Do I throw the mercury away too?Folks used to use mercury to remove lead fouling.
Do I throw the mercury away too?
Not just lead on cleaning patches, what about all the “junk” that comes out when melting down wheel weights; the clips and sledge and whatever else that gets skimmed out of the pot? What do people do with that?
Last time I smelted, I lived alone and did it on the stove with a small cast iron plumbers pot. All the dross went out with the kitchen trash. As others have said, the "dangers" of lead is a bunch of liberal, EPA feel good garbage. Don't swallow the lead, wash your hands before you eat and you will be ok.
Best thing I ever saw was the old Lewis Lead Remover. It was a cleaning rod
with a brass or bronze screen on the end and that scraped the lead out of
your barrel. Don't know if it is still sold. It worked on really fouled bores.
I have just read the various comments that I would like to add: lead is actually dangerous it takes a lot of hygiene among others to wash hands after handling lead, avoid breathing the fumes when melting.