Can I melt lead?

OUTSIDE!!!

Please stop scaring the potential Darwin Awardees, mike. Well, at least you didn't tell him not to use a food pan to melt it. ;)

70 years ago no-one worried and we did it all the time to make "tin" soldiers etc. On the kitchen gas stove in jam tin. Got the lead from dead car batteries etc. Do the math and see how dangerous that could not have been. l-)

Negligible fumes from lead at simple melting temperature. If you make dust, that's a problem, which is why smelters have scrubbers on their stacks.

'Fumes' means vapor, you can't survive breathing anything as hot as evaporated lead, even if it weren't toxic.

John G on Fri, 03 Jul 2015 15:32:31 +1000 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

OTOH, my brother managed to strip the wax off the kitchen floor when he spilled a quarter pound of molten lead off the stove. Didn't get a drop on him, but we found lead under the fridge when we moved out.

-- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."

JoshAGS on Fri, 03 Jul 2015 03:18:01 +0000 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

Depends on who you talk to. Having melted enough lead to fill a pop can on a gas stove - I'd say an ounce is likely to be no problem. Just don't use the good cookware, and wash your hands afterwards. OTOH, there are those who will react as if you were handling molten plutonium, and insist you follow all the EPA/OSHA/Sierra Club regulations as would applied to M. A. Metal Corporation, or Government Motors.

-- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."

I melt lead all the time indoors. I do have a common range vent hood over the bench. Just grab a small iron or stainless ladle toss in the lead and apply low heat. Once it melts fully pour it into your mold. 1 oz. isn't much lead, what is the final use?

Many years ago we melted lead ingots outside using a propane burner. Probably get jailed for 20 years now for some environmental crime.

We were pouring parts of massive lead shields for gamma ray sensors.

When I was about 8 years old one our neighbors was doing some gold panning. I watched him heating what looked like black sand in a stainless pan over a coleman stove out in the driveway. I couldn't figure out how he could melt gold from sand. Even though I was so young I knew metals needed to get red hot to melt and he wasn't getting the pan red hot. I asked my dad about it and he had no idea of what our neighbor was doing. Years later I realized he was probably cooking off the mercury he used to get the gold dust from the sand. Eric

I wouldn't do it where food is prepared, and I'd make sure to wash my hands afterwards. But as you can see, opinions vary.

You can melt an ounce of lead with really simple tools -- I'm not sure that you could do it with a Bic lighter, but I know from experience you can do it with a small alcohol burner. A propane torch, a tin can, and a pair of pliers would certainly be enough to do the deed.

Lead toxicity is a cumulative thing. If you're only going to do it once in your life then you could probably roll in lead powder and come out OK. OTOH, if you're working with lead day in and day out then you need to pay attention to toxicity.

Everyone stop freaking out? I'm only melting an ounce of lead in a small skillet I bought for melting zinc. I'm only going to melt lead once in my life and this is only a small amount. I'm melting it for display so I can put it in my element collection.

Have you ever done any electronic/electrical soldering? You are melting an alloy of lead and tin to do that. (Yes, a bit lower temperature than the melting point of pure lead -- or of pure tin -- but considering how much electronics soldering I've done over the years, no worry.

Melting pure lead I did as a kid outdoors - because there was no safe place to do it indoors -- from the hazards of spills, not from fumes.

You are using a small enough quantity so it is no worry.

Just wash your hands after doing this before conveying anything to your mouth. (Again, not really a problem for a single event, but for regular practice, yes.)

For that matter -- if you cast bullets, there is an electric pot which will melt lead on your workbench, and squirt it into molds as you lift a lever. Again -- no problem other than wash your hands after using it.

Good Luck, DoN.

We have to be careful of what we commit to the permanent record.

The walls have ears.

No problem. Get a pan that you will throw away. And keep the temp low - just melting it and then some. Borax will do as a flux and keep the fumes down. Keeping it cool - not over heated - will prevent fumes.

Hot plates outside is better. Be up wind and don't let it get over heated.

It should be done outside on a camp stove or BBQ. I use my furnace when I have pounds of it to melt. Then, it is a alloy of metals for a friend... :-)

Mart> I was wondering if it's okay to melt a small amount of lead on my stove.

My best is having a live primer somehow getting into the boolit reject can then pouring the rejects into the melt pot. I still have lead spots on the ceiling and not a speck got on me. I check everything that goes in the pot very carefully.

You will die no doubt...just not from Lead poisoning. But, it might rip a hole in the space/time continuum and destroy the Universe

Lead oxide is the toxic thing to avoid, the white part of the dross that comes from smelting lead. Clean up after and dispose of any waste products responsibly.

Bbut, I thought you were registered Demonrat. ;)

Take it from me, guys. Gunner isn't too awfully dain bramaged after all that lead work.

Had a friend melting down pewter ware. Didn't know about the hollow handle - big splash of pewter all over the basement.

Oh, and I once notices something odd about the 303 round - primer was inserted backwards.

-- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."