Badly Burned!!!

[ulav8r]

My worst burn was sunburn on the insides of my ankles after a 3 day canoeing trip. Could not work for a week because I could not wear my boots.

Next worst was from slaking lime getting inside my 6 inch rubber boots. The lime fell out of a kiln as hard balls just a little larger than marbles. As it slakes, it turns to a soft powder that is Very hot. WhenI stepped on it, my foot sank below my boot top and filled it. Luckily, there was a water hose about 20 feet away. It was running a stream out of the 3/4 inch nozzle. I stuffed it in the top of my boot for several minutes. After about 3 days it was no longer too bad.

Had one close call with lead. I was molding wheel weights, had 4 pots with about 600 pounds each. The lead was injected under pressure and one of the molds had something in it so did not close completely. Got lead in my hair and on my shirt and jeans, luckily not a large amount. The jeans still had lead sticking to them 10 years later.

[54bore]

When the professional welders of large steel objects start using Ove Gloves, *then* I'll think about them.

I bought in to the Ove Glove deal, there is NO WAY i would wear them to cast in, i used them while re seasoning several old Cast iron skillets to try them out, my hands immediately started to sweat in them and they were uncomfortable to me, A good friend of mine works at an Aluminum mold outfit of some sort? He has worked there for many years, they make HUGE transformer type stuff from molten aluminum, The gloves they wear are REALLY nice, i have 2 pairs. They can actually reach right in flowing molten aluminum and grab foreign objects etc. if they end up having to do this, when they are done they walk over to a metal garbage can and shake the gloves off in the Garbage, go get a new pair of Gloves. He said you dont feel anything, BUT get them hot and catch a snowball, he said that will burn the Pi$$ out of ya from the steam!
Other than that, its hard to beat good ole welder gloves, i stil use them as well

[Lead pot]

I'm a retired plumber of 35 years. When I was working most of the joints and underground lead pipe water lines where connected with a poured puddle of lead with a asbestos rag in my bare hands and wiped the spigot and pipe a lot of times over a muddy water puddle I was standing in. Lead pots glowing in rains and leaky over head floors. The only time when a 30 pound lead pot got emptied was during a hail storm and I wore a lead overcoat trying to cover the pot with plywood when a hail stone fell in the pot. Rain or dripping water never a problem because the water drops never penetrated the hot lead. It turned to steam above the layer. I wore many lead overcoats during the 35 years mostly during the cold days when I got in a hurry adding cold ingots in the pot. When you feel the rumble you learn quick to spin around and turn your back before you rear the pop. I have no scars from hot lead. You have to use a little common sense working with lead. And by the way, My blood count for the lead tests is not elevated even working in dark confined crawl spaces with the lead pot and lead glowing in the dim light.

[54bore]

Lead pot, I wish i could have seen the way you plumbers did the joints with lead! The house i bought has a Basement, the Sewer pipe has these lead poured joints. Just before i bought this house a plumber came and re plumbed the entire house, got rid of all the old metal water pipe and put in brand new water lines, and the black asb? Drain pipes. He mentioned the old lead poured joints, he explained it as a lost art, he told me he had never done it before, but kinda knew how to by some of the old timers that had explained it to him. He left some of the big Cast iron looking pipe alone, he told me it was just as good today as it was when it was put together? I trust his word. He said the only time he had seen this particular pipe fail was outside buried in the ground. He told me there is stil miles and miles of it in use today?

[mold maker]

I inherited a set of the tools plumbers used to pour joints in cast iron pipe. I've seen it done, but have no personal experience.
It truly is a lost art.
Part of my (parents) home is over 77 years old and the old sewer lines all have lead joints.

[MK111]

Melting lead is dangerous. About 1987 I"m melting scrap lead in a propane 60 lb pot. Added more scrapes and the pot blow up and it was a total empty blow up. Luckly I had my wood turning full face shield on and only had melted lead on my clothes.
Only thing I can think of there was a live primer or loaded round in the scrap. After that I only added small checked hand fulls and never dumped in large amounts.

[mold maker]

A 9mm from the LEO range did the same thing for me. This was after I had run the dirty scrap in a cement mixer and inspected them on the driveway. I couldn't retreat fast enough and the molten lead stuck to my safety glasses and left distortions. Only 2 tiny burns to my arms, but the damage to my glasses would have been perminate on my eyes.
In a lifetime of casting that's the only time i've had a visit from the fairy, but once is too many.

[NavyVet1959]

The cast iron pot that I used to smelt in came with a lid. To minimize the chance of tinsel fairie attacks, I would hold the lid right in front of the pot with one hand and use the other hand to add the wheelweights around the side of the lid. If I had a steam explosion, that would probably result in the lead being directed mostly away from me. I'm more concerned if I'm putting wheelweights into a molten pool of lead though. If the pot already has a lot of clips in it, the new wheelweights will just sit on top of them and any water in them will turn to steam, but without lead above them, there will be no explosion. These days, I use a freon tank for smelting, but I built a lid / shield for it also.

[Josh Smith]

I'm not brave enough to have more than a pound or so melted at any one time. I have no need for it, and fear it.

