Determining smelting fume direction

[901S]

Cassette tape is what cataraman sailors use, slightest breeze will move it. I use a cartridge type resperator when smelting and fluxing.
hc18flyer

Cassette tape? Did they just defrost you?

I haven't seen cassette tape in 2 decades.

[country gent]

Surveyors tape works well. better is a skien of the "fuzzy" yarn. I use the yarn for tails on my wind flags, its very sensitive and reacts quickly. Its also cheap and a skien lasts a long time. I made my wind flags with magnetic bearings a daisy wheel and vane the yarn is attached to the lower edge of the vane. The magnetic bearing set up is almost friction free also. A wind flag or rod with a length of yarn should do well.

[dikman]

I just smelted about 300 kilos of range scrap and lots of fumes come off it until it's been cleaned (beats me what's in it 'cos I wash it down first). I set up a fan to blow across the poured ingots to cool them and also to cool the molds so that I can pour quicker. It is also angled slightly so that it blows behind me towards my melting setup and keeps "most" of the fumes away from me.

[lightman]

I do my smelting in my shop. I have enough ventilation to make the smoke go where I want it to. That is, the fan sucks air in from the overhead door and exhaust it through the walk in door. This makes it easy to stay up wind of any smoke, be it from fluxing or from other junk.

[Leadmad]

Made this poor boy smelting set up for under $30, smoke is up and away from me 98% of the time with no regard to wind direction or speed of it, well away from house or neighbours so works for me on any day

[DukeInFlorida]

My own experience is that the wind always seems to be shifting direction when I am rendering raw lead. I have to keep relocating my body to be upwind of the smoke, etc. Kind of like a campfire when camping. There's never a good seat around the campfire ring.

[901S]

My own experience is that the wind always seems to be shifting direction when I am rendering raw lead. I have to keep relocating my body to be upwind of the smoke, etc. Kind of like a campfire when camping. There's never a good seat around the campfire ring.

Yep. We have an oil heating system, but mostly use a wood stove for heat in the winter. When I dump the ashes into a 20 gallon steel trash can outside I gauge the wind. No matter how sure I am of the wind's direction it almost always changes in my direction before I can dump out the ash tray into the ash can. That direction is toward me!!!

[Grmps]

This -------------- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSgQ82Kqhzo

[Oldbrowngun]

I agree with whoever said it seems to follow where you are standing. The wind here always seems to shift it in my direction. I wear a half face respirator with these filters https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1, but the smoke and smell of the dirty oily stuff coming off of nasty old wheel weights still seems to penetrate the mask enough to allow me to smell it and feel sick from it, and somtimes cought for half the day. It is not good at all, and i've been looking for a solution. Fans either suck in flames or cool off lead. My problems are in the smelting process, as far as casting itself, my pot doesnt really seem to put off much, and im not standing above it sucking anything in, so I just make sure I do it out in the open, usually dont use a mask.

[Dragonheart]

If your masks fits and you use a combination hepa/carbon filters you won't smell anything and will be protected. North makes the best respirators I am aware of and I have used them for myself and commercially for for my crews for many years. The proof is when you have several hundred workers take a monthly blood test and they all come back negative you know the masks work.

[Oldbrowngun]

If your masks fits and you use a combination hepa/carbon filters you won't smell anything and will be protected. North makes the best respirators I am aware of and I have used them for myself and commercially for for my crews for many years. The proof is when you have several hundred workers take a monthly blood test and they all come back negative you know they the masks work.

I cant seem to find any filter like you are talking about can you link me one?

[MyFlatline]

I run a large fan when smelting, seems the fumes go to the fan. Just saying

[Dragonheart]

I cant seem to find any filter like you are talking about can you link me one?

I did a search on item #75scp100l, which is a Honeywell North multi-purpose filter cartridge with 99.97% particulate efficiency, and found a pair for $16.90 on Amazon. Better pricing may be available and there are other North multi-filters, but these filters in a properly fitting full face mask and you don't need to worry about it. These filters last a very long time and basically you now have a gas mask.

Kudos to you for taking your safety seriously. I am a Native Texan, 70 years old, industrial engineering major and I have spent a lifetime in the construction industry, so I realize full well the mentality when it comes to safety, as many think its a joke. But I can tell you this, I haven't seen a one still laughing when they were carried out or when the doctor tells them they have a major health problem that could have been so easily prevented.

When you smelt, especially range scrap as I do, it is not just lead in that pot and I can assure you nothing in that vapor is good for you. Just because you breath out doesn't mean what you breathed in is gone.

[Leadmad]

I did a search on item #75scp100l, which is a Honeywell North multi-purpose filter cartridge with 99.97% particulate efficiency, and found a pair for $16.90 on Amazon. Better pricing may be available and there are other North multi-filters, but these filters in a properly fitting full face mask and you don't need to worry about it. These filters last a very long time and basically you now have a gas mask.

Kudos to you for taking your safety seriously. I am a Native Texan, 70 years old, industrial engineering major and I have spent a lifetime in the construction industry, so I realize full well the mentality when it comes to safety, as many think its a joke. But I can tell you this, I haven't seen a one still laughing when they were carried out or when the doctor tells them they have a major health problem that could have been so easily prevented.

When you smelt, especially range scrap as I do, it is not just lead in that pot and I can assure you nothing in that vapor is good for you. Just because you breath out doesn't mean what you breathed in is gone.

Well said