Vacuum cleaner for lead and other metal particles

[MikeInOr]

I use an old Kenmore canister vac with their premium cloth bags and hepa after filter in my reloading room. I found an older model used for cheap and it is dedicated to my reloading room that is not in my house.

I hate bagless vacuums.

A shop vac with the yellow drywall rated bags work well too.

 

[AJC1]

You may want to check out rainbow or one of the other water filter vacuums. Their not that expensive

 

[TTv2]

Do you have all these concerns when you are shooting at the range??

Not as much.

 

[LiveLife]

Do you have all these concerns when you are shooting at the range??

Not as much.

Keep in mind there is a difference between shooting outdoors with wind/breeze or indoors with forced air ventilation that can move lead dust away from the shooter and cumulatively building up/inhaling lead dust in confined space of an apartment.

As we have discussed in previous threads, if you introduce lead dust into the house/confined space with no means to remove air to outside of the building, you are going to accumulate lead dust over time and HVAC ventilation system will simply circulate lead dust all around the house.

If you are going to reload indoors, it's best to identify all the sources of lead dust and eliminating them is much easier than trying to clean up a building of lead dust build up.

So do your spent case sorting/processing/dry tumbling outdoors and have a closed system for collecting spent primers.

Be safe.

 

[CQB45ACP]

Keep in mind there is a difference between shooting outdoors with wind/breeze or indoors with forced air ventilation that can move lead dust away from the shooter and cumulatively building up/inhaling lead dust in confined space of an apartment.

As we have discussed in previous threads, if you introduce lead dust into the house/confined space with no means to remove air to outside of the building, you are going to accumulate lead dust over time and HVAC ventilation system will simply circulate lead dust all around the house.

If you are going to reload indoors, it's best to identify all the sources of lead dust and eliminating them is much easier than trying to clean up a building of lead dust build up.

So do your spent case sorting/processing/dry tumbling outdoors and have a closed system for collecting spent primers.

Be safe.

This discussion has convinced me to alter my depriming process from a dry one to a wet one.

Like many, I use a semi-closed depriming “system” — Lee & Redding presses that have a tube for ejected primers. But it’s not designed to capture dust only spent primers—much or even most dust escapes the process. And it’s free to float or be tracked around the house.

Today, when I get home from the indoor range, I bring the brass into the house, decap it in my workshop in the basement. (But at least it isn’t directly introduced into the HVAC system.)

What I’m thinking of is to stop bringing dry, dirty range brass into the house at all after a range visit (which unfortunately is indoors). I’ll simply dump the dirty brass into a bucket of water until I can wet tumble. Then, sometime before the primers have a chance to dry, decap the cases and wet tumble as usual. (How much I actually do outside in February will be a test.)

Like much risk mitigation in life however, any net health benefit of all this may simply be to make me feel better, not actually reduce risk.

 

[TTv2]

Keep in mind there is a difference between shooting outdoors with wind/breeze or indoors with forced air ventilation that can move lead dust away from the shooter and cumulatively building up/inhaling lead dust in confined space of an apartment.

As we have discussed in previous threads, if you introduce lead dust into the house/confined space with no means to remove air to outside of the building, you are going to accumulate lead dust over time and HVAC ventilation system will simply circulate lead dust all around the house.

If you are going to reload indoors, it's best to identify all the sources of lead dust and eliminating them is much easier than trying to clean up a building of lead dust build up.

So do your spent case sorting/processing/dry tumbling outdoors and have a closed system for collecting spent primers.

Be safe.

When I started reloading I used the Lee hand press, which has a less than ideal means of catching dead primers and I did dump a lot of them out on the carpet. Eventually I stepped up to depriming on a Lee press that catches the primers in a tube. Now I do as much as I can to keep primers from touching anything but a plastic catch container.

I do wet tumble because it cleans the brass better than any other method and now I learned that it's also the safest method.

I can't do much of anything with case prep or sorting or processing outside my apartment, I try to keep a low profile when it comes to this sort of thing. When the market crashes and house prices drop I'll be there to buy, but for the next year I'm going to be renting and doing my reloading in the dark.

 

[LiveLife]

depriming on a Lee press that catches the primers in a tube. Now I do as much as I can to keep primers from touching anything but a plastic catch container.

I do wet tumble because it cleans the brass better than any other method and now I learned that it's also the safest method.

When the market crashes and house prices drop I'll be there to buy

Real estate market tends to follow 7 year +/- few year cycles and I have seen several cycles during my lifetime and bought/sold during the bottoms/tops of the market cycle.

We are coming off another market peak of cycle and looks like the market will retrace down before rebound/recovery and good luck to you.

 

[TTv2]

Real estate market tends to follow 7 year +/- few year cycles and I have seen several cycles during my lifetime and bought/sold during the bottoms/tops of the market cycle.

We are coming off another market peak of cycle and looks like the market will retrace down before rebound/recovery and good luck to you.