I've had a couple smaller explosions -- just "pops" -- from sweat getting into the lead on a hot day. I almost had another the other day to one of those "total metal jacket"-type bullets getting in. It swelled up like a water balloon but I got it out before it could burst.

I wear safety glasses, a respirator, old winter coat, and leather gloves when I cast these days. I used to only do the safety glasses, but I have a family now and I'm interested in leaving all the lead in the shop. I don't have faith that my three-year-old girl's system will deal with lead oxide or salts nearly as well as mine. She's a daddy's girl, too, so I have layers of protection. When I come home she will always want me to hold her before I can shower. I do briefly, then go shower.

This is one reason I'm almost bald, too. I shave my head regularly because I don't want lead and other nasties accumulating as I generally have a very thick, dense head of hair when I grow it out. As well as I wash my hands, I can't get everything off, and I'd imagine hair is worse. Therefore, I'm taking the prophylactic approach.

All that safety equipment should keep me pretty safe from any lead explosions, though, from only a single pound.

Regards,

Josh

[Lead pot]

Reading these 9 pages it is obvious some of the people that posted have never cast a bullet and are better off just to keep buying factory loaded ammo.

[elkhuntfever]

Definitely can imagine the pain!!! As a young lad in high school shop class we had to make a punch and chisel on the forge. Pulled the stock out of the forge and laid it on the bench. The orange glow had disappeared (barely) and without thinking I reached bare handed and grabbed it. Another kid grabbed his red hot!!!! Yes, I know the pain.

[54bore]

Definitely can imagine the pain!!! As a young lad in high school shop class we had to make a punch and chisel on the forge. Pulled the stock out of the forge and laid it on the bench. The orange glow had disappeared (barely) and without thinking I reached bare handed and grabbed it. Another kid grabbed his red hot!!!! Yes, I know the pain.

My dad was telling me a story awhile back that i got a kick out of. A guy we knew was in a machine shop, heavy logging equipment stuff, somebody was welding, cutting torch, or something of that nature? Anyway the guy reached and grabbed a piece of SUPER HOT steel by accident, he IMMEDIATELY let go, somebody asked him 'What the heck were you thinking? He smiled and said 'I just wanted to take a quick look at it'

[mold maker]

Boss watched a coworker cut a 5/8" bolt with a grinder. When the piece hit the floor he immediately picked up the piece. I heard it sizzle as he dropped it. His explanation was he didn't want anyone to step on it.
He wasn't the boss for long.

[JWT]

First day of high school chemistry (1984?) the teacher passed around a Bunsen burner to make a point. There was a perfect hand print burned all the way around the barrel.

[OS1880]

Had the same thing happen to me as MK111. Luckily had safety glasses on. I had lead all over the place. Still some splatters on the ceiling. The worst part was the wife saw this happen. I haven't heard the end of it this happened a year ago.

[NavyVet1959]

I don't think I've never gotten a blister from casting boolits, but I've burned the heck out of my hands getting a pizza out of the oven, go figure.

I've had my share of blisters from arc welding after a glob burned through the shirt I was wearing and then burned a nice blister on my stomach. Always a case of "just need to do a quick weld, no need to put on the leather apron" sort of thing.

Ended up with probably the largest area burn that I've ever had tonight. It covered the top of my hand from just above my watch to the end of my fingers. I had cooked up a pot of BBQ sauce and it was literally *boiling* hot. It's pretty sweet, so the boiling point is probably a bit more than 212F. I was BBQing some chicken quarters this evening and was taking the brush and a small bowl of the BBQ sauce outside to coat them and cook the BBQ sauce on them for the last couple of minutes. I'm not sure what happened... I think I was trying to pick up a large stainless steel bowl to put the chicken in when I took it off the grill. All of a sudden, the BBQ sauce splashed over the side onto the entire top of my hand. I tossed the small bowl into a large bowl, yelled a few choice words, and ran towards the kitchen sink while yelling at my wife who was there, "ICE !!! NOW !!!". So, what does she do? Does she immediately grab a handful of ice from the freezer and give it to me? Oh nooooo... She instead gets a bowl and slowly proceeds to fill the bowl with ice to give to me! Aaauuugggghhhh!!! Time is of the essence in these matters, taking the time to fill up a bowl is STUPID! Even just a couple of cubes immediately and then while I'm using them getting some more would make a LOT more sense. So far, a cherry red hand...

[rmark]

yum, BBQ.

[Grmps]

I'm just over the silver silvadene stage. I wear lightweight welding gloves with gauntlets when casting.
I had finished casting, turned the pot off and removed my gloves. I saw a couple pieces of lead under the pot so I reached under it to remove them. A drip of lead landed on the back of my hand and I jerkered back wedging the 750-775° spout between two knuckles instantly removing meat on the two adjacent fingers/knuckles. I cooled it in tap water then started the silver silvadene treatment twice a day . I wedged and taped a piece of cotton between the base of my fingers to keep them from rubbing. You don't know how often you get both hands wet until you can't.

[D Crockett]

I get drops of lead splashed no me from time to time I go get some allow plant and put on it as fast as I can I do not get a blister or any thing from it D Crockett

[Uncle Grinch]

Yep, lead burns are bad stuff. I managed to splash a ladle full on the inside of my left ankle. It’s been a few years, but I have a nasty red purple scar to remind me.