casting indoors?

[Quigley_up_Over]

Does anybody cast indoors? I have been thinking about setting up something in my basement where I can cast 365 days a year (if I want to, that is) as opposed to waiting for warm, dry weather all the time. In fact, casting is the perfect rainy day activity. Is it simply a BAD idea to cast indoors? What about with proper ventilation? Thanks for any help here. No, this is not a joke post.

My first post, great forum you guys have here! By the way, why are they called "boolits"?

[Reload3006]

I cast in my basement all the time. I intend to have a vent installed later on but right now I have a wood burner down there and set my pot inside it (with out the fire) lol and let the vapor smoke etc go up my chimney. Or If its really cold I build a raging fire in my wood burner and set up in the door of my basement with a fan behind me blowing the bad stuff out (I have a walk out) IMO as long as you can get good ventilation I say go for it. I would not smelt in the house though.

[cbrick]

Welcome to CastBoolits Quigley_up_Over,

Simple answer, I've been casting well over 30 years, I haven't fired a jacketed bullet in over 25 years and I have never cast a single bullet . . . OUTSIDE.

Yes, of course you want good ventilation for fluxing smoke but lead isn't radioactive, it cannot jump out and get you. At normal casting temps there are no fumes from lead, you would have to get it over 1000 degrees.

No melting of WW or other scrap inside though. The grease, oil, brake fluid etc are not good when burning.

Rick

[skeet1]

If this a good idea or nor I don't know but I do cast in the garage and have not grown any horns yet. Weather permitting I will throw open a window or two but if it is very cold outside I will cast without. I guess I'm not a very good example for giving any advise but I would bet that there are a lot of others that do the same thing.

Ken

[Quigley_up_Over]

I cast in my basement all the time. I intend to have a vent installed later on but right now I have a wood burner down there and set my pot inside it (with out the fire) lol and let the vapor smoke etc go up my chimney. Or If its really cold I build a raging fire in my wood burner and set up in the door of my basement with a fan behind me blowing the bad stuff out (I have a walk out) IMO as long as you can get good ventilation I say go for it. I would not smelt in the house though.

Thanks. What do you mean by "smelt" in this sense? Thanks again.

[midnight]

Build a small fume hood, install a blower and vent it through a drier vent and cast in comfort 365 days a year.

Bob

[ku4hx]

I cast in my garage and here in the sunny South I limit that to the winter months ... such as they are. A partially raised garage door provides plenty of ventilation to get rid of what slight fluxing fumes there are.

Smelting I do outside. The main reason for this is nasty WWs can be a very smokey proposition.

Smelting is the process of melting various compatible metals together to form a specific alloy, in my case Lyman #2 or hard ball most often. I do mine in a cast iron fish fryer in lots of 30 pounds of so.

[41 mag fan]

Build a small fume hood, install a blower and vent it through a drier vent and cast in comfort 365 days a year.

Bob

Hey Bob, how does that work out? I'm wanting to do something similar to that in my shop. Have you done something like a smoke test to see how well it sucks everything out??

[mold maker]

I cast under an old range hood, vented into a chimney flue. That makes casting a 24/365 deal. No smoke or fumes, and year round comfort.
I do however do all (smelting) lead cleaning out doors in cool weather.

[geargnasher]

I just built and set up a new "all in one" reloading/casting/gunsmithing room and had similar questions. Previously, I have cast in my shop at a bench next to a window with a 20" box fan blowing out, and in college cast out of an iron pot on the propane stove of my travel trailer using the vent-a-hood for exhaust. Both worked well.

I started a thread in the casting equipment sub-forum about this, lots of good advice there. Midnight has a sweet setup, and I did something similar, essentially making a fume hood with a 6" steel exhaust system going up through the attic with a remote, in-line exhaust fan so I didn't have the fan droning in my face all the time. Any regular 30" kitchen vent hood with outside ducting capabilities will do the trick nicely for casting.