When 8 years ago the place I was living wasn't even selling for $129k, but this year sold for almost $350k after no work had been done to it, that screams peak.

For that peak to come the same year the country goes into recession means the bottom for this cycle is not far off.

I'm waiting patiently, rubbing my hands together.

 

[LiveLife]

For that peak to come the same year the country goes into recession means the bottom for this cycle is not far off ... I'm waiting patiently, rubbing my hands together.

Blogger Ben Jones has been tracking/predicting the housing market cycle for decades and has been pretty close with daily updates/monitoring - http://housingbubble.blog/

 

[Rule3]

Not as much.

Why not??

Well you should
. You are exposed to far more particulates then loading on a press. Unless you are-casting lead and tumbling brass in you carpeted room.

What happens every time you fire a gun??? Do you sweep up spent brass on the floor?? How much dust is created then. Some indoor places have gone to squeegee rather then brooms.

Just use a regular vacuum, you will survive.

 

[Rule3]

Keep in mind there is a difference between shooting outdoors with wind/breeze or indoors with forced air ventilation that can move lead dust away from the shooter and cumulatively building up/inhaling lead dust in confined space of an apartment.

As we have discussed in previous threads, if you introduce lead dust into the house/confined space with no means to remove air to outside of the building, you are going to accumulate lead dust over time and HVAC ventilation system will simply circulate lead dust all around the house.

If you are going to reload indoors, it's best to identify all the sources of lead dust and eliminating them is much easier than trying to clean up a building of lead dust build up.

So do your spent case sorting/processing/dry tumbling outdoors and have a closed system for collecting spent primers.

Be safe.

How exactly are you building up lead dust when reloading inside? Deprime and it falls down a tube into a container, Where is this lead dust??
Short of doing something dense like dry tumbling with out a cover in your bedroom.??

Get yourself a GSR test kit and check yourself after shooting outside or inside.

Yes we have discussed it all before at nausea. You should wrote a manual.

 

[LiveLife]

How exactly are you building up lead dust when reloading inside? Deprime and it falls down a tube into a container, Where is this lead dust??

Keep in mind my reply was specific to the OP who posted there was no viable outdoor sorting/processing/dry tumbling of spent brass (Plan was dry rotary tumbling indoors).

So if spent range brass were sorted/processed (likely when there's highest amount of lead dust inside the case from firing as source of lead dust is from the primer) and dry tumbled inside the apartment, there's going to be build up of lead dust inside the confined space of an apartment as spent brass is handled.

How will the accumulated lead dust leave the apartment as chances are, heating/airconditioning ventilation system will circulate lead dust all over the apartment?

Get yourself a GSR test kit and check yourself after shooting outside or inside.

Gun shot residue "collection" kit is the wrong kit as it is designed for "collection" and not test for presence of lead - https://www.rjlg.com/gsr-kits/

I suggested use of lead test kit which "tests" the presence of lead - https://www.amazon.com/Generation-T...?keywords=lead+test+kit&qid=1662995883&sr=8-5

Yes we have discussed it all before at nausea. You should wrote a manual.

Yes we did - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ealth-information.307170/page-12#post-9625420

And I guess I kinda did - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-and-discussions.778197/page-11#post-12406408

 

[Rule3]

Keep in mind my reply was specific to the OP who posted there was no viable outdoor sorting/processing/dry tumbling of spent brass (Plan was dry rotary tumbling indoors).

/QUOTE]

But keep in mind that we/you were not aware of that until late in the thread, He never revealed that until around post #31

His original concern was dropping a primer on the floor, which is not a big issue.

He still has more exposure while shooting at the range, in or out.

So ramble on if you must

 

[LiveLife]

He still has more exposure while shooting at the range, in or out

How much OP is exposed to lead dust while shooting is irrelevant to how much lead dust is accumulated inside the apartment, which is OP's concern posed on this thread.

And this was the OP which I was responding to and I replied to point out the "cumulative" effect of lead dust build up as there may not be regular/continuous exchange of air with fresh air outside the apartment and instead of being concerned about vacuuming to clean up the accumulated lead dust, I suggested better practice ("best practice" in High Road fashion) was to prevent lead dust build up in the first place:

apartment ... reloading area ... wall to wall carpeting ... don't like reloading on that because of all the heavy metal particles

... effects of "cumulative" build up of lead dust ... So instead of worrying about vacuuming lead dust ("heavy metal particles") from the carpet, it's better to prevent presence/build up of lead dust in the first place due to your "confined space" reloading set up:

And these were your responses:

Do you have all these concerns when you are shooting at the range??

Why not?? You are exposed to far more particulates then loading on a press. Unless you are-casting lead and tumbling brass in you carpeted room.

What happens every time you fire a gun??? Do you sweep up spent brass on the floor?? How much dust is created then. Some indoor places have gone to squeegee rather then brooms.

And you suggested GSR "collection" kit which won't help the OP at all as lead "test" kit is needed.

Get yourself a GSR test kit and check yourself after shooting outside or inside.

How are you helping the OP?