safety first??

[roarindan]

does any body wear anything to protect themselves from lead,while smelting and reloading??.Wifey says maybe I should wear a mask so I dont inhale lead. Told her I'd ask around.[smilie=1:

[MT Gianni]

Safety glasses are a must as well as natural fabrics only. Poly's can met into the skin while cotton allows spills to cool right there or run off if starched enough. A shop apron is a good idea from BruceB's post a while back after a spill put lead in his lap. Lead vaporizes around 1170 Fahrenheit so if your melt temps get that high consider a mask. Most elec pots struggle to reach 800 so I consider myself safe. Do not eat drink or smoke while casting or smelting as this is the most common means of entry into the body. Always wash and rinse well as soon as you are done handling lead whether casting, sizing or loading.

[JSnover]

Leather apron, welders gloves, some decent work boots too. I had some hot grease soak through my sneakers once. Molten lead would have been a lot worse!

[Gunslinger]

Here is a pretty good thread on the subject.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=46779

[roarindan]

thanks folks, this is what i'm doin now so i guess i'll be alrite. anybody wear a glove when reloading.??

[Gunslinger]

When reloading? He he no!

Are you thinking about contamination from handling lead boolits when reloading? If so just wash your hand thorougly afterwards.

[44man]

The only thing to worry about is the dross you skim from the surface. It has a lot of dust you don't want to breath. I dump it in a coffee can on the back of the bench.
In warm weather I put a fan in the window over the bench blowing out, to remove smoke from fluxing and the dust.
Other then that, I do nothing special.
We had a fellow at work we called "Metal man", He had silver in his hair, gold in his teeth and lead in his ass! :drinks:

[jcwit]

Wash your hands and general hygiene will keep you safe. The Government and Media has everybody scared s&%#$^less over the hazards of heavy metals.

If we would get this worked up over drunk driving it might be a good thing tho.

[l-weinrich]

I shot indoor bullseye for many years with very poor ventilation and I have cast boolits with a 10 cavity cramer mold( which I still have) to feed my model 52 to the tune of at least 4000 boolits a year and when I requested a check of my lead levels they were not only normal but my doctor felt my history of casting was not an issue! By the way, when I was shooting we often shot in canada after obtaining permits from the canadian chief of police, now there are no more pistol shooting clubs in sault, ontario. Once, years ago, some of the guys decided to meet a team that only sent their scores in by mail so they went to Wawa Ontario to shoot against them in person. It was the middle of winter and their range was outdoors with bulldozer treads for a backstop and they had a small shack with wood heat, needless to say a clark custom with a tight slide does not like 20 below zero:)