So if you just look at mercury you should proceed to gouge your eyes out with a spoon, followed by burning your house down then killing yourself, if possible get to outer space and have someone jettison you to the abyss to save all humanity.........that's how bad it is.
Liquid Mercury lead removal
- Thread starter somebizarredude
- Start date
planojack
Member
I carefully used the mercury treatment for lead removal for many years. Once I started using the Lee Liquid Alox lube, I never needed it. I don't have leading that isn't easily removed with a bore brush. And, I don't work for Lee.
No doubt mercury is toxic under certain conditions BUT then again as a children when getting a tooth filled the dentist would give us some mercury in a rinse cup to play with. They used it to make amalgam fillings from silver for our teeth. I'm 63 now and so far have had no known ill effects.
Geo. T.
Member
Well!
You have a smart wife and you are smart enough to listen and take her up on her offer! Good Luck!
You have a smart wife and you are smart enough to listen and take her up on her offer! Good Luck!
PeeShooter
Member
Finally a couple of guys with a level head about this. I know it's by far the nest lead remover and I know it's hazard risk isn't near what people here say. I'd be inclined to say I'm amazed that people who shoot guns are so paranoid about mercury since as it is said here, shooting a gun indoors is far more hazards then a pool of mercury in front of you. I have ha dot laugh thinking maybe I'll glow in the dark or something if I get a bottle of mercury in my house.
Yea I'm going to make some phone calls and see what I can track down. Since it is such a good lead remover, I really thougutn someone here might know where to get it.
PeeShooter
Member
I shoot Penn Bullets exclusively and barrel leading isn't a problem at all; he has his own foundry and makes a quality hard cast bullet. But 38's through a 357 makes for a real mess cleaning up the cylinder for a 357 to fit in it again no matter how good your lead bullet is.
Like anything that is poisonous or toxic, different people have different levels of sensitivity to it. It can have a wide variety of health effects, mostly neurological.
Mercury gives off trace vapors at room temperatures. Trace amounts of mercury can also be absorbed through the skin (look it up). Most mercury gets into the body from being eaten - usually eating contaminated fish.
The trouble with mercury is that the body has no way to metabolize it so once it gets into the tissues for all practical intents and purposes, it is there for life. So it accumulates and over time, if you accumulate enough it can cause you some serious health issues.
This persistence in tissues is why fish end up with so much of it. If the water is polluted they absorb it and accumulate it in their bodies too. You eat them, you get the mercury they accumulated over their lifespan.
And yes, fluorescent bulbs have small amounts of mercury in them. But then so does just about every kind of bulb you can think of except for the simplest old fashioned incandescent bulbs. Fluorescent, Metal Halide, High Pressure Sodium, and of course Mercury Vapor bulbs ALL have small amounts of mercury in them. BUT those trace amounts are NOTHING compared to the amount of exposure you get from breathing vapors and skin contact from handling the liquid metal.
Mercury gives off trace vapors at room temperatures. Trace amounts of mercury can also be absorbed through the skin (look it up). Most mercury gets into the body from being eaten - usually eating contaminated fish.
The trouble with mercury is that the body has no way to metabolize it so once it gets into the tissues for all practical intents and purposes, it is there for life. So it accumulates and over time, if you accumulate enough it can cause you some serious health issues.
This persistence in tissues is why fish end up with so much of it. If the water is polluted they absorb it and accumulate it in their bodies too. You eat them, you get the mercury they accumulated over their lifespan.
And yes, fluorescent bulbs have small amounts of mercury in them. But then so does just about every kind of bulb you can think of except for the simplest old fashioned incandescent bulbs. Fluorescent, Metal Halide, High Pressure Sodium, and of course Mercury Vapor bulbs ALL have small amounts of mercury in them. BUT those trace amounts are NOTHING compared to the amount of exposure you get from breathing vapors and skin contact from handling the liquid metal.
springer99
Member
Mercury DOES work well as a lead removal tool, but as others have mentioned, it also carries some health risks if used improperly. AFAIK, Mercury Displacement Relays are still available and commonly used in some industrial heating applications. Because of the way they're designed, they tend to last almost forever, in hi-cyclic resistive applications. One mfg. still in the business is DuraKool. I'd think that 1 single-pole 40-50amp relay should contain enough liquid mercury for a lifetime of use for lead removel. Just sayin'..........
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austinjeane
Member
I remember as a child in grade school in the 60's, teachers would bring mercury to school and let us play with it. Great at cleaning dimes. Just nostalgia, not a recommendation.
Inusuit
Member
Anecdotal evidence (I did it and I'm OK) does not diminish the fact that there are significant risks associated with the use of mercury for whatever purpose including lead removal. Yeah, we old guys all played with it as kids. Who knows how that affected our health? There are safer and better methods of cleaning handguns as enumerated by previous posters. But hey, it's your life so do whatever you want.
You know the old uncle at Thanksgiving that takes off on a demented political rant?-Mercury...
ruggyh
Member
I would venture to say the majority of solvents used to clean your guns vapors are more detrimental to your health than any mercury vapors you might breath under the same conditions.
Common sense doesn't appeared all that common.
