Casting indoor

[michaelcopeland2]

OK I have a ? Win you guy cast indoors whst kind of filters do you all use or do you just open the door with the fan need help I cast in my shop and the smell is just too strong I had my shop door open which is a 10 foot door roll up door with window open and a squirrel cage fan blowing can anybody suggest a filter to blow it out where I don't have to sit here and breathe it in thank you guys I'm new to casting and reloading and I so far I'm loving it

[williamwaco]

Do not cast indoors.

I do it on the porch or in the garage.

[tazman]

I have a small fan a few feet away from me, set on low, blowing at my back or from the side depending on the day. This blows the fumes away from me where I don't have to breathe it in directly.
I also have a fan blowing out the door or open window. This keeps fresh air circulating into the room and avoids the buildup of fumes indoors.
On a nice day, I will roll the table outside to cast and will still use the fan unless there is a good breeze.
I don't have a filter setup and don't feel that I need one given the circulation I have.

[groundsclown]

Yeah I'll probably get flak for this but...I cast indoors.
READ: CAST...Not smelt.

All smelting is done outside for what should be obvious reasons. Clean lead is then used in my bottom pour which I don't flux (never needed to) & thats done in the air conditioned back room of our house.
I also don't cast daily. Maybe once or twice every 4-6 months as needed.

But ya know what?
I don't use those sanitizer wipes for grocery carts the store offers.
I eat bacon.
I use real butter.
I take 4-5 advil instead of the recommended 2.

Yeah. I live on the edge

[bangerjim]

I NEVER cast or re-melt inside. No matter how hot is it here in AZ. I "do it" in the shade of a huge tree with my evap cooler blowing nice cool air at me.

Too much garbage to ever do it inside.

[GhostHawk]

I cast indoors with a small lee dipper pot all the time. I really don't worry about venting that pot much. Temps don't get that hot, and I'm always remelting sprue cut offs or adding an ingot to keep it cool. Pretty much just me and the dog in my casting room.

Now I smelt on the kitchen stove, for that I won't do it unless it is cool enough that I can open the house, couple fans blowing to keep the smoke down. Helps cut down on the fumes. But with fluxing and melting there is more smoke than just casting from clean ingots.

I do about 2-3 casting sessions a year. Did one this week, melted down what feels like a 40 lb block of some unknown mixture.
But it scratch's like lead, cast ingots like lead, I'd guess by the looks of it in the pan that it is likely wheel weights or a mix.

But with some tin I recently bought here it makes DANG pretty shiny .223 55 gr bator bullets.

52 ingots, weight runs from 10 oz to 1lb each. Should last me a while.

[varmint243]

This setup works for me

[dtknowles]

I have always cast indoors and did not use a fan until about 10 years ago. I like the smell of wood smoke, I use wood chips for flux. I have breathed the smoke of wood fires often but maybe it will kill me some day, who knows. I don't cast a lot and I use mostly clean alloy that needs no smelting.

Tim

[michaelcopeland2]

Just wondering because I work in the foundry and we had a lead hit yesterday buy it was 50 tons not 20 lb and all the metallurgist was telling me that I should not be doing it inside and I'm like why I have fans blowing I have a door open

[Vann]

I smelt outside, but do all my casting in my purpose built reloading shop/gun room. I usually open the windows and doors and have a fan blowing behind me. When I remodel my shop I'm going to add a vent a hood over my casting table.

I always hear people saying how bad casting is supposed to be but from my understanding lead doesn't let off any vapers until it reaches it's boiling point. At least that's what I heard. As a kid I remember my dad casting over a stove, and I know my father in law did the same for at least 30 years.

[dragonrider]

I cast indoors in my garage shop in the summer with the AC on, in the winter with the wood stove burning. Don't know why anyone makes a big deal out of casting indoors, there is no reason not to. Don't know what the smell is you mention, hot lead has no smell that I have been able to detect. Smelting of course is done outside, all fluxing is done while smelting hence there is no reason to flux when casting, so no smoke in the shop.

[michaelcopeland2]

I cast indoors in my garage shop in the summer with the AC on, in the winter with the wood stove burning. Don't know why anyone makes a big deal out of casting indoors, there is no reason not to. Don't know what the smell is you mention, hot lead has no smell that I have been able to detect. Smelting of course is done outside, all fluxing is done while smelting hence there is no reason to flux when casting, so no smoke in the shop.

