For all you smokers who cast

[Boerrancher]

I made in interesting discovery last night while casting. The only place in the house that the wife and I smoke is in my gun room. As it is filled with all of the smells of casting equipment, and everything else that I drag in to work on. Most of the time we smoke out side but sometimes we smoke there. I have to be careful when I flux my pot as the smell of the burning wax and tallow gives my wife a headache. Last night I tried something different. When it was time to flux the pot I put a couple of pinches of tobacco in the pot and stirred it in. I was amazed at how well it worked, much better than the wax and tallow that I had been using. There was very little smoke and oder. The best part was the wife didn't even know I was casting.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch

Joe

[dominicfortune00]

I've tried dried lawn clippings and it works pretty good also.

[mooman76]

Probubly the nicoteen!

[JeffinNZ]

I'm thinking grass (the garden variety) is cheaper than 'baccy'.

[MtGun44]

Be careful when smoking with lead contaminated hands. Cigarette contamination
by mouth is one of the ways many with high blood lead got it.

A recommended safety rule is no drinking, eating or smoking around lead - casting
reloading whatever.

Bill

[TCLouis]

I have started just using some of the sawdust under the table saw. Seems to flux well and then a thin layer of carbon forms on top of the molten lead and keeps everything dandy for the rest of the session most of the time.

The carbon from the sawdust seems to act about the same as carbon does in a ore roaster.

[454PB]

That's a pretty expensive flux these days!

[Linstrum]

Back years ago when I smoked I used to chuck my cigarette butts in the boolit metal pot to flux it with and get rid of the butt at the same time.

rl379

[JeffinNZ]

Be careful when smoking with lead contaminated hands. Cigarette contamination
by mouth is one of the ways many with high blood lead got it.

A recommended safety rule is no drinking, eating or smoking around lead - casting
reloading whatever.

Bill

If you smoke the lead is the least of your worries. :(

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive been treated 3 times for lead poisoning and i think smoking while casting was one of the biggest contributors to it. Im on day 5 without one right now and just this post makes my guts go in a knot. I WANT A CIGERETTE!!
Be careful when smoking with lead contaminated hands. Cigarette contamination
by mouth is one of the ways many with high blood lead got it.

A recommended safety rule is no drinking, eating or smoking around lead - casting
reloading whatever.

Bill

[44man]

I did a search and found eating cilantro will remove heavy metals from the blood. I suppose using some in food every day but I would eat a bunch at first. Then taking Sun Chlorella tablets will bind it and remove it from the body.
Chlorella is packed with chlorophyll, vitamins, etc. It also has 8 mg of lutein for the eyes. It is made from a single cell algae. I buy the pet Chlorella for my dog, she has a nerve problem and wouldn't eat. Now she can't get enough food.
That sounds a lot better then the chemicals they give you and it might be worth looking into.
The best thing is to quit smoking too. That lead pot won't kill you near as fast.

[Boerrancher]

I don't smoke when casting, As I had a friend who started smoking cigars in his shop while casting, because his wife wouldn't let him smoke them anywhere else but in his shop. He got lead poisoning. He had been casting for 15 years and no problems until he started smoking and casting at the same time.

Best Wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[DLCTEX]

I'm between ciggarets right now, my last one was Oct. 4, 1971. DALE

[trickg]

I did a search and found eating cilantro will remove heavy metals from the blood.
Really? I LOVE fresh cilantro in what is probably my favorite type of cuisine - Mexican food! I'll have to keep that in mind.

I also read somewhere that using a sauna regularly will also remove heavy metals out of the blood - has anyone else read that?

[VTDW]

I'm between ciggarets right now, my last one was Oct. 4, 1971. DALE

Congratulations Dale.:drinks: I am envious. I started at 14 and am now 61. I can't believe I made it this far. Hang tough Lloyd!!!!

