Well, maybe I am survivor of sorts as back in the sixties, my dad decided to start making lead rings for fishing nets which he sold to a local chandlers. So he had a large brass mould made with two sliding bars to make the rings - one at time - and a spigot hole to pour the molten lead through.
My jib was to roll the carpet back , and start up the fire in our living room fireplace when I came home from school, with a metal frame to hold the lead pot installed. The living room wasn't ventilated other than the chimney. So when the fire was hot enough I then put any old lead we had in the pot to melt it down. I would scour the shore near us for any lead which had been dumped there, as well going to the local scrappie to buy some scrap lead. As we lived in a big fishing port, I was always down at the quayside and around the wee shipyards we had then to see if there was any "spare" lead lying around I could get away with as well!
The brass mould was held in a large heavy metalworking vice which was carried in from outside. When the lead was ready we then Vaselined the mould and had to get that warmed up by pouring lead in it. The first dozen or so of the rings were rejected as the mould was too cold, and they were remelted. Eventually we got a routine going and we could make a few hundred in an evening. We wore only gloves for the mould and lead pouring and no face masks so we had to be super careful pouring not to get splash back!
At the end of our session we just let the fire die down overnight and tidied up in the morning and the carpet rolled back again!
My job the following day when the rings had cooled was to cut off the spigot and tidy up the inside and outside off the ring with a knife and file!
Dad then had a wee word with his chandler friend and the rings were sold. He kept a book with the details of the transactions for any lead we needed to buy as well as the price of the rings sold. I still have that book, as well as the brass mould, and the vice (which gets a lot of use in my workshop.
So I was exposed to all this in my mid-teens! And I am still here and I hope still OK!
End of story!
My jib was to roll the carpet back , and start up the fire in our living room fireplace when I came home from school, with a metal frame to hold the lead pot installed. The living room wasn't ventilated other than the chimney. So when the fire was hot enough I then put any old lead we had in the pot to melt it down. I would scour the shore near us for any lead which had been dumped there, as well going to the local scrappie to buy some scrap lead. As we lived in a big fishing port, I was always down at the quayside and around the wee shipyards we had then to see if there was any "spare" lead lying around I could get away with as well!
The brass mould was held in a large heavy metalworking vice which was carried in from outside. When the lead was ready we then Vaselined the mould and had to get that warmed up by pouring lead in it. The first dozen or so of the rings were rejected as the mould was too cold, and they were remelted. Eventually we got a routine going and we could make a few hundred in an evening. We wore only gloves for the mould and lead pouring and no face masks so we had to be super careful pouring not to get splash back!
At the end of our session we just let the fire die down overnight and tidied up in the morning and the carpet rolled back again!
My job the following day when the rings had cooled was to cut off the spigot and tidy up the inside and outside off the ring with a knife and file!
Dad then had a wee word with his chandler friend and the rings were sold. He kept a book with the details of the transactions for any lead we needed to buy as well as the price of the rings sold. I still have that book, as well as the brass mould, and the vice (which gets a lot of use in my workshop.
So I was exposed to all this in my mid-teens! And I am still here and I hope still OK!
End of story!
