theres the voice of reason and professional experience.
Quote Originally Posted by Dragonheart View Post
Being a federal & state certified lead risk assessor, now retired, I will state a know fact; anytime there is friction on a surface containing lead the possibility of generating a lead dust hazard is highly probable. This is the reason I have posted many warnings on this site, most of which I would assume are ignored, as to the hazards of our hobby.

As far as the tumbling vs shaking to PC lead bullets I think I can safely say there is no empirical data on the subject. But personally, I can not see an increased hazard using a tumbler to generate one large batch vs shaking numerous batches of lead bullets by hand. As far as a lead dust in my tumbling process I have never analyzed the residual powder, but I would assume there is lead dust in the powder regardless of which method used. Spraying would not generate lead dust, but the airborne powder generates another type of hazard.

In my photos of my homemade tumbler, I did not show the lids to my buckets. I simply use the factory lid for the painter's bucket, which seals in everything during the process. The only time I tumble for 20 minutes is if I get busy doing something else, typically my 300+ bullets are ready in minutes. Additionally, a benefit of my homemade tumbler is I can adjust the amount of vibration so the action is not as violent as a regular tumbler or shaking by hand for that matter. Since the powder is immediately attracted to the lead I do not see lead coming off and discoloring the powder. In fact the tumbling is actually vibrating powder against powder.

I think a lead dust hazard of one coating process vs another is pretty much moot point since the hazards of the casting process many times outweigh the possible hazard of lead dust remaining in residual powder.