Anyone cast in the basement?

[DerekP Houston]

That is a sweet looking setup Reverend!

[Reverend Al]

Thanks! (Building the entire shop was only about 20 years overdue ... and it's still a work in progress ...)

[Gew]

In my basement I use a 50 cfm vent fan mounted to the ceiling with aluminum flex duct dropping about 4 feet that is positioned 4 inches over meter and it is adjustable to anywhere on my melting bench. No fumes escape this setup.

[Brotherbadger]

As long as you vent properly, I don't see an issue. I personally don't do it though.

[Hickok]

Always cast in the basement. Lead "vapors" is a myth at our temperatures.
Ventilation is necessary to keep smells from fluxing from stinking up the house.

Bill

Right on.
I do remember well some 40 years ago when I was newly married and we were living in a small rented apartment. I just had to have some boolits for my revolvers, so I went into the kitchen, turned on the gas cooking stove and did my thing. Everything is going well, I throw in a chunk of the old black Lyman sizing lube to flux, shazzam, a big cloud of smoke off the pot, I light the smoke, poof, a nice fireball of the pot!

In comes my new bride of 3 months,......to this day my wife never uses cuss words......but that day was different! She didn't just cuss in sentences, she filled paragraphs. Casting was something like she had never seen before, and SOMEHOW I forgot to tell her about the process!!!!

[tazman]

Right on.
I do remember well some 40 years ago when I was newly married and we were living in a small rented apartment. I just had to have some boolits for my revolvers, so I went into the kitchen, turned on the gas cooking stove and did my thing. Everything is going well, I throw in a chunk of the old black Lyman sizing lube to flux, shazzam, a big cloud of smoke off the pot, I light the smoke, poof, a nice fireball of the pot!

In comes my new bride of 3 months,......to this day my wife never uses cuss words......but that day was different! She didn't just cuss in sentences, she filled paragraphs. Casting was something like she had never seen before, and SOMEHOW I forgot to tell her about the process!!!!

Boy did that ever bring back memories!
I did much the same thing at about the same time frame. I got banned from the kitchen for a few years.

[spasmonaut]

You guys have given me some ideas but as it stands, I think I've got a fairly safe setup given what you've all mentioned. I have a small supply of D-Lead on hand to ensure that clean up goes properly and use it regularly, along with being mindful of my clothing with splatters, drips, etc. I will have to see if I can find someone that has the means to do some simple metal fabrication to build a "tray" that I can put my pot on along with my molds as I'm casting to make quick and easy work of catching any drips, etc. to get recycled back into the pot. I don't have any tools or access to tools to do something like that unfortunately. Reverend's got me thinking of some things I can do to improvise until I'm able to freely cut/drill/saw in a house that is my own to tinker with. Thanks for sharing guys!

[Boogieman]

Get a large baking sheet.

[44 WCF]

A friend, a very experienced HVAC person designed an inexpensive vent set up for my master caster and RCBS primer. He advised making a flexible hood approx 2" larger diameter than the lead pot and let it extend down over side of lead pot slightly like an inverted funnel. His theory was keeping the funnel just slightly bigger increased efficiency and reduced fan size requirements. I used a bathroom fan between floor joist vented to the out side. He used an instrument to measure the draft created and it was more than enough. We used inexpensive dyer duct to connect the hood to the fan. Hood cooul lift up to add flux stir etc. I had to make sure to keep door open to the basement to provide air flow. I tried to keep table area clear of everything so I could wipe it down easily . It worked just fine and was cheap. Fan to hood was 4" dryer tube hood was 4"x 6" alum adapter and 4" x 8" for master caster. Two units were set side by side and not used at sane time.

[hockeynick39]

Don't have my full vent hood set up yet because I am still moving around and haven't settled yet. However, I do have a vent-hole attachment that will fit to any window size and attaches to a box fan that draws the fumes from the work bench area. I also have a small fan that blows over the top of the pot to help facilitate the movement. I do not make my ingots in the basement, that is left outside because I smelt wheel weights for this purpose and many are not clean or are painted.

[Ola]

Someone mentioned in this thread that he knows only one person with elevated lead levels. Well, it might be rare, but it is possible. Back in the days I spent LOTS of time shooting in indoor range with poor ventilation, I casted LOTS of bullets, smelted lead, polished brass, well, you name it. I made everything care-free, didn't wash hands, had snacks while casting...

