Been wanting one of these!

pontiac428 said:
I know how well lead hammers work in the machine shop, but is it really worth it in exchange for leaving lead residue all over the shop? Lead oxide is a fine powder, great for inhalation or sticking to hands and fingers, transferring from hand to door knob to light switch, where your kids can pick it up and expose themselves to it...

We don't use Lead, asbestos, PCBs, 1,1,2-trichloroethane, or ethylene oxide anymore, even they are the very BEST chemicals for doing their job in existence. If they're the best performers, then why are they banned? Because they are highly freaking toxic, that's why. Either too toxic or too hard to control to be managed safely in the workplace. Lead, with all its uses, has largely been replaced with safer substitutes. Leaded solder isn't so bad because my soldering iron falls at least 300C short of vaporizing lead, but my work surface is hotter than a meteorite and my family keeps coming up hot for lead on blood tests... see, not worth it.

Nice museum piece, curious curiosity, conversation piece, whatever. But tool? I'll pass. Lead has 82 electrons, that's spooky. Nothing else that heavy enters the blood stream. It doesn't belong there.
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I hear ya. Definitely good to be cautious when handling this stuff. I do a lot of bullet casting. Actually a lot of bullet casting and my wife has a stained glass business where she uses a lot of lead. We thought that we'd have some "on board" so at our last quarterly blood letting we asked them to look for lead. Oddly enough neither of us had any at all.

Again I'm not disagreeing with you and appreciate your concern. Folks should be careful when handling this stuff but so far so good .
 
Smart move to get tested. You wouldn't believe some of the elevated blood lead levels I've seen, especially in children. Many people don't know where they picked it up, but the culprit is usually not far away.

Nobody wants to be told by some know it all on a forum that their project is shady, so I won't take it personal if you won't. Just be smart.

Edit: I once had an analytical chemistry lab that could not do analysis on lead, because the background was too high. They eventually gave up. I took a walk down the hall past the lab, and found an office had a 20 lb lead slug that they were using as a door stop. Contamination was at hazardous levels throughout the building. Problem solved!

I had another shop that had high lead contamination in a break room (where they ate food). My lazer-calibrated eyes (and some laboratory help) determined the lead ballast blocks used for certifying lifting equipment was bare, no paint or coating. Workers were walking past these, which were ejecting lead oxide from their surfaces like popcorn out of a kettle, all over the floor. The lead dust tracked right into the break room from there.
 
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pontiac428 said:
Smart move to get tested. You wouldn't believe some of the elevated blood lead levels I've seen, especially in children. Many people don't know where they picked it up, but the culprit is usually not far away.

Nobody wants to be told by some know it all on a forum that their project is shady, so I won't take it personal if you won't. Just be smart.

Edit: I once had an analytical chemistry lab that could not do analysis on lead, because the background was too high. They eventually gave up. I tool a walk down the hall past the lab, and found an office had a 20 lb lead slug that they were using as a door stop. Contamination was at hazardous levels throughout the building. Problem solved!
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Nope, no hard feelings here man.
 
pontiac428 said:
I know how well lead hammers work in the machine shop, but is it really worth it in exchange for leaving lead residue all over the shop? Lead oxide is a fine powder, great for inhalation or sticking to hands and fingers, transferring from hand to door knob to light switch, where your kids can pick it up and expose themselves to it...

We don't use Lead, asbestos, PCBs, 1,1,2-trichloroethane, or ethylene oxide anymore, even they are the very BEST chemicals for doing their job in existence. If they're the best performers, then why are they banned? Because they are highly freaking toxic, that's why. Either too toxic or too hard to control to be managed safely in the workplace. Lead, with all its uses, has largely been replaced with safer substitutes. Leaded solder isn't so bad because my soldering iron falls at least 300C short of vaporizing lead, but my work surface is hotter than a meteorite and my family keeps coming up hot for lead on blood tests... see, not worth it.

Nice museum piece, curious curiosity, conversation piece, whatever. But tool? I'll pass. Lead has 82 electrons, that's spooky. Nothing else that heavy enters the blood stream. It doesn't belong there.
Click to expand...
I have come up 'hot' on lead tests too, but in my case the cause was reloading and more specifically dry-tumbling my brass indoors. After coming up high (but not perilously so) I got a couple lead test kits and tested all over - the dust from my (walnut) tumbling media was clearly the problem. I cleaned everything with "Led Dsolv" which converts the lead oxide to some other compound which is supposed harmless. (TSP will also convert lead oxide to something else, but there is some preliminary data showing that the conversion product isn't that great either...) Then I switched to dustless wet tumbling.
I still use a lead 'knocker' for a lot of things, and I still get my lead levels checked annually, I've been well in the safe zone since that initial foray.

In any case, I suggest that anyone handling lead at all ask for a lead level test during their annual physical. It cost me nothing extra and let's me know that my precautions are working.

GsT
 
GeneT45 said:
I have come up 'hot' on lead tests too, but in my case the cause was reloading and more specifically dry-tumbling my brass indoors. After coming up high (but not perilously so) I got a couple lead test kits and tested all over - the dust from my (walnut) tumbling media was clearly the problem. I cleaned everything with "Led Dsolv" which converts the lead oxide to some other compound which is supposed harmless. (TSP will also convert lead oxide to something else, but there is some preliminary data showing that the conversion product isn't that great either...) Then I switched to dustless wet tumbling.
I still use a lead 'knocker' for a lot of things, and I still get my lead levels checked annually, I've been well in the safe zone since that initial foray.

In any case, I suggest that anyone handling lead at all ask for a lead level test during their annual physical. It cost me nothing extra and let's me know that my precautions are working.

GsT
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What do you tumble in now?
 
I also quit dry tumbling, at least for pistol. Low-volume rifle I do still, but I am trying to get away from it. A friend of mine came in with an EBL (elevated blood lead) and switched to wet drum tumbling, and his problem went away. I try to be the most cautious when decapping, wet wiping so I don't leave accumulations. The lead source in ammunition is lead azide/lead styphanate. It goes out the barrel in a poof every time you pull the trigger. The projectiles (if plated or jacketed) are safe to handle, it's the impact site where they explode into pieces that is a projectile lead hazard. All other firearms related lead exposures can be attributed to primers. Others have proven it, and I have proven it for my institution in papers and funded studies. It's just that most folks think lead exposure in shooting comes from the bullets. The stuff is freaking pervasive!

Yes, I used to hold split shot in my mouth when fishing too. I just don't anymore.
 
Just had a thought. Wonder if you could pour brass or another non-marring metal in that mold. Sure would be easier than sand casting.
 
motormech1 said:
Just had a thought. Wonder if you could pour brass or another non-marring metal in that mold. Sure would be easier than sand casting.
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Probably get away with brass a couple of times but it'd probably kill it. There is a guy on YouTube that poured babbitt.
 
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