Maybe a dumb question about wet tumbling

[towerdog]

I have been looking into building a wet tumbler and had a thought about disposal of the water that now contains lead. I know there is debate about how much lead you are exposed to but for argument sake I feel better safe than sorry and tumble my brass outside so the risk of lead dust exposure is eliminated. Never really worried about the used walnut media that gets sealed and sent to the landfill.

I am concerned about dumping the water and the lead possibly ending up in my well. I live in the country and have a septic system so flushing it does not help. What do you guys that wet tumble do?

 

[HardwarePro]

This is actually a very good question, considering what the consequences are.
I'm on city water and sewer with no wells for miles.
I have a designated spot in my yard that will not have children playing near and pour out my tumbler there.
For your situation, you might consider a large wide container like a kiddie pool to pour it into and let the sun evaporate the liquid. As solids accumulate, wear appropriate hand and face protection and scrape it out to take to a landfill.

 

[FROGO207]

I would NOT be watering my vegetable garden with it for sure.

Evaporating it would work but I would just trash the container or use a liner and trash that when the water has evaporated with enough buildup. I am a plumber and I would worry more about the lead solder in your supply pipes than what came back from a legally installed septic system if it were me.

 

[bluetopper]

Dump it out in the road in front of the house.

 

[towerdog]

Thanks for the input. As stated I preferred to error on the side of caution and will probably let it evaporate in something that can be disposed of. I was more curious than anything about what everyone else did.

 

[Citadel99]

Great question. I've tossed around the idea of getting a wet tumbler. I have little kids and never thought about the issue of disposing of the lead water...

Mark

 

[judgedelta]

I live in the country and have a sewage treatment system, which is basically the same as a septic system. Since I only clean cases maybe once a month, I pitch the water in the drain. I'm only shooting jacketed or plated bullets, so the lead would have to come from the primers (?) If it was a commercial operation going on every day, I would be concerned, but if you have children, keep them away from the cleaning operation and you should be fine. You probably get more lead from shooting a revolver than cleaning cases. Just my $.02

 

[Bezoar]

if you want you could just go get yourself one of those cheap home water filter pitchers... the ones that say "remove 99.9 % of lead" and just filter it through one of those.

 

[GLOOB]

if you want you could just go get yourself one of those cheap home water filter pitchers... the ones that say "remove 99.9 % of lead" and just filter it through one of those.

I wouldn't do that. It would take a long time and the filter would be shot after one or two loads.

I'm no chemist, but solubility of most ionized metallic compounds in water is highly affected by pH. If you want to dissolve metallic compounds, you use an acidic, oxidizing solution. (You add lemishine to your solution?) If you want to do the opposite, you raise the pH, and most all the lead compounds should just precipitate out. If you're lucky, any precipitates will be dense enough to easily settle in water. Decant the water, plus or minus a filter, and toss the heavier sediment into the garbage. Again, I'm no chemist, but I think you can alkalinize the water using sodium bicarbonate or some other stuff you can buy at the grocery store.

You take some acidic, dirty water and alkalinize it, it is surprising how much gunk can materialize.

 

[MDphotographer]

As a former plumber I can tell you that dumping the water down the drain is the best solution if you have city water and sewage the amount of lead you are disposing is much less then all the 30+ year old homes in your area that have lead solder in their systems contaminating the waste water.I have city water that is drawn from wells I wouldn't put it back into the ground if you are that worried about it.I for one am not