Understand what your working with benefits and risk goes a long way.
Common sense doesn't appeared all that common.
Understand what your working with benefits and risk goes a long way.
I always love things like this, folk try to advise/ warn / give better, safer,or tell of their past experience in an effort to help someone not make a bad decision ( especially where its not needed) .
Folks saying, hey I used it with no problem, is okay, everyone can make their own decision.
But to poke fun and act like everyone is chicken little for trying to give a little sage advise about something that COULD cause a bad situation, is pretty idiotic.
Shot over half a million wadcutters in 30+ yrs of PPC and never used anything but a good condition stls steel chamber brush and a couple passes , cleans everything out.
There was a time I raced Harleys in the rain, and let the tractor idle down the field while I threw hay on the wagon, got away with a lot of stuff like that, Lord watches over fools----Sometimes, so I dont advise others its ok to do those kind of things.
" mad as a hatter" look it up !!!!
Folks saying, hey I used it with no problem, is okay, everyone can make their own decision.
But to poke fun and act like everyone is chicken little for trying to give a little sage advise about something that COULD cause a bad situation, is pretty idiotic.
Shot over half a million wadcutters in 30+ yrs of PPC and never used anything but a good condition stls steel chamber brush and a couple passes , cleans everything out.
There was a time I raced Harleys in the rain, and let the tractor idle down the field while I threw hay on the wagon, got away with a lot of stuff like that, Lord watches over fools----Sometimes, so I dont advise others its ok to do those kind of things.
" mad as a hatter" look it up !!!!
PeeShooter
Member
Yea another reasonable reply. This has gotten out of hand; I'm not drinking the stuff and as others have said nobody here making the BIG warnings should ever be eating fish and definitely the chemicals we use routinely to clean our guns have significantly more risk then poring some mercury down a barrel and letting it sit a while.
Guys take a chill pill man. OH and dont breath while shooting your gun; the smoke and lead vapors are deadly.
PeeShooter
Member
Then how come after a couple hundred shots with a round nose bullet then a hundred strokes in the cylinder of my revolver and I still cant properly chamber a .357 in it? It takes hours and dental picks to scrape every bit of lead out of a cylinder and it still wont be perfect. The only fool proof solution is mercury which people here talk like I wont live through the first application.
You must have something else going on. I've been shooting and cleaning revolvers for longer than you've been alive I'm guessing, and I've never had anything close to that problem. I'm not exactly calling BS, but you get the idea . . .
Comrad
Member
When I was a kid one of my friends fathers was an refrigeration mechanic and he had a mason jar full of mercury from thermostats, we played with it all the time. Never had anything bad happen.
cmj8591
Member
Have you tried a Lewis Lead Remover? They really do work. A piece of lead wipe away cloth wrapped around a bore brush works too. If it's that bad, you can get a reamer from Brownell's that will clean out the lead. Stay away from the toxic chemicals. I know that some here think that it's Government hyperbole but Mercury is very, very bad for humans, not withstanding those here who used it as a toy when they were kids.
EXACTLY. The effects are not immediate and may take decades to show up. And since the effects are cumulative you may not end up with enough of it in your system to cause a problem until you're older and received enough exposure. By then it is too late - you can't undo it. And it does give off detectable vapors at room temperature. The most common kind of mercury detector used when cleaning up mercury spills is called a Jerome meter and that is how it detects the mercury - by the vapors.
I would venture to say you are incorrect. 99.9% of anything you take in by absorption, ingestion, or inhalation can be metabolized (broken down and expelled) from your body. Mercury is one of the few substances that can't. Every molecule you take in STAYS in your tissues for the rest of your life.
Anybody remember the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland? Ever wonder what that was all about? Back in the 1800's men's hat were made of felt. Mercury compounds were used in the production process of making felt - especially in the dyes. Over a period of time breathing the vapors the people that made and worked with the felt hats - called hatters - developed dementia and other neurological disorders from mercury poisoning. That's where the expression "mad as a hatter" comes from. People thought that hatters were "mad" (crazy) because of the symptoms of mercury poisoning.
Anybody who wants to know the facts can find them easily enough. Mercury is nothing to trifle with. You may never accumulate enough in your system over the course of your lifetime to cause you any problems. On the other hand you may. Nobody knows - how sensitive you are to it's effects is a major factor, and is a total crapshoot.
I know I've played with it as a kid, and I also know I want to stay away from it as much as reasonably possible now, because once you have had enough exposure to develop health problems from it, the damage is almost irreversible. You may be lucky enough to have a higher than average tolerance for it. You may not. Want to take the chance? I don't.
It isn't a case of use it today and get sick tomorrow. It's effects are CUMULATIVE - as in you won't see them for years - possibly decades - until you have enough in your system that it damages you. If you're supremely confident that you are one of the lucky ones who can tolerate lots of exposure before it affects you, then by all means, have at it superman! Since I can't say that is true for me or mine with any degree of certainty, and exposing myself and my family to it isn't necessary, I'm not going to take that chance personally.
Unless you're shooting case after case of ammo that was produced more than 50 years ago you don't have to worry about exposure from shooting at indoor ranges. Mercury fulminate was pretty much replaced in all ammo primers by the 1950's or 1960's.
