DiscoRacing
New member
Hmmm....I missed that one appearantly..
....But I have cast and ate at the same time.
..I guess its another one of the ,,,could happen,,things that I dont worry about.
Bullet casting wannabe
- Thread starter shooter_john
- Start date
....But I have cast and ate at the same time.
..I guess its another one of the ,,,could happen,,things that I dont worry about.
AlaskaMike
New member
I get my blood tested regularly since I started casting, and the only time my lead level spiked was just after I got stupid during a smelting session (melting raw wheel weights into clean ingots) and was drinking a cup of coffee while doing it. My level only spiked to 19 mg/dl, and my doctor told me that the normal range is 0 - 20. 6 months later it dropped to 3. During that time I continued casting and loading, but the difference was that I didn't eat or drink anything while doing it.
The way I look at the dangers of lead is much the same way I look at the dangers of firearms in general--yeah, you can blow a hole in your foot if you point a loaded gun at it and pull the trigger. Thankfully, one can easily avoid blowing a hole in one's foot by not doing that. It all boils down to one thing most of us learned in kindergarten--don't do stupid stuff!
Also, don't take everything you read in American Rifleman as gospel. They recently referred to Elmer Keith as "...an obscure gun writer who achieved a small amount of notoriety in the 1940's and 1950's." Also, just because a guy who casts bullets from wheel weight alloy might have a higher blood lead level than a guy who only casts using commercially produced ingots, that doesn't mean wheel weights are inherently more toxic. I certainly haven't read the article, but if they drew that conclusion based solely on that criteria, then the author was a moron. Consider that maybe wheel weight casters are like most of us--hobbyists--and casters using commercial ingots might be more technical and detail-oriented who might be a little more careful. I'm not saying that's always the case, but you have to be careful of a lot of the "studies" out there.
The way I look at the dangers of lead is much the same way I look at the dangers of firearms in general--yeah, you can blow a hole in your foot if you point a loaded gun at it and pull the trigger. Thankfully, one can easily avoid blowing a hole in one's foot by not doing that. It all boils down to one thing most of us learned in kindergarten--don't do stupid stuff!
Also, don't take everything you read in American Rifleman as gospel. They recently referred to Elmer Keith as "...an obscure gun writer who achieved a small amount of notoriety in the 1940's and 1950's." Also, just because a guy who casts bullets from wheel weight alloy might have a higher blood lead level than a guy who only casts using commercially produced ingots, that doesn't mean wheel weights are inherently more toxic. I certainly haven't read the article, but if they drew that conclusion based solely on that criteria, then the author was a moron. Consider that maybe wheel weight casters are like most of us--hobbyists--and casters using commercial ingots might be more technical and detail-oriented who might be a little more careful. I'm not saying that's always the case, but you have to be careful of a lot of the "studies" out there.
IllinoisCoyoteHunter
New member
Elmer Kieth???? Never even heard of the guy... 
AlaskaMike
New member
And very ironic too, considering that it was in American Rifleman that he got his first article published.
To be fair, the person posting about the danger of casting with wheel weights , did not specify lead. He warned of heavy metals (arsenic, antimony). I do not have any proof that is a problem, but he did not post the article with the study (so we could evaluate if the "study" had scientific merit), either.
If it is a problem, I do not care and will continue to cast using wheel weights...I have been exposed to every toxin known to man in my 67 years and am not going to worry about just wheel weights.
I give what Edward has stated some merrit, due to the fact that some one casting bullets is more than likely a reloader. One could absorb heavy metals more so than say a plumber soldering pipe due to the fact that reloaders are constantly handling spent brass. Decapping, tumbling, sorting, and all of the other general fooling around that the prep. work requires. Where you would be exposed to those metals in left over priming compounds. I worry more about exposure to a batch of dusty tumbling media than I ever would worry about lead poisoning from casting. Your melt would have to be to vaporizing temperatures to absorb lead threw casting. And as others have said, don't lick the pot or the spoon.
maillemaker
New member
Welcome to casting! I just did my first batch tonight.
I hit all the local tire stores and found one that sold me 22 pounds of wheel weights for $5.
