Casting inside ?????

[kendall yates]

Do any of you cast inside your shop? I was thinking about putting an old exaust fan on the roof that came from a restruant to get rid of the fumes and smoke. There is nothing worse than the rain shutting down your operation for the day. Any thoughts? Thank you.

[jdgabbard]

Some casters do it indoors. Matter of fact, one member (can't remember who you are) has a really sweet setup with a 200# bottom poor pot. Another guy has two bottom pour pots that he runs at one time.

Personally, I don't have a shot at my apartment in the city. So I tend to just do it on the patio. Down at my house though, I have a entire shop. Which I do cast in from time to time. But I'm never really there. But if I had a nice shop to do it in, I definitely would.

[Mike W1]

I do my casting in winter usually and always cast in the shop where I have a hood with a bathroom exhaust fan that vents outside. Wouldn't even consider doing it outside myself. Like they say wash your hands when you're done and you'll be just fine, that is assuming you don't lick your fingers first. Lead is not gonna jump up and destroy you if you use some common sense measures.

[docone31]

All I cast is inside. I built a casting room for my high temp casting. To cast lead I merely move my vaccum caster and put my Lee Pot on the high temp tiles.
Ventilation is an issue. I mounted a small air conditioner and run it full time. When it is cool, the a/c part is off, just the fan. It acts as a filter of sorts. When I cast, the Borax floats in clumps in the air. The fan pulls it throught the filter. Casting by its nature is dusty anyway.
So far, so good. The only bad day was when we were casting brass. I used a crucible. My wife and myself got "foundry disease" inhaleing zinc fumes. Those flu like symptoms. It lasts two days.
A never to be repeated experience.

[jdgabbard]

Yeah, zinc is toxic.

[snaggdit]

I cast in my garage with the door closed. It's still fairly cold outside. I have a propane wall heater and a fan to move the air around but no outside venting. I don't notice any odor or fumes. Now, melting down scrap lead I do outside! I suppose your flux of choice could give off fumes, but the charcoal (natural, from the wood stove) I use does not.

[454PB]

I've been casting indoors for 35 years. Use common sense and Marvelux, you don't need an exhaust fan.

[smburnette]

I don't do large smelting of wheel weights in the house, but I do throw a few clean ingots in the 4lb lee pot and cast boolits.. I set the pot on the stove and turn on the exhaust fan...

[snuffy]

+1 on 45 PB! I've been casting inside since I started in 1972. I don't mind a little smoke in the room, and our pots don't get hot enough to produce lead fumes.

I had my lead levels checked last year, 5.0. Just had it checked again in January, 4.0! Just make sure you're done touching lead, then wash your hands with a good strong hand soap.

Smelting,(or more properly re-melting), is done outside. Which in Wisconsin means about 20 days out of the year!

[epj]

No real reason not to cast indoors, especially with good ventilation. Smelting, on the other hand, is an outdoor activity unless you have commercial duty ventilation.

[RegCom7]

I've only been casting for a couple months, and I do it in my small apartment, in the kitchen! I open a couple windows for a little ventilation. (I melt down the scrap lead outside in the cast iron pot -- and that's smelly and smoky. I flux the scrap with candle wax.) But casting indoors with my Lee 4-20 pot doesn't cause any smoke or fumes because the lead ingots are already clean. I flux with the Frankford Arsenal powder stuff, and it doesn't smoke. I went to the doctor recently and while I was there I had them check my lead blood level. It was 2, and it's supposed to be below 10. So I'm not worried about casting indoors.

[mooman76]

I cast in the kitchen for years. I now have an electric pot so to cut down on flack I moved my operation to the garage.

[Recluse]

I smelt outdoors on the back covered deck. I cast in my shop. It has air conditioning and very good ventilation, so no worries there. If/when I need to flux, I rig up an exhause system to pull the smoke out the door, then right back to casting.

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Another yes for casting indoors, I have a vent hood w/fan and hose to outside from my shop.
It just keeps the smoke down a bit. Been doing it indoors for 35 years, no problem, I do keep a fire extinguisher in the area in case of an accident.

I smelt my lead in the summer here in AK. so I can cast all winter. Summer being one weekend sometime between July and August

[Dale53]

I built a utility barn and have a dedicated casting station in there:


It has an overhead built in hood with outside exhaust. I believe in good ventilation.

Dale53

[shotman]

Dont you all know lead is very deadly . 180 grs will kill anything that walks. So be carefull

[Tom W.]

I have a room in the back of my home that is my man-cave, and I keep my computer, loading bench and casting stuff there . When I go to cast I put a box fan in the window blowing out at the high setting, close the door and have a ball.

When I smelt, however, I do that on the back deck and render wheel weights into ingots...

[NHlever]

I do my casting in my shop on milder days during the winter, and early spring. I open the window, and door for cross ventilation, and it seems to work well.

[Bret4207]

I don't ever recall casting outdoors, smelting of course I do.

[jack19512]

I cast inside but do my smelting outside. By the time winter rolls around I have plenty of ingots to get me through till spring.