At 2000 degrees it let's off a gas

[tazman]

At 2000 degrees it let's off a gas

Yes it does.
I worked in the heat treating dept at my factory for over 40 years. We used heated lead(1500F) as a heat treat medium. I was within arms reach of that lead most of the day.
We had hoods over the top with blowers sucking out the air as well as large fans blowing air at us from the back and sides. The surface of the lead was covered with a combination of charcoal and melted salts(definitely not table salt) to keep the lead from oxidizing as much as possible.
The biggest problem we had was getting water drops from the nearby(2 feet)quench tank splashed into the lead. I was well acquainted with the tinsel fairy although we used another name for her.
We were tested every year for blood lead content. During that entire time I never tested higher than about 7-8 ppm and usually around 4-5 which is well below the safety levels.
The people who got in trouble at our shop for blood lead content were smokers or would eat in the department without washing their hands first. Basic safety precautions are simple and work well.
Other than the nasty smell, there is little in the way of lead fumes coming from a 700-800 degree lead pot. The dust from handling the lead and the scrapings from the top of the pot pose a greater danger than the fumes. Just a little air flow will remove the fumes.

[BNE]

I built a "hood" over mine and duct it to a small squirrel cage fan that blows the fumes out of the garage. The hose and the vent itself are 4" clothes drier. I don't know the CFM of the fan but it will suck the flames up the pipe if I put too much wax in the pot. This works well for casting.

All that being said, I smelt outside and I will open the garage door when it is not hot out.

[Teddy (punchie)]

From what I understand some have already touch on this. Only ways you can get lead into your body is eating it, breathing if boiling ( vapors), or from fine dust ( breathing).

I use fans.

I forgot the one about lead poisoning that the deadliest, being shot.

[Boolseye]

I cast by an open door in my basement, which opens out onto my driveway.
Work bench is right next to the door. I clean up with TSP, I use a piece of plywood on the bench
and in the winter I keep my molds on the woodstove right behind me.

[Dusty Bannister]

My options are limited and I cast in an unheated wood constructed shed. That way there is little chance of condensation on a metal roof dripping in the hot melt. I do have one substantial improvement over just casting inside a crude structure in that I use a casting cabinet. It is about 2 ft wide, about 1 ft deep and perhaps 4 ft tall. I had a piece of scrap plexi-glass on the back of the cabinet so there is sufficient light to see what I am doing. The sides are thin wall paneling and a plywood top. The front is open with a small extended lip on the top front that may or may not help contain any smoke or fumes when fluxing. I placed a piece of plywood on the table saw, the cabinet on the wood, and installed a strong pedistal to hold the various casting furnaces so the nozzle is about elbow height as I cast standing. I installed an exhaust fan in the top (heat rises) and it is ducted via flex aluminum duct under the eves and out the side wall. The exhaust is on the east side of the shed, on the downwind side of the shed as our prevailing winds are generally SW or NW. The exhaust fan is probably one step up from the bathroom fan, and a bit noisy, which helps me to remember to shut the thing off after the pot cools down. The side of the cabinet allows for easy mounting and monitoring of the PID for pot control. The probe can be slipped into a bracket on any of my casting pots and is removed from the melt when a casting session is done while the melt is still liquid.

Since the shed is unheated, I find that when the ambient temp gets down to 40 degrees, the quality of the castings suffer. When the temps in the shed get too hot and humid I suffer. So this arrangement is not for year round, but it does extend the casting seasons throughout the year. This arrangement allows for me to have adequate air exhange in the cabinet for safety, yet does not require that I suck the air out of the entire shed to maintain clean air during a session. That can be helpful in the cold season.

This is the way that I do it, and everyone is responsible for their own safety practices, just as we are all responsible for our reloading and gun handling practices. I enjoy my hobby and want to be able to safely do it for as long as possible. Good luck and stay safe. Dusty

[Kraschenbirn]

When I built the workshop onto my garage, I installed a 20", industrial-type exhaust fan at one end to eliminate smoke, fumes, etc. from the welding bench. Fan is a considerable overkill for the small amount of smoke/fumes from my 20-lb bottom pour so I've never really considered the interior air quality an issue. Prior to building my current shop space, I cast in my basement with the pot underneath a range hood that I'd 'upgraded' by replacing the original rinky-dink fan with a unit from an old-fashioned mainframe computer cabinet vented through a window opening.

Bill

[bob208]

I cast in doors no special fans or filters do it in the winter most of the time. I used to smelt in the basement. did it in the coal furnace that I used to heat the house. all the fumes went up the chimney.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I cast inside the house, 2nd floor, in a room that use to be the kitchen of the upstairs apartment. My bench is next to a window, and I have a fan that I run when I want to cool a mold, but I don't run it all the time. I never flux in the casting pot, in fact I always spoon on a 1/2" layer of dross on the top of the melt, right before I start casting, it insulates the melt and holds the temperature more consistent. No smells.