About the only expensive thing you will want to get is a metal thermometer. The problem is that not all wheel weights are lead - some are steel, some are ZINC. The problem with the zinc ones is that if you get your lead too hot the zinc ones will melt too and contaminate your lead. With a thermometer you can make sure you don't get close to the melting point of zinc (787 degrees F). The melting temperature of lead is 621.43 degrees F.
For melting, I use a dutch oven someone gave me for free. Obviously it can never be used for food ever again. I use a propane burner for heat. You can get cheap ones from Harbor Freight (http://www.harborfreight.com/dual-burner-propane-stove-35559.html). You can also use a Coleman stove. You probably do not want to melt your raw weights in your production pot that you use for actually making bullets.
As your lead melts, the steel brackets of the wheel weights, plus any wheel weights that are not lead, will float on top of the molten lead. Take a slotted stainless steel spoon ($3 from Walmart) and use it to skim off the crap. Once all the big crap is out, toss in a marble-sized chunk of old candle wax into the pot and stir well. Skim off the dross.
You will want to buy a stainless steel ladle ($3 from Walmart), and a mini-muffin pan. Don't get the full-sized muffin pan as the ingots made from them may not fit in your production pot. The mini-muffin pans work great. Make certain the muffin pan you get is not tin plated - the ingots will alloy to the tin and not come out of the pan! I got one from Walmart for about $5.
Use the ladle to ladle the molten lead into the muffin pan. When it cools, dump them out and you have nice little ingots of lead.
I'm using 2-bullet Lee molds, and they work nice. Be sure to follow the directions on sooting the cavities with a flame and lubricating with silicone lubricant.
You can use a standard pot and a ladle to put lead into your molds, but I like the bottom-pour pot I got from Lee. It's a 20-pound pot. Bottom pour is nice because it pours lead from the bottom of the pot, which avoids the dross that collects on the surface. Plus it's a more hands-free operation - you just stick the mold under the pot, lift up on the valve handle and out comes a precise rivulet of molten lead until you release the handle.
I hit all the local tire stores and found one that sold me 22 pounds of wheel weights for $5.
About the only expensive thing you will want to get is a metal thermometer. The problem is that not all wheel weights are lead - some are steel, some are ZINC. The problem with the zinc ones is that if you get your lead too hot the zinc ones will melt too and contaminate your lead. With a thermometer you can make sure you don't get close to the melting point of zinc (787 degrees F). The melting temperature of lead is 621.43 degrees F.
For melting, I use a dutch oven someone gave me for free. Obviously it can never be used for food ever again. I use a propane burner for heat. You can get cheap ones from Harbor Freight (http://www.harborfreight.com/dual-burner-propane-stove-35559.html). You can also use a Coleman stove. You probably do not want to melt your raw weights in your production pot that you use for actually making bullets.
As your lead melts, the steel brackets of the wheel weights, plus any wheel weights that are not lead, will float on top of the molten lead. Take a slotted stainless steel spoon ($3 from Walmart) and use it to skim off the crap. Once all the big crap is out, toss in a marble-sized chunk of old candle wax into the pot and stir well. Skim off the dross.
You will want to buy a stainless steel ladle ($3 from Walmart), and a mini-muffin pan. Don't get the full-sized muffin pan as the ingots made from them may not fit in your production pot. The mini-muffin pans work great. Make certain the muffin pan you get is not tin plated - the ingots will alloy to the tin and not come out of the pan!
I got one from Walmart for about $5.Use the ladle to ladle the molten lead into the muffin pan. When it cools, dump them out and you have nice little ingots of lead.
I'm using 2-bullet Lee molds, and they work nice. Be sure to follow the directions on sooting the cavities with a flame and lubricating with silicone lubricant.
You can use a standard pot and a ladle to put lead into your molds, but I like the bottom-pour pot I got from Lee. It's a 20-pound pot. Bottom pour is nice because it pours lead from the bottom of the pot, which avoids the dross that collects on the surface. Plus it's a more hands-free operation - you just stick the mold under the pot, lift up on the valve handle and out comes a precise rivulet of molten lead until you release the handle.
IllinoisCoyoteHunter
New member
Yeah... or my grandpa who has a 12 ga slug busted in 3 pieces still floating around in his body by his hip that has been there for over 25 years...
Sucks when you pull someone over for running a stop sign and you didn't know that they had just murdered their girlfriend...
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