

[Dusty Bannister]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?221705-Casting-Indoor-question-(specific-question-about-this-setup)-Is-this-quot-safe-quot&highlight=casting+indoors

Lots of good stuff already in the archives.

[Baja_Traveler]

At the temperatures we cast at, lead fumes are not so much the problem as the smoke generated from fluxing is. I think the range hood idea is a good one with enough fan behind it to get a good air flow...

[Mlcompound]

I used a range hood but piped it into a window fan and taped it uo to maximize flow. The standard hood fan is not nearly strong enough. You cant see the window fan in this pic but I will try to get a better one up. It works really good. I would say it evacuates at least 95% of the smoke.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/01/14/ujy3e9e8.jpg

[454PB]

I've been casting indoors for 43 years with no extraordinary methods other than using Marvelux for fluxing. Is that safe?

apparently it is for me......you'll have to decide for yourself.

[dragon813gt]

You won't be getting the lead hot enough to produce any toxic fumes. The biggest concern is smoke from the fluxing material. I do not use waxes inside. They create a lot of smoke. If any flux is to go into the pot I use sawdust. It tends to smolder and not produce a lot of smoke while protecting from oxidation.

[mdi]

A range hood is a good idea. But, don't let the lack of one stop you from casting. My casting room is fairly small; 8'x12' and I have used a small 6" clamp on fan to direct smoke away from my face for all the time I've been casting (mebbe 17 years). I place the fan about 5 feet to the right of my pot, aimed to the left just above the pot, towards the door (opened just a crack, 2"-4"). If I do a lot of fluxing (sawdust) I'll have to open the door and mebbe add my larger (12" table type) fan until the smoke clears.

[Jack Stanley]

My casting is done in the dungeon which is a basement room about fourteen by fourteen feet square . My fan is a three hundred CFM fan that is ducted to the outside . I made a hood over the casting bench that is five feet long three feet from the wall and extends down from the ceiling about twenty inches . Inside the hood is a track light system that has two spot lights that can be directed onto the work . The fan is wired to a rheostat so I need not run it wid open all the time . So far the only downside I've had is fluxing , a five hundred CFM fan would have been better .

I only melt ingot in the dungeon and generally only use sawdust for flux . i use a little less flux than most but I'll flux more . It's not hard because i make ingot in the driveway and clean it real well out there .

Jack

[rbertalotto]

I bought a nice dust collector and mounted it outside my shop in a small storage shed along with my compressor. Keeps the shop nice and quiet!

http://www.tptools.com/VAC-40-High-Efficiency-Vacuum,3283.html?b=s*Dust+collection
http://cached.tptools.com/RS/SR/product/95/vac-40_L_18355d96.jpg

I mount a wide vacuum nozzle right over my casting pot to remove smoke and heat during the summer months.

The 4" vacuum hose doesn't even get warm.

My whole shop is plumbed into this dist collector and keeps things relatively clean.

http://images42.fotki.com/v1372/photos/3/36012/5571637/P1010498-vi.jpg

http://images42.fotki.com/v1375/photos/3/36012/5571637/P1010500-vi.jpg

Before I spent the $$ for this vacuum, I used a SEARS shop vac for years. Worked just as well, in fact, it had more suction. But it wasn't rated for continuous use and I used the SEARS extended warrantee every 6 months....[smilie=1:

[darkman]

Thanks guys. Lots of good info and pics.