dangers of lead

[Frontierman01]

Since I know some of you guys make your own lead balls to shoot. I was curious if you guys take safety precautions, since there are dangers associated with lead. or is the exposure not enough to do any harm?

[William]

There is some concerns with the fumes, or really the smoke that comes off the lead pot when adding flux, like beeswax and you don't want to handle the dross.  Simply have a fan blowing across the melting pot if you are a semi-enclosed area, like a garage with the door open. I would not be doing any casting inside a home or similar building, mostly because of the fire hazard.  Lead is not actually the toxic menace that environuts or the state of Kalifornia make it out to be.  Unless it has a white powder on it (lead oxide) then handling lead is fairly safe and it's not going to be absorbed into your bloodstream.
In fact, the ban on lead ammo in areas where condors are found was based on nothing more than hearsay and junk science. There was no evidence whatsoever that the condors or any other animals feeding on the gut piles left over from harvested deer, hogs or elk were ingesting lead fragments and dying of lead poisoning.

[old salt]

I do my casting out side on what serves as my patio. If you try it my way make sure the weather clear and no chance of rain. Water and lead DO NOT MIX. A very small amount of water dropped into the hot lead will cause
an explosion
BE CAEFUL.

[hotfxr]

I always melt lead outside, under cover. It will also help if you don't try to sniff it up when you are mixing and melting. I don't know that from personal experience, I read it somewhere. I can almost agree to no lead shotgun shells for duck hunting, but if scavengers were going to sicken & die from ingesting the minuscule lead fragments that may be left in a gut pile, all of them would have died from ingesting rocks, sticks, and bone fragments long ago and they would be extinct. So glad I live in a state that takes the burden of thinking for myself away from me. 

[William]

That's just it Hotfxr, no evidence was ever produced to even show that there was ever any shards or minute pieces of lead in these gut piles, how much there was or even where they were. (The gut piles that is).
My point is that you are more at risk of burning yourself or setting something else on fire casting round ball or anything else from molten lead than ingesting any either in the smoke or simply touching it.

[DandJofAZ]

Only times lead has harmed me It was either spilled/dropped hot and I got in the way Or it was out of somebody else's gun and I was in front of it... Do use ventilation when casting....
Doug

[Patocazador]

My BIL had a severe case of lead poisoning that gave him tremors and affected his hearing. But it wasn't from casting lead. It was from scraping off the old paint on his house that was built around 1900.

Never allow your kids to get close when you're casting balls, it can cause a marked increase in learning disorders in children. It has been shown to decrease a child's IQ by about 10-15 points.

[Frontierman01]

thanks for the responses. at this point, I have enough lead balls to last me for awhile. but should I ever have the inclination to try it. where do you get your lead from? I was thinking I've got a bunch of lead sinkers that I use for fishing. would that suffice, or do you need special stuff. Thanks again

[hotfxr]

Bought a lot off of Ebay (ingots) when California banned lead ammo. Averaged $1.50 per pound. Picked up a lot almost free from garage sales, mostly fishing weights, and let everyone know that I was looking for it and was given quite a bit. Right now I have just under 850 pounds and am picking up 200 pounds more from a friend that is going lead free. Just kicking back waiting for the lead police to come knocking.     My little smelter just cannot keep up with my (double) one pound cannon ball mold so I have been using a thrift store cast iron pouring pot and the burner from an old turkey fryer.     Melts more at a time and stays hot longer so I get smoother cannon balls. And everyone knows that smooth balls go faster and longer.    Sheesh, I can't believe I said that.


Handy tip: Make sure you have some kind of ladle and when the lead is in liquid form, drop in a couple of pea sized pieces of paraffin wax and as soon as the flame burns out give it a stir and then scrap the crusty stuff off the top and dump it. That is dirt and crud that will mess your casting day up big time.
Good luck and be sure to report back with progress or problems.

[bmtshooter]

How about the most dangerous chemical on the planet?  Just look at how many deaths there are per year due to overexposure to WATER.  It is hard to believe that folks are allowed to have containers of it in their yards that hold thousands of gallons of it ...... almost completely unregulated !!!   

Handling lead, just like getting into a swimming pool requires certain safety measures to be followed.  Without a safety mindset, either can be deadly.  Handle with care and you will enjoy years of casting fun.

[Hanshi]

I've noticed that exposure to lead has killed every deer I've shot with it.  I cast in my basement and open the outside door and sometimes plug in the fan.  Been casting for over 50 years, now.

[hotfxr]

I've noticed that exposure to lead has killed every deer I've shot with it.  I cast in my basement and open the outside door and sometimes plug in the fan.  Been casting for over 50 years, now.

Now that does answer some lingering questions we all have had about you, Sensei.   

[Dogshirt]

I've noticed that exposure to lead has killed every deer I've shot with it.  I cast in my basement and open the outside door and sometimes plug in the fan.  Been casting for over 50 years, now.

Now that does answer some lingering questions we all have had about you, Sensei.   

[William]

thanks for the responses. at this point, I have enough lead balls to last me for awhile. but should I ever have the inclination to try it. where do you get your lead from? I was thinking I've got a bunch of lead sinkers that I use for fishing. would that suffice, or do you need special stuff. Thanks again

That depends on how old your lead stinkers are as just like wheel weights, lead is being phased out or mixed with other metals like zinc. Kalifornia managed to terrify a large percentage of our nation's population into thinking lead was plutonium in disguise and would cause mutations and spontaneous abortions by just looking at it. Sinkers may or may not be 100% lead and for muzzleloader projectiles you want pure, dead soft lead. Roofing vents, the pipes that stick out, are sometimes pure lead themselves but the way they are sealed and secured in place is with lead plates. Roofers will sometimes give you these plates for free if they are re-roofing an older house. Someone here has to have a picture of these they can post so you can see what I am referring to. Dead soft lead is easily scratched by a thumbnail but there are hardness testers that are more accurate. There are folks here that might sell you some ingots for the cost of shipping, just post what you want in the wanted section. Rotometals is a great place to get lead and other metals but shipping is what costs you. Also keep in mind that your melting pot is only so big and while 20 pound ingots may seem like a saving over the 5 pounders, you will have to take a hacksaw to them in order to have a small enough piece for your pot.
There are places like Turkey Foot Traders that sell smaller bars of lead that will yield 20 round balls or so, depending on the caliber for casting on a trek. Check them out and maybe also pick up a bag mold from Callahan.

[beowulf]

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