Dave:castmine:

[sturf]

Smoked 1 to 2 packs a day for 35 years. Me and the Marlboro man were on first name terms. Decided one day I didn't want to do it anymore. That night I smoked what I had to get rid of them and told myself that I didn't smoke anymore. Next morning when I got up, I said "I am a nonsmoker". I haven't had one or wanted one since. Aug 1 that will 12 years ago. You can do it if you really want to. Good wishes to you.

[sundog]

I quit in December 1984, partly due to the Army's Smoking Cessation Program, and partly due to off post price going to over a dollar a pack. Cold turkey. It was ugly for awhile.

[montana_charlie]

You can do it if you really want to.
That is the secret ingredient, right there. You have to WANT to.

I have tried to quit on several occasions, and even came close last year.
But I was doing it because I SHOULD. I failed because I didn't WANT to quit.

But, using cigarettes as flux might be the answer...if I just run two packs per day through the lead pot (and inhale).
CM

[crabo]

I have never understood the warning about drinking while casting. How can it hurt you if you have a glass of water, on the side, away from the casting table? I could see if you were handling a screw on top bottle or something.

Am I missing something here?

Crabo

[Shepherd2]

I've tried a lot of the stuff that has been recommended for fluxing on this board but I have to draw the line at tobacco. I quit a 3 pack a day habit cold turkey about 15 years ago and I'm afraid of the temptation. No way I want to go back to that.

And yes, the secret to quitting is wanting to quit.

[jhalcott]

I quit smoking about 20 years ago. To this day when I wake up, I put my glasses on and reach for the pack of smokes that are NOT there.!! It is a tough habit to break ,I wish you luck doing it.

[KCSO]

Lloyd
I hope you aren't like my Garnafather, he was 88 and his doctor, age 92, told him,"Ed if you don't quit smoking you'll die young mark my words". He quit smoking that year and took up chewing! He still lived to 98! I can still see him in the rest home at 96, crying because everyone he knew was dead and he had to live in prison.

[Boerrancher]

Honestly I could quit anytime I want. I oft times go several days with out a cigarette. Today will be one of those days I am sure. Yesterday I only smoked 1 all day. I smoke because I enjoy it every once in a while. I am too much of a control freak, and to Obsessive Compulsive to let smoking become a habit. My poor wife though has tried to quit several times and wants to quit, but can't. When she tells me she is quitting I just make sure I don't smoke. She has very seldom made it a day, and gets frustrated when I go weeks at a time with out smoking. She doesn't see how I do it. The day that she is able to truly quit will be the day that I will as well. But until that time I still have a good flux, that doesn't stink up the house.

Best Wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[crowbeaner]

I still am a slave to the weed, and I enjoy a cigar or two while I'm working with lead outside. I use a stick to stir my pot to save my beeswax. The smoking wax smells worse than my panetella.

[jackley]

Just go to the doc and get some chentix. 2 pills a day for a few weeks and your done. and haven't even thought of em since.

Jerry

[felix]

http://nymag.com/news/features/43892/ ... felix

[cajun shooter]

I just buried a friend of 50 years. He died of lung cancer at the age of 63. They had a chest tube draining his lungs and it was very hard to sit there and watch. I also buried my first wife from lung cancer at the young age of 35. I don't think lead poisoning would be my first worry. Please do everything you can to stop smoking or the big C will do it for you!!!

[Lloyd Smale]

you dont know how jealous i am of you. I sure wish i cold smoke one or two a day. I quit for 14 years and had one cigerette drinking one night and a few beers later i was buying a pack and been at it for 6 years again. Ive got the chantix stuff. It does help more then the rest of that snake oil stuff but it doesnt make it easy!
Honestly I could quit anytime I want. I oft times go several days with out a cigarette. Today will be one of those days I am sure. Yesterday I only smoked 1 all day. I smoke because I enjoy it every once in a while. I am too much of a control freak, and to Obsessive Compulsive to let smoking become a habit. My poor wife though has tried to quit several times and wants to quit, but can't. When she tells me she is quitting I just make sure I don't smoke. She has very seldom made it a day, and gets frustrated when I go weeks at a time with out smoking. She doesn't see how I do it. The day that she is able to truly quit will be the day that I will as well. But until that time I still have a good flux, that doesn't stink up the house.

