1st time rendering WW

[lordgroom]

Last night was the first time I rendered WW's. Things went well and I think I have about 100-120 "muffins" with of lead. The smell of burning stems is pretty bad. I reallu should sort them out first. How do you avoid breathing in the smoke when rendering WW's. My head was right by the cast iron dutch oven for a few minutes as I ladled out the lead into muffin tins. I am a little worried that I was too exposed to lead fumes. Am I just over-reacting?

Scott

[imashooter2]

My pot is done smoking by the time I'm ready to pour ingots and contains nothing but shiny metal. Unless you seriously overheated your melt there were no "lead fumes" and a pot that big is hard to overheat.

[38 Super Auto]

Imashooter is right: you need to make sure the smelting pot has stopped smoking. It helps to weed out all the chaff before you start. Make sure you flux sufficiently to reduce oxides back to usable metal.

[billyb]

i smelt outside with the wind at mt back in and around the melting metal. i read that you dont get lead vapor or fumes until the molten lean gets to a point that it is bubbling, that is way to hot. i used at one time a burner hooked to natural gas and it took along time to melt a pot full. i bought a turkey fryer and the first time i used i let the pot get to hot,when i checked it the lead was bubbling. i dont make the mistake of not watching the pot now ,watched pot never boils. use a little caution, keep the wind at your back and enjoy our hobby. Bill

[lordgroom]

I did not wait until it stopped smoking, instead I skimmed off the stems and other pieces of rubber. I used a thermometer and mostly didn't exceed 750 degrees but one once or twice the temp was as high as 800.

Should I have just maintained 750 degrees and waited until the smoke stopped?

In the future I will do a better job of sorting for stems.

I did flux, liberally, but not until I removed the stems and clips.

[dmftoy1]

Don't sweat it . . .you didn't get lead oxide fumes unless you really had that pot incredibly hot . . .you do get some nasty fumes off of that stuff though. :)

I might get a cheap mask for this sometime . . . I'd imagine a painting mask would work pretty good.

[runfiverun]

i pick through my stuff,
i also wash it, and i try to not let it get over 700 as soon as it is melted i turn down the heat.
then skim out the clips and junk.
flux and pour.

[Cloudpeak]

I wear an old respirator I used for years when I was painting. I pick out the valve caps and stems and render away. As others have said, I don't think there is a problem with lead vapors at the temps we use. But, I sure don't think it's healthy to inhale flux smoke or any other "mystery fumes" that are the result of rendering.

Cloudpeak

[Wayne Smith]

Keep it at or under 700 to keep zinc from melting. No problem with the lead fumes, the vapor temp of lead is around 1400 degrees F. Once you have skimmed off the steel and zinc temps are not a problem