respirator advice?

[wildey475mag]

new caster here with a perhaps old question or perhaps not but since ill be doing my casting in my shed this spring besides the exhaust fan im mounting in the ceiling has anyone had any experience with 3M disposable particulate/vapor rated disposable respirators and if so which ones do you guys use or would a more advanced respirator be more suited to casting needs.......was looking at 3M's website and seems that the only 2 disposable options were the n100 and the n95 series and the part number of 8214..........any suggestions from the pros for the rookie?

[jcwit]

Why do you need a respirator?

Your melt should be in the neighborhood of 800 degrees, lead vaporizes at around 1,000 degrees. If you do get your melt up to that temp it'll take forever for the castings to harden and you'll have to keep cooling the mold with water.

With the cast metal, not eating or drinking, and not smoking while casting and washing up right after casting and you're all right.

Only thing you're really protecting yourself from while melting is the smoke from fluxing, more than likely no worse then walking down a busy highway.

But if you think you have to wear one go for it.

[Rock]

I like to use one when smelting wheel weights, especially when the glue burns off the stick on weights.

When pouring boolits from my clean ingots I see no need for breathing protection.

[wildey475mag]

the biggest reason i was thinking of a respirator was the first time i turned on my melter it smoked like crazy which i attributed to possible anti rust stuff on it from shipping burning off but when i was at the 700ish mark there was still some smoke but not nearly as much as there was the first 10 mins of operation.......just like to be safe rather than sorry and figured someone out here has better insight than myself since i figured the vapors werent the greatest thing in the world to have around you, and i will use wheel weights on occasion so that might be more smoky so to speak but if you guys say that its overkill ill listen to ya since you have casted a whole hell a lot more than me lol

[S.R.Custom]

I've got my exhaust fan in the window such that it draws any noxious vapors away from me. (Casting bench is directly under said window.) Other than that, I just keep my hands out of my mouth, and my mouth closed.

[Storydude]

N95 at least. You want something Organic Vapor rated.

I, for one, am never one to dissuade PPE. You want to wear it, usually it cannot hurt in any way.

[462]

Back in the early smelting days, I was forced to make an executive decision -- either the respirator or the beard goes. The respirator hasn't seen the light of day since.

[siamese4570]

Wildley475: If your concerned about lead fume, get the n100. This is a HEPA (high efficiency particulate filter) which is the proper filter for lead dust/fume. The smoke may or may not be another story. If it is a particulate, the hepa will get it. If the smoke is from burning grease,valve stems, etc as normaly encountered when you smelt, you would probably need an organic vapor filter (charcoal). Don't know if they offer these in the mask typr filter. I've only seen them in the cartridge type filters. Go to 3M's website and you'll see these.

Siamese4570

[Bret4207]

Why not just take the thing outside and let the junk burn off? You're in more true danger from your food or driving to work than you are from lead vapors at casting temps.

Always do your smelting outside.

[wildey475mag]

thanks for all the replies everyone im planning on doing my casting in my shed.......have to enlarge it and put in the 1000cfm ceiling vent in at the very least i just have to wait on the damn snow to melt so i can actually see my yard i just wanted to make sure i was on the right track if i decided to go overkill on the mask idea and you guys are probably right my risk factor of driving to work will get me killed faster is more than likely correct..........or have my wife drive me:)