Best Wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[XBT]

This will make you smokers cry---

When I was in the Navy cigarettes cost one dollar. Not each pack, but each carton! Cigarettes with filters were $1.10 per carton, but hardly anyone smoked them because they were looked on as sissy smokes. These were the prices aboard ship, outside U.S. territorial waters, where no taxes applied.

I got a bad case of sticker shock upon discharge when I had to pay civilian prices. I quit shortly after that.

[Maximilian225]

Honestly I could quit anytime I want. I oft times go several days with out a cigarette. Today will be one of those days I am sure. Yesterday I only smoked 1 all day. I smoke because I enjoy it every once in a while. I am too much of a control freak, and to Obsessive Compulsive to let smoking become a habit. My poor wife though has tried to quit several times and wants to quit, but can't. When she tells me she is quitting I just make sure I don't smoke. She has very seldom made it a day, and gets frustrated when I go weeks at a time with out smoking. She doesn't see how I do it. The day that she is able to truly quit will be the day that I will as well. But until that time I still have a good flux, that doesn't stink up the house.

Best Wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

I honestly think that some people are completely immune from the addictive effects of certain drugs. I smoked off and on from the time I was 13 until my mid 20's. Some periods I smoked up to two packs a day for months, others I would go without for weeks or sometimes months. I decided to quit completely when my wife was pregnant with our second child. That was over seven years ago. I have never craved a cigarette, or dreamed of smoking since. Coffee never keeps me awake either. I can drink half a pot and go to bed, and I make it strong enough to float pennies.
My wife struggled with it for years after I quit before she "kicked the habit", and caffeine within four hours of bed time keeps her up half the night.

[Freightman]

I quit when a pack of smokes went to $0.30 as I wasn't going to pay that high price for something you burnt up, quit using sugar in my coffee when we had a steep rise on price during the '60s. Might say I am a cheap skate.

[Christian for Israel]

for those who want to quit smoking, try switching to hand rolled, organic tobacco for 6 months first. commercial cigarettes have all sorts of chemicals added to increase sales, including addiction enhancers. organic tobacco has none of these and, after smoking it for a few months, your addiction will decrease greatly.

actually, most of the health problems associated with smoking come from these chemicals or the pesticides sprayed on non-organic tobacco. organic tobacco has far fewer risks and even some attributes like memory and neurological improvements.

[waksupi]

If you MUST smoke while casting, use a pipe. I don't smoke when casting generally, but with 12 oz. of tobacco being $13, that lasts me a couple weeks, it is a lot cheaper than cigarettes. And, the doctor says that pipe smoking hasn't the harmful effects that cigs do.

[Lloyd Smale]

I used to smoke a pipe but it was glass and had a hole in one end;)If im not mistaken the tobacky was organic too!
If you MUST smoke while casting, use a pipe. I don't smoke when casting generally, but with 12 oz. of tobacco being $13, that lasts me a couple weeks, it is a lot cheaper than cigarettes. And, the doctor says that pipe smoking hasn't the harmful effects that cigs do.

[Rick N Bama]

I'm between ciggarets right now, my last one was Oct. 4, 1971. DALE

The last smoke I had was on Oct 23, 2000 at approx 5:30 PM. I had it in the garage (I didn't smoke in the house) while waiting on an Ambulance to pick my sorry butt up & transport me to the nearest Hospital due to the heart attack I was having. The Dr. said that one may have actually helped me a bit by calming my nerves down. I kept 8 1/2 packs on hand for 6 months before giving them to a neighbor. I hope & pray I never smoke another.

Rick

[longhorn]

Note Felix's link; there ain't no such thing as a free lunch, and that certainly applies to Chantix. In the drug biz, we used to speak of "addictive personalities;" now we actually know better, it's really "addictive personal biochemistries." I like the Tallulah Bankhead quote: "Of course I'm not addicted to cocaine, darling--I've been doing coke for 30 years and I can quit anytime I want!"

