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stevef
03-10-2014, 10:17 PM
Hello - been shooting & reloading for a long time & always meant to cast as well. Currently stuck in an apartment (by myself so I don't have to worry about that) & now have the lyman big dipper pot & will start with lee molds to make .454, .490, & .530 round balls to start. Will go to pistol bullets eventually. Have helped a friend a long time ago cast & have read the lyman cast book and the casting sections in the lyman & lee loading manuals. also been poking around in here reading some, including a short article about casting in an apartment so I have a good idea of what all is involved & do have some friends around who do cast so I think I am set as far as that goes.

what I am looking for are any more tips for those in apartments & small spaces. I do have balcony so I can get outside when weather is nice & not sure I want to cast in the living room or the kitchen though both do have decent ventilation even in the winter as this place doesn't have the greatest seals on the windows (I don't pay extra for the heat so no biggie there)

so what tips you all got


thanks

Steve

BrassMagnet
03-10-2014, 10:43 PM
Casting is smoky. You will get oily, waxy smoke on the walls. Want to pay for a whole apartment building? Don't cast indoors.
Casting on the back porch was what I did. 30 years ago!
Find a friend with a house and a back yard. One complaint from an antigun neighbor could get you evicted. Try low key and a friends back yard.

Green Monster
03-11-2014, 03:30 PM
Im in the same situation. brassmagnet is right bout neighbors n the smoke. When im melting down WWs on a turkey frier in the yard and my neighbors ask what im doing i just tell them im making fishing lures or weights and need to purify my lead first. Then when i cast i take it out back on some solid ground. and try not to over flux and make alotta smoke. The balcony might be a bad idea incase you spill or have an accident. Molten lead will melt and burn anything very quickly. Avoid the B word (boolit)or G word (gun). Instant red flag for most people. Its jus how i do it. If you need to camo up try a clothes line n some old sheets to obscure u. But the friend and back yard is much more low key.

Uncle Jimbo
03-11-2014, 06:39 PM
Casting is smoky. You will get oily, waxy smoke on the walls. Want to pay for a whole apartment building? Don't cast indoors.
Casting on the back porch was what I did. 30 years ago!
Find a friend with a house and a back yard. One complaint from an antigun neighbor could get you evicted. Try low key and a friends back yard.

What BrassMagnet said.

stevef
03-11-2014, 06:43 PM
those were some of my concerns - thanks

dagunnut
03-11-2014, 08:22 PM
Casting indoors has the potential to leave toxic metal traces on surfaces and inhaling the fumes can have deadly consequences. There is always the possibility of water inadvertently being introduced to your casting pot. When this happens the molten lead will spatter everywhere including the ceiling that's how bad it can be. That would result in an instant fire in your apartment. Besides where do you put 600+ degree ingots or cast boolits to cool. Listen to the words of experience and don't risk it!

Mario
dagunnut

SciFiJim
03-11-2014, 10:35 PM
I think I read the article you referenced. It had good advice.

Keep the setup portable so that it can be stored away after you finish.

Unless you have a location away from the apartment to turn scrap into ingots, you would probably be best served to buy the ingots already made from someone selling in the swappin & sellin section.

The balcony is fine for casting. Put something (like cardboard) down on the floor before setting up to catch the occasional drip.

As to nosy neighbors, get a fishing weight mold to keep at hand. If anyone asks, show them that.

Texantothecore
03-12-2014, 11:47 AM
I am in the same situation in an apartment and nearly everything I do is offsite at a friends place. There just isn't a good way to hide it, especially smelting and casting.

stevef
03-12-2014, 10:01 PM
thanks for all the replies - kind of what I was afraid of

BrassMagnet
03-13-2014, 09:09 PM
thanks for all the replies - kind of what I was afraid of

Think of the bright side. You will be casting at a friend's house with company!

stevef
03-16-2014, 11:19 PM
ok - so got at least one friend who doesnt mind me using the garage - so once I get a face shield & gloves I will be ready to go - now one question I havent seen an answer to - when casting ingots does mold temp matter at all? i understand the need for proper mold temp but when i read about smelting there is never much info given about ingot molds'

thanks again

BrassMagnet
03-16-2014, 11:28 PM
Never indoors!

SciFiJim
03-16-2014, 11:35 PM
ok - so got at least one friend who doesnt mind me using the garage - so once I get a face shield & gloves I will be ready to go - now one question I havent seen an answer to - when casting ingots does mold temp matter at all? i understand the need for proper mold temp but when i read about smelting there is never much info given about ingot molds'

thanks again

Unless you are interested in very pretty ingots, mold temp doesn't matter other than hot ingot molds take longer to cool off enough to dump without the ingots breaking. I have cast ingots with the molds sitting in a cookie sheet of water to help them cool faster.

stevef
03-17-2014, 07:43 PM
thanks - figured it didnt matter & no I dont need pretty ingots

Texantothecore
03-18-2014, 12:18 AM
ok - so got at least one friend who doesnt mind me using the garage - so once I get a face shield & gloves I will be ready to go - now one question I havent seen an answer to - when casting ingots does mold temp matter at all? i understand the need for proper mold temp but when i read about smelting there is never much info given about ingot molds'

thanks again

Good and wise call on the face shield. Safety glasses are not enough. I learned a very cheap lesson on that score, a very tiny piece of molten lead on the nose and I shut her down and went to Lowes and got a faceshield for 13 bucks and never looked back.

wrongway
03-22-2014, 07:51 PM
I might be new ,but I sure wouldn't cast in an apartment for one there's no ventilation and you'd put yourself in danger of the toxic fumes.Do it at a friends house where they might have a garage and better ventilation

waksupi
04-13-2014, 01:08 AM
I might be new ,but I sure wouldn't cast in an apartment for one there's no ventilation and you'd put yourself in danger of the toxic fumes.Do it at a friends house where they might have a garage and better ventilation

There is a whole lot to unlearn in that post. There are no toxic fumes.

Baryngyl
04-13-2014, 08:34 PM
There is a whole lot to unlearn in that post. There are no toxic fumes.

Depends on your definition of toxic fumes, I am pretty sure that no lead its self is going to get into the air but fumes from your flux will for sure. About 15 or 16 years ago I was casting some bullets in my house, door was open and a fan going to help keep the air clear, all I had in the pot was COWW lead and used a bit of canning wax to flux it, after about 2 hours 1 of my Moms parakeets dropped dead and the second one was pretty wobbly on his perch, he died too before morning, after that I no longer melt in the house if we have birds.



Michael Grace

ghh3rd
04-20-2014, 12:09 AM
I was fortunate to have an apartment with a garage, and was able to open the door, turn on a fan and cast away. If you have your own private balcony it sounds like you have an option.

I'd still be concerned that I might get lead on the cement which can be very hard to remove, and no matter how neat I try to be, various contaminates still manage to gather around my pot (sprues, bit's of lead, slag, etc. I screwed a 1" wooden lip around my casting bench to keep everything off of the floor.

Perhaps you could use plywood to make a casting box -- plywood sheet on the floor with furring strips along the edges to contain the various debris, and in case of a catastrophic event (large spill :shock:) nothing spills on the neighbors below.

If there isn't a rule there against pursuing this particular hobby, and you've taken that steps to ensure everyone's safety, why not?