When I got tested I had seriously elevated lead level.

So: be smart. Do the right things, and you'll be fine. If your local indoor range has poor ventilation, try to find some other place to shoot. (I personally think the countless hours spent breathing the PRIMER fumes at indoor range was the main reason for the elevated levels. Shooting lead bullets was not allowed there).

[44 WCF]

Hockeynick, I agree never smelt WW indoors. We even set up couple cheap Kmart box fans to direct air and smoke when smelting and tried to flux, stir and skim to get. Cleanest ingots possible

[lobogunleather]

I have always done my casting either on a covered back porch or in the garage with overhead door wide open.

My first 10 years as a cop included regular shooting on an indoor range (built in the basement of the city auditorium, well before anyone thought about ventilation). Many of us sustained higher-than-normal lead levels in blood tests, resulting in a new range facility. I have avoided indoor ranges since those days.

[gnostic]

I'm with you, I do it on the back porch with a Walmart fan at my back and no more indoor ranges for me.

[Geezer in NH]

My casting station is in my basement. Under a hood fan and closed in with Lexan except for the front bottom half. I casted over 100,000 50 cal round balls and all the rest of my casting under it.

My blood level of lead is below normal for the city I lived in until I was 35 years old.

Ventilation folks, no smoking when handling lead and no eating.

[David2011]

Everything I have been reading makes lead out to be a real B*****d. What am I doing to my health. In the last 3 years I have developed head aches, nervous twicths and vision issues, who knows if this is solely from lead but I have casted over 10000 bullets and have shot more than that in my life at indoor ranges. Not to mention I police brass which is on the ground at the indoor range.

HudsonBay,

Welcome to CastBoolits!

While it is wise to be cautious with lead I believe some of the risks are exaggerated in the minds of many. You will not get lead hot enough to release lead vapors with a commercially made lead furnace. It has to get well over 1100 degrees F to make lead vapors. There may be other smoke produced but it's usually from oils, tire lube, street dirt, etc. if melting wheelweights. I always melt wheelweights and other bulk lead outdoors but always cast indoors. Fluxes will produce smoke but again, it's not lead vapors. That said, there are good ways to ingest lead.

One common path of lead ingestion is inhaling lead dust. Lead shot tends to produce dust in the bag. Similarly, any small chunks of lead allowed to rub against one another can produce dust. Shooting at indoor ranges can be a lead inhalation risk both from cast boolits and primers. Most primers have lead styphenate in them which produces lead vapors when ignited. Brass tumblers using dry media like corn cob and walnut can cause lead dust to enter the air. A little mineral spirits and some Nu-Finish car polish in the media will help control polishing dust.

Handling lead and then smoking or eating can pass lead from your hands to the food or cigarettes/cigars. The burning smoking materials will vaporize the lead assisting its ingestion. Contact between lead contaminated hands and food is an obvious source of ingestion but easily prevented by thorough washing. There are products like D-Lead that help remove lead from your hands, available as soap and towelettes.

Certainly there are other sources such as lead paint but that is easily identified with a testing kit. Young children are more susceptible to lead poisoning than adults because some of the lead pathways to the brain are closed off in the late teen years. Glazed pottery drink ware and plates from Mexico may contain soluble lead. Lead crystal decanters should not be used to store beverage for extended periods as they will leach out lead from the glass. Don't let children play with lead in any form like I did. OTOH, I didn't lick my hands afterward.

High lead levels are not hard to avoid. I hope your symptoms are not lead related but if they are they can be treated.

Best wishes,
David

[Dakooz]

Outdoors only for me. My significant other would have me tarred and feathered(outdoors of course)...

[Butler Ford]

Hudsonbay,

After writing several paragraphs, I deleted the rest and leave only this:

Of all of the people I have know that cast and shoot lead, only one, that I'm aware of, has had elevated lead levels. He bought his boolits from a commercial caster.

Please read up on how lead enters the system. It is different for children and adults. Lead paint is not the same as metallic lead. While they're both Pb, lead paint just begs to become dust if disturbed. Ingots and boolits do not. Molten lead doesn't vaporize until above 1100 degrees F.

David

Thank you! You just saved me a lot of typing

BF

[Blanket]

I grew up casting on the stove in the kitchen, my casting bench is in the basement with a vent fan