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Peter M. Eick
Member
My dad is a research chemist and we used to play with mercury at his lab on the floor and handle it all the time. It only caused me a little twitch.....
Just kidding...
Don't eat the stuff, wash up carefully and use some basic safety common sense. The posts above document how you would carefully clean the lead out with it by amalgamation.
In the old days, we used to clean our guns with di-nitrobenzene. It worked Great! But was a carcinogenic or so they said so it got hard to obtain and we stopped. I also like carbon tetrachloride as a great solvent, but it too was carcinogenic so we could not get it easily any more. Freon was a good cleaner in some cases, but it got hard to get and we stopped, casing head gas condensate is another good cleaner you can't get any more easily.
The bottom line is pretty simple. If it works well, it is probably bad for you and some researcher will come along and prove it causes cancer and then it wont be available any more.
I wonder how long until dihydrogen monoxide will be outlawed as being a known killer if inhaled in high doses?
Just kidding...
Don't eat the stuff, wash up carefully and use some basic safety common sense. The posts above document how you would carefully clean the lead out with it by amalgamation.
In the old days, we used to clean our guns with di-nitrobenzene. It worked Great! But was a carcinogenic or so they said so it got hard to obtain and we stopped. I also like carbon tetrachloride as a great solvent, but it too was carcinogenic so we could not get it easily any more. Freon was a good cleaner in some cases, but it got hard to get and we stopped, casing head gas condensate is another good cleaner you can't get any more easily.
The bottom line is pretty simple. If it works well, it is probably bad for you and some researcher will come along and prove it causes cancer and then it wont be available any more.
I wonder how long until dihydrogen monoxide will be outlawed as being a known killer if inhaled in high doses?
shotgun693
Member
I was an Environmental Police Officer for 15 years. I won't have a CFL in my house. I've seen the effects of Mercury on people and animals, it is not good. It's also kinda sad when people show the effects of Heavy Metal Poisoning and don't know it. They used to use mercury in the hat making industry, that where the term 'Mad as a Hatter' came from. BTW, Mercury lingers, use it in your house and everyone who then comes into the house is exposed.
DWalt
Member
How about all those millions of people who died or went crazy from their mercury-silver amalgam tooth fillings?
I don't know about anybody dying or going crazy but there has been lots of evidence from studies that seem to point to amalgam fillings causing health issues for some people. Most commonly a supressed immune system response.
I know it is anecdotal, but my wife used to have a whole mouth full of amalgam and was always sick. Caught every cold, flu, or other bug that came along. About 15 years ago she had them all replaced with plastic fillings and her day to day health has improved dramatically. She's hardly ever sick any more, and when she does catch something it doesn't decimate her like it used to.
And FWIW, not only is she older (not as strong as when she was younger) but we also have two kids in the house. They are aged 12 and 16, so if anything you'd think she'd be MORE likely to get sick with all the crud the kids have been bringing home from school these last 10 years or so. But that isn't the case.
Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. I don't think so, but like I said it's purely anecdotal.
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DON'T USE MERCURY PERIOD! IT IS JUST NOT WORTH THE RISK!!
I just thought of an analogy for the OP and others arguing in favor of using Mercury for de-leading. Agent Orange is one of the most effective herbicides ever invented. Do you want to use it to get rid of the weeds in your back yard?
No? Why not?
There isn't any real proof that it has had any bad effects on the health of the 'Nam vets who got exposed to it. Or at least there is no more conclusive evidence of its harmful effects than there is for the long-range effects of mercury exposure.
Lots of vets exposed to Agent Orange never suffered any illnesses that could be directly linked to it...
No? Why not?
There isn't any real proof that it has had any bad effects on the health of the 'Nam vets who got exposed to it. Or at least there is no more conclusive evidence of its harmful effects than there is for the long-range effects of mercury exposure.
Lots of vets exposed to Agent Orange never suffered any illnesses that could be directly linked to it...
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PeeShooter
Member
You must be really old.
PeeShooter
Member
That's my whole problem, tooth fillings; no wonder I crave the aroma of mercury. LOL
I'm prone to exaggeration . . .
PeeShooter
Member
Thanks for all your input; I'll keep it in mind when I find some mercury and get my cylinders lead free for sure.
To the paranoid ones on this thread, NEVER fire you gun in an enclosed area and NEVER have the wind or a breeze blowing towards you when firing a gun. The fumes cause serious cumulative harm to your body and can make you crazy enough to be paranoid about carefully using mercury. Get a blood test to detect the heavy meals in your blood to see if this is why you act this way.
To the paranoid ones on this thread, NEVER fire you gun in an enclosed area and NEVER have the wind or a breeze blowing towards you when firing a gun. The fumes cause serious cumulative harm to your body and can make you crazy enough to be paranoid about carefully using mercury. Get a blood test to detect the heavy meals in your blood to see if this is why you act this way.
Just to beat another horse, lead poisoning from constant use of an indoor range is also a significant health risk. We used to get that heavy metal test (it's urine, not blood, and you get to keep a big jug of pee in your refrigerator for the weekend) every year courtesy of the government . . .
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