[MT Gianni]

I have never understood the warning about drinking while casting. How can it hurt you if you have a glass of water, on the side, away from the casting table? I could see if you were handling a screw on top bottle or something.

Am I missing something here?

Crabo

The theory is you may have some fine lead dust settled on your face and lips. You need to wash hands and face completly before drinking. It only takes a minute. Gianni

[C A Plater]

I guess I have a new use for all those cigar tips that get sliced off before lighting up the stogies. Don't usually light one while pouring but certainly do after finishing a casting session.

[hammerhead357]

Guys, I had quit the first time in 1984 after smoking for over 14 years. Then started again in 1992 after a divorce and I started play tournament pool, couldn't take the strain and the beer drinking without them I thought. Then my second wife and mother of my then 1 year old son was reading one of the Farmers Almanac's. It had some information about days that were good for quitting things. So on Jan. 23, 1997 I quit cigs again and haven't had one since. I do smoke a good hand made cigar once in a while but not while I am casting.
Now for the other side of this my first wife smoked about 2 paks per day while we were operating a bullet casting business. She sorted and handled over 40,000 bullets per week and the last heavy metal test she had done came back with less than the national average lead level content for her blood. But she was very careful about washing her hands and not smoking while handling lead.....Wes

[454PB]

If you MUST smoke while casting, use a pipe. I don't smoke when casting generally, but with 12 oz. of tobacco being $13, that lasts me a couple weeks, it is a lot cheaper than cigarettes. And, the doctor says that pipe smoking hasn't the harmful effects that cigs do.

I smoked cigarettes for 15 years, and quit them 29 years ago. I also smoke a pipe, but didn't quit that. I've had my lead levels checked, and they are well below the OSHA thresholds. In fact, mine were lower than my co-workers that don't cast or shoot.

Ric, you need to mail order your tobacco, I pay about $10 per 12 Oz. even with the shipping.

[bruce drake]

Stopped cold turkey in 93 after 7 years of smoking and seeing an X-ray of my father's lungs. Met my wife in 94. Started a family and now I am a husband of a beautiful caring woman and a proud father of three sons.

I occasionally get the urge to light one up again, especially when I'm deployed but I always think about my father's long prolonged death to Emthysema that finally released him this spring and I think about my family and keep on drinking coffee instead.

Bruce

[10-x]

Quit smoking cigs while on Army pistol team in 74, also cut back on booze as both are bad for target shooting. Read the AMU instruction book.
Nowdays I have a few drinks [smilie=1:but no cigs, Dad died from emphysema and cancer from smoking for 60+some years. Bad way to go.
Enjoy a good cigar now and then, but do nothing while smelting or casting PB.:castmine:

[waksupi]

I smoked cigarettes for 15 years, and quit them 29 years ago. I also smoke a pipe, but didn't quit that. I've had my lead levels checked, and they are well below the OSHA thresholds. In fact, mine were lower than my co-workers that don't cast or shoot.

Ric, you need to mail order your tobacco, I pay about $10 per 12 Oz. even with the shipping.

Where do you order from? Is the state trying to tax mail order yet?
I'm sure I would forget to order in time, and still end up buying locally!

[LIMPINGJ]

If you are going to smoke cigs then do like my grandfather did smoke Camels without the filter and drink a Dr. Pepper every day. He was 96 when he passed. Dad was not so lucky he was only 67 but he did not drink DP. I am living on borrowed time as I do neither.

[FISH4BUGS]

Ive been treated 3 times for lead poisoning and i think smoking while casting was one of the biggest contributors to it. Im on day 5 without one right now and just this post makes my guts go in a knot. I WANT A CIGERETTE!!

Lloyd - what worked for me was peppermint life savers. When you want a butt, eat a few S-L-o-w-l-y then breathe in through pursed lips. It cools the throat and actually lessens the urge.
Please keep it up..........if you have it in your head that you REALLY want to quit, you will. Best of luck............