paulvallandigham
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- Joined
- Jan 9, 2006
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Once again, your education and instincts are WRONG!
Lead is NOT hazardous to deal with. It takes some common sense; that is all.
You want to wash your hands off with soap and water when you finish handling lead. You want to handle lead externally- no putting lead balls in your mouth like you saw Fess Parker do in a Disney Movie! :shocked2:
YOu can keep lead balls from oxidizing by coating them with any spray can of oil. That allow you to be touching the oil, and not actually contacting the lead at all.
As for casting: Lead melts about 650 degrees F. It has to be heated much hotter before it becomes gaseous, where breathing in the lead gas can be toxic to you. No, don't be so stupid as to put your face right over a pot of molten lead. The heat coming up will burn you rather quickly. But, you are not going to be poisoned by the heat, or the molten lead. The lead cools very quickly when cast. Literally hundreds of thousands of shooters in this country cast their own bullets or balls for one gun or another.
You want to cast in a well ventilated area- outside in a garage, or shed, with doors and/or windows open to remove the HEAT and any gases created by the melting. If you still are concerned about breathing in lead fumes, then wear a simple styrofoam mask, which you can buy at any Hardware or Paint store, to cover your mouth.
When you finish casting, most people change clothes and shower- to remove any lead dust that might get on their clothes, skin, and hair. With those precautions, you can cast every day of the week, and not worry about lead poisoning.
Don't be confusing lead toxicity issues for INFANTS with that for adults. Lead is stored in fatty tissue, and in infants, the brain has a lot of undeveloped fatty tissue. That is why lead paint was banned: it was more politically correct to ban the product than to expect low income parents to actually clean their homes, remove chipped paint, and watch their infant children to make sure the children were not eating bits of lead paint, which taste sweet.
In adults your liver and kidneys removed heavy metals from your blood stream all the time, and discharge it through the lower bowel.
I have a friend who was a Range instructor at our local police academy. When they were all tested for lead levels in their blood, he was over the accepted limit, as were all the range officers, and firearms trainers. He was reassigned to class room teaching, the Range was remodeled to provide for air flow( fans) to reduce and expel the lead and powder gases that come out of guns when they are fired( Most of the lead comes not from the bullets, but from the primers: The mixture used has since been changed). My friends lead levels were checked monthly for the next year, and a year later, his level was back down to normal limits. He suffered no permanent ill effects, and went on with his career as an Associate Professor of Police Training until his retirement. He got involved with computer training programs, and distant learning, so that he never did another tour on the range, but he certainly could have if he wanted to do so. The same drop in blood lead levels occurred with all the other instructors who were taken off range duty, and assigned to classrooms.
So, lead toxicity is Not a problem for adults- only infants. Virtually all the old buildings that had lead paint in them in the 1950s, have either been torn down, or had the lead paint removed over the past 50 years. Occassionally, we find a rural farm house that has passed down through a single family that still has evidence of old lead paint under several layers of new paint, but the new paint also prevents the older paints from being a hazard, until those old paint layers are exposed during remodeling. I have a client who bought a Victorian Age house in a rural area, and he and his wife gutted the structure and then remodeled it for their home. They wore masks, and overalls, and took great care in vacuuming up dust throughout the house during the demolition phase. Then they spray washed the ceilings and walls and floors to get all the dust that might have been clinging to the structures before installing wiring, insulation, and finally Gypsum board( wallboard). They reported having more trouble getting rid of the mold and mildew than the lead paint.
Lead is NOT hazardous to deal with. It takes some common sense; that is all.
You want to wash your hands off with soap and water when you finish handling lead. You want to handle lead externally- no putting lead balls in your mouth like you saw Fess Parker do in a Disney Movie! :shocked2:
YOu can keep lead balls from oxidizing by coating them with any spray can of oil. That allow you to be touching the oil, and not actually contacting the lead at all.
As for casting: Lead melts about 650 degrees F. It has to be heated much hotter before it becomes gaseous, where breathing in the lead gas can be toxic to you. No, don't be so stupid as to put your face right over a pot of molten lead. The heat coming up will burn you rather quickly. But, you are not going to be poisoned by the heat, or the molten lead. The lead cools very quickly when cast. Literally hundreds of thousands of shooters in this country cast their own bullets or balls for one gun or another.
You want to cast in a well ventilated area- outside in a garage, or shed, with doors and/or windows open to remove the HEAT and any gases created by the melting. If you still are concerned about breathing in lead fumes, then wear a simple styrofoam mask, which you can buy at any Hardware or Paint store, to cover your mouth.
When you finish casting, most people change clothes and shower- to remove any lead dust that might get on their clothes, skin, and hair. With those precautions, you can cast every day of the week, and not worry about lead poisoning.
Don't be confusing lead toxicity issues for INFANTS with that for adults. Lead is stored in fatty tissue, and in infants, the brain has a lot of undeveloped fatty tissue. That is why lead paint was banned: it was more politically correct to ban the product than to expect low income parents to actually clean their homes, remove chipped paint, and watch their infant children to make sure the children were not eating bits of lead paint, which taste sweet.
In adults your liver and kidneys removed heavy metals from your blood stream all the time, and discharge it through the lower bowel.
I have a friend who was a Range instructor at our local police academy. When they were all tested for lead levels in their blood, he was over the accepted limit, as were all the range officers, and firearms trainers. He was reassigned to class room teaching, the Range was remodeled to provide for air flow( fans) to reduce and expel the lead and powder gases that come out of guns when they are fired( Most of the lead comes not from the bullets, but from the primers: The mixture used has since been changed). My friends lead levels were checked monthly for the next year, and a year later, his level was back down to normal limits. He suffered no permanent ill effects, and went on with his career as an Associate Professor of Police Training until his retirement. He got involved with computer training programs, and distant learning, so that he never did another tour on the range, but he certainly could have if he wanted to do so. The same drop in blood lead levels occurred with all the other instructors who were taken off range duty, and assigned to classrooms.
So, lead toxicity is Not a problem for adults- only infants. Virtually all the old buildings that had lead paint in them in the 1950s, have either been torn down, or had the lead paint removed over the past 50 years. Occassionally, we find a rural farm house that has passed down through a single family that still has evidence of old lead paint under several layers of new paint, but the new paint also prevents the older paints from being a hazard, until those old paint layers are exposed during remodeling. I have a client who bought a Victorian Age house in a rural area, and he and his wife gutted the structure and then remodeled it for their home. They wore masks, and overalls, and took great care in vacuuming up dust throughout the house during the demolition phase. Then they spray washed the ceilings and walls and floors to get all the dust that might have been clinging to the structures before installing wiring, insulation, and finally Gypsum board( wallboard). They reported having more trouble getting rid of the mold and mildew than the lead paint.