For smelting, obviously you will want to be outdoors due to the volumes of smoke/fumes and toxic yuckiness from all the junk that comes with wheel weights and most scrap lead. Once smelted into clean ingots, your casting will be much less of a hazard. The main hazard with casting comes from handling lead-contaminated tools and then getting traces of the residue in your mouth from rubbing your nose, smoking, drinking from an open container in the casting area, chewing gum etc. If it touches your hand before going in your face, THINK about where your hands have been before handling it. I keep a rag hanging on my reloading room doorknob so I don't get cross-contamination when leaving the room to wash my hands after handling lead, I don't want others to get contamination from the doorknobs either. This is especially important if you have children, as they are particularly sensitive to even trace amounts of lead. You don't have to be psycho-paranoid, just think through everything you do and touch and try to limit your lead contamination and contaminated tools to the casting area.

Gear

[runfiverun]

i melt down the ww's in the summer outside.
most of my casting is done during the winter/spring months.
i do that in what used to be my garage,but is attatched to the house and is enclosed now.
a small window fan to blow out the smoke and such is available, but only gets used when fluxing.
there ain't nothing to blow out otherwise except the heat.

[MtGun44]

What cbrick said. No lead fumes, but other nasty stuff and fluxing smoke means you want
good ventilation. The wife and kids will be cranky otherwise with the unpleasant smells.
Do not eat, drink or smoke whan handling lead or in the reloading area, which should be
presumed to be lead dust and splatter contaminated. Wash with ordinary soap after
working and you will be fine.

Bill

[Reload3006]

I cast under an old range hood, vented into a chimney flue. That makes casting a 24/365 deal. No smoke or fumes, and year round comfort.
I do however do all (smelting) lead cleaning out doors in cool weather.

how are you vented in your chimney. I have a wood burner in my basement and had considered venting into the steel pipe that comes out and then bends 90deg to go into the chimney... will the forced air from a range hood blow up into the chimney or blow smoke from the wood burner back out into my basement... this sounds like a very inexpensive solution for me if it will work.

[ChuckS1]

I cast in the basement, never have cast outside. I just keep the door open when I flux or if the weather's nice. Others will disagree, but I think all this talk about lead vapors is a lot of hype. A little common sense will keep you out of trouble more times than not.

[beagle]

I cast outside in my reloading shed and keep it well vebtilated. I have an 1830s farm house with cellar and at one time, it had a coal fired stoker furnace so I have a "blank" chimney and I've been running the idea of making a casting table down there and venting it with a tube and fan through the chimney that's not being used.

For sure, you can cast inside but it needs to be well ventilated to keep management off your back as well as noxious fumes outside for health reasons./beagle

[bobthenailer]

I do all of my casting indoors for the past 40 years mostley in Febuary, usually enough for the year & then some . please use all saftey procedures as well as good ventlation.
Ive cast & sized/lubed 12,272 so far this Febuary and have about 13 days left to fill up my bullet boxes & buckets.

[Cherokee]

Welcome to the forum. I have been castiing indoors since 1968. Be careful, be safe, have air circulaton. Wash your hands afterwards.

[midnight]

41magfan, my setup works pretty well. I get a little smell of woodsmoke in the room when I flux with sawdust. A real smokey flux does get in the room. I added a small 15in? flourescent light inside near the hinge of the lid and it kind of obstructs the free flow of smoke to the vent pipe but a small clamp on fan in the upper right corner of the front opening seems to fix that. I don't know what the CFM of the blower is, I picked it up for $10 at a rummage sale. It vents to the outside with a drier vent. I do all my "smelting" out in the shed. I open a couple of windows and it doesn't have a door so ventilation isn't a problem.


Bob

[Inkman]

I started casting in the garage recently. Couldn't pay me to cast outside anymore. I just open up the roll up door about a foot and crack open the side door to back yard. Smelting is done outside though.

Also as a kid (45+ years ago) we learned to attach lead sinkers to fishing line by clamping them on with our teeth.

Somehow i'm still here....:groner:

Al

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
I did some casting inside in my early years, but prefer to do it outside for the last 20 yrs. Also prefer to do all my casting in winter, for me it is casting season as long as it is 0-50* F. Less than 0*F = sizing & lube time indoors.:Fire::Fire: