Exhaust fan for casting

[Fixxah]

Just got home from HD after trying to find a solution for lead fumes etc. in my casting area and they didn't have anything competitively priced. All I need is a small fan and some smoke pipe to vent my casting furnace.

If someone has an idea I'm all ears. I don't want to spend hundreds on this small project.

 

[BillK]

A used range hood would work

 

[BIG GUN]

A rotary type blower with some type of hood like intake and a metal dryer vent hose would do the trick. I have thought about doing this for 50+ years, but never got around to it, so I must be brain dead by now.
They do have blower booster systems for hot air heating, that go down to 6 inch at least.

 

[Another_David]

"Duct Fans" on http://www.mcmaster.com/ , page 639, axial boosters. Shipping from NJ it'll be here next day by UPS ground, which is very reasonably priced. Don't use 'duct tape', buy metal foil tape for ducts.

You'll want the fan nearest to the wall so the duct is all under vacuum and not under pressure, which can cause leakage back in to the room. Ideally the fan intake will be positioned such that the fumes are drawn away away from you. Often people make the mistake of putting the fume hood above their head but that draws the fumes up past you mouth, which is what you're trying to avoid.

 

[center442]

A used range hood would work

Exactly what I've been using for the last 20 years. Bought a cheap range hood, used a dryer vent tube and exited through the side of the house.

Cheap and works fine.

 

[curlymaple42]

I asked the guy who made all the fishing weights for a tackle shop I worked at what he used for ventilation given his working with melted lead all the time. He scoffed at me and explained that the lead does not vaporize, which would be the problem if you heated it a lot hotter than the melting point that bullet and weight casters use. So what he was saying I guess is that any fumes that are floating around are not vaporized lead, so don't worry about that. Breathing in any fumes other than nice clean oxygen of course probably isn't a great thing, but I don't think lead is the issue. Also, the people at NorthEast Bullet didn't have some elaborate ventilation either when I visited a few yrs ago and they were producing thousands of bullets a day!!! More of an issue there likely was the moly dust that was on everything, as they tumble the bullets in moly.

I don't think it is a bad idea to ventilate, don't get me wrong, but also don't freak out. Hell, my dadinlaw and his dad both stuck their whole arms in asbestos powder and mixed water into it to slather on furnaces a long time ago and both of them are still alive and doing great! See what THAT scare did? Basically cost a ton of money for businesses and municipalities because a tiny fraction of the pop. had issues with it. When was the last time you had peanuts on a frigging plane? Can your kids bring chocolate cookies or anything containing nuts to school anymore? Hell, can they even BRING food for anyone in the class anymore???

Sorry, rant. We're raising sensitive sissy's these days. Take your kid out and roll 'em around in the woods for a while this afternoon. Toughen 'em up. heehee...

 

[EddieCoyle]

I asked the guy who made all the fishing weights for a tackle shop I worked at what he used for ventilation given his working with melted lead all the time. He scoffed at me and explained that the lead does not vaporize, which would be the problem if you heated it a lot hotter than the melting point that bullet and weight casters use. So what he was saying I guess is that any fumes that are floating around are not vaporized lead, so don't worry about that. Breathing in any fumes other than nice clean oxygen of course probably isn't a great thing, but I don't think lead is the issue. Also, the people at NorthEast Bullet didn't have some elaborate ventilation either when I visited a few yrs ago and they were producing thousands of bullets a day!!! More of an issue there likely was the moly dust that was on everything, as they tumble the bullets in moly.

I don't think it is a bad idea to ventilate, don't get me wrong, but also don't freak out. Hell, my dadinlaw and his dad both stuck their whole arms in asbestos powder and mixed water into it to slather on furnaces a long time ago and both of them are still alive and doing great! See what THAT scare did? Basically cost a ton of money for businesses and municipalities because a tiny fraction of the pop. had issues with it. When was the last time you had peanuts on a frigging plane? Can your kids bring chocolate cookies or anything containing nuts to school anymore? Hell, can they even BRING food for anyone in the class anymore???

Sorry, rant. We're raising sensitive sissy's these days. Take your kid out and roll 'em around in the woods for a while this afternoon. Toughen 'em up. heehee...

This is astoundingly bad advice.

I think your friend has been breathing too much lead. You don't have to boil lead to produce lead vapor. A certain amount of it is produced simply by heating it (not even to its melting point). Forgive me if I trust a century+ of medical research over your sinker-making buddy.

Also, just because you know a couple of people that worked with asbestos and didn't get sick doesn't mean that asbestosis isn't real. I have a friend that died from it and he was no "sissy", believe me.

 

[Dick]

You don't have to boil lead to produce lead vapor. A certain amount of it is produced simply by heating it (not even to its melting point).

+1 I suppose next he'll be trying to convince us that water doesn't evaporate if you don't heat it too much.

And you could ask Steve McQueen about mesothelioma, or at least you could if it hadn't killed him.

 

[curlymaple42]

Glad I riled things up a bit here.

I never meant that having an adverse reaction to asbestos means your a wimp. I was going off on a tangent there. But a lot of these things effect some people because they have a reduced immunity to them for some reason or another (not necessarily talking about lead or anything in particular, just a generalization). We have friends who have an autistic son. Well they blame the whole thing on mercury being in the vaccinations. Sure, mercury being in vaccinations is confoundedly stupid, but the reason he became autistic was because unlike millions of other children, he had some sort of reaction to the mercury and it developed autism. The parents have even admitted that the dad has some small symptoms of autism, although they were so minor it has not had an y real negative effect on his life style. His son however is VERY effected. So you see, for SOME things, it will only adversly effect a very small population. Shoudl they keep using mercury in vaccinations? Hell no! Should they use asbestos in new construction? Hell no! Should they encapsulate asbestos pipes rather than spend tons of money ripping them out? Hell yes! Should you ventilate when you work with lead regardless of the temperature you heat it to? Sure. I make sure my wife and I have ventilation whenwe solder stained glass even though the only fumes are from the flux. I did notice that most of the solder now is lead free though, and it also is about triple the price it was a year ago!!!

Hey Eddie, I got my friend's Young America Bull Dog here right now! VERY tight action. Only issue at all is the chrome plating is peeling off in a few places.

 

[Another_David]

Should they encapsulate asbestos pipes rather than spend tons of money ripping them out? Hell yes!

Are you the same person that left the underground storage tank in their backyard rather than rip it out? My uncle did that in the 80s and years later after he passed away it cost my aunt big money. No one would buy the house until it was removed. Asbestos is the same way. Removal and disposal costs will only go up and it's not going to last forever.

 

[Dick]

Glad I riled things up a bit here.

I never meant that having an adverse reaction to asbestos means your a wimp. I was going off on a tangent there. But a lot of these things effect some people because they have a reduced immunity to them for some reason or another (not necessarily talking about lead or anything in particular, just a generalization). We have friends who have an autistic son. Well they blame the whole thing on mercury being in the vaccinations. Sure, mercury being in vaccinations is confoundedly stupid, but the reason he became autistic was because unlike millions of other children, he had some sort of reaction to the mercury and it developed autism. The parents have even admitted that the dad has some small symptoms of autism, although they were so minor it has not had an y real negative effect on his life style. His son however is VERY effected. So you see, for SOME things, it will only adversly effect a very small population. Shoudl they keep using mercury in vaccinations? Hell no! Should they use asbestos in new construction? Hell no! Should they encapsulate asbestos pipes rather than spend tons of money ripping them out? Hell yes! Should you ventilate when you work with lead regardless of the temperature you heat it to? Sure. I make sure my wife and I have ventilation whenwe solder stained glass even though the only fumes are from the flux. I did notice that most of the solder now is lead free though, and it also is about triple the price it was a year ago!!!

Hey Eddie, I got my friend's Young America Bull Dog here right now! VERY tight action. Only issue at all is the chrome plating is peeling off in a few places.

Two comments:

1. I doubt that many would term death due to asbestosis and/or mesothelioma as "having an adverse reaction to asbestos."

2. I have a severely autistic nephew, and am reasonably familiar with the epidemiological literature concerning the alleged link between thimerosal as a preservative in vaccines and autism. There is no clinical evidence whatsoever between the two, anecdotal evidence on internet blogs notwithstanding.

That said, I appreciate your clarification that you do, in fact, use proper ventilation when working with molten lead. To do otherwise would be foolish, and to recommend that others do otherwise would be irresponsible.