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Old August 17, 2009, 07:49 PM   #1
gdeal
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Safety

Ok... This maybe be my last reloading question until I actually start reloading. What do people have by their benches and what do they use?
Fire Extinguisher? I hear people mention safety glasses. Anyone use a Face Shield or is that a little over kill? Just latex gloves? Good ventilation? What?
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Old August 17, 2009, 07:57 PM   #2
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I wear glasses Polycarbonate glasses. Just because they are my everyday glasses. If I need to punch out a live primer I will add ear protection.




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Safety
Ok... This maybe be my last reloading question until I actually start reloading. What do people have by their benches and what do they use?
Fire Extinguisher? I hear people mention safety glasses. Anyone use a Face Shield or is that a little over kill? Just latex gloves? Good ventilation? What?
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Old August 17, 2009, 07:57 PM   #3
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Safety equiptment?

Safety glasses are a must. Ear plugs, yes but never used. Fire extingusher? Good idea. I should get one. Gloves? No, if it gets that cold in the basement I'm not loading.
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Old August 17, 2009, 08:03 PM   #4
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Gloves? No, if it gets that cold in the basement I'm not loading.
No I meant for lead protection or what ever. Funny.
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Old August 17, 2009, 08:34 PM   #5
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gloves for lead, glasses for anything else. not really ear plugs, i don't see myself popping off a round magically as my gun is holstered while I am reloading.
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Old August 17, 2009, 08:39 PM   #6
QBall45
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I thought I'd get a chuckel out of ya about the gloves.

Really, I don't use em. I just make sure I wash hot water and soap.
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Old August 17, 2009, 10:06 PM   #7
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Safety glasses when priming. Wash hands when done, all else is over kill. Of course no smoking or drinking. Double check everything, go slow.Gloves & other measures if casting bullets.
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Old August 17, 2009, 10:16 PM   #8
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Face shield is overkill, IMO. It inhibits maneuverability and I don't see the need to use it over safety glasses.

A small fire extinguisher from Wal-Mart or Sears will do. I don't use gloves. I keep my hands away from my face when reloading and wash up before doing any other business.

Ventilation is a good thing to have, but can also bite you in the butt. Keep ALL drafts away from your weighing area and charging station. An erroneous measurement in powder weight is as dangerous as most any other step.
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Old August 17, 2009, 10:34 PM   #9
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Safty glasses are good to have.As for gloves NOPE, just don't stick you fingers in your mouth and wash with soap and warm water.Good Luck
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Old August 18, 2009, 12:34 AM   #10
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No fire extinguisher, no safety glasses, no ear plugs, no gloves, no face shield. I eat and drink (mainly PBR, but sometimes Redstripe) while reloading, and almost never wash my hands after handling lead bullets.

I also wipe spilled powder and primers (live and inert) onto the floor, then pick them up with the vacum, and sometimes store powder in a non-original container.

Looks I do just about everything wrong..........but its worked for me for 20+ years.



Wait........I don't smoke while reloading, so there is at least something
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Old August 18, 2009, 07:57 AM   #11
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I also wipe spilled powder and primers (live and inert) onto the floor, then pick them up with the vacum
At first I thought you were going to say you were kidding about all that stuff. But anyway, after you vacuum up the live primers, what do you do with them? Just throw them in the trash or something?

Now that we are talking about it and I think this comes under safety, how do people deal with deprimeing?
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Old August 18, 2009, 08:57 AM   #12
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Now that we are talking about it and I think this comes under safety, how do people deal with deprimeing?
The press I use has a depriming cup that collects spent primers, which I dump in the trash. Possible trace amounts of lead (from priming compound), so I suppose I could try taking them to the landfill's "hazo-house" and see what they do.

If you're talking about live primers, there is generally no good reason to deprime a live primer, IMO. If the case somehow needs to be resized, you can simply remove the depriming pin from the die (at least, that's true for Hornady bottleneck dies and Dillon pistol dies...but you have to leave the neck expander for bottleneck dies.)

I believe that common practice for disposing of live primers (again, this should be really, really rare) is to soak them with WD-40 before trashing them.
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Old August 18, 2009, 09:06 AM   #13
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got the fire extinquisher...

should probably wear safety glasses, but I like seeing into my cases easier when charging ( you know all the regular excuses ) face shield is over kill IMO... BTW... I use a Lee hand primer & alot of care when I prime... if something doesn't feel right I don't apply any "extra" force... ( I've reloaded both 5.7 X 28 "staked primers & unswagged miliarty 223 cases, where an occasional "hang up" has happened, & deformed several primers, but never "yet" had one fire while priming...

gloves... only for heat when casting bullets... I never eat while loading, & am in the food manufacturing business, so I'm used to washing my hands all the time...

garbage gets put into a small plastic "Walmart" style bag, & changed often... I put my non recycle garbage into the burn barrel ( I live in the country ) so I'm very carefull about what I put into the garbage, but spilled powder & an damaged primer or two are fine... damaged cases go into brass scrap for recycle, spent primers go into a zip lock bag, & get dumped into a steel scrap barrel as the bag gets full...

I may have several cartridges on the bench at one time, but they are staged & I only do one at a time...

biggest risk in my set up ( safety wise ) would be detonating a primer & having a small amount of spilled powder on the bench ( I'm doing a lot of load expirementing right now, & scaling almost every load, & loading with several different powders etc. so I have been dipping powder & scaling, rather than using my powder measure... this is inherently more messy, I do clean up the few grains of spilled powder, but am loading in groups of 50, so there can be a few grains of powder on my bench while I'm priming the next 50... as I said before, I've mangled a few primers before, yet never had one fire, my bench has a marble top & the fire extinquisher is very close

also highly recommend adding a piece of masking tape to your cartridge box & listing very specific load data & date on each box...

...I usually put cartridge name, case brand, case trim length, powder & charge, bullet brand / style / weight, primer used, date, & COL or specific gun the cartridge was loaded for...
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Old August 18, 2009, 09:41 AM   #14
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after you vacuum up the live primers, what do you do with them? Just throw them in the trash or something?
If I drop/spill live primres, I try and find those so I can use them, but the space I reload in is a little crowded, and sometimes they arent recovered and end up in the vacum. After that, all the primers go in the trash. As posted above, they are recyclable, if you want to save them up and take a couple hundred thousand in with your alluminum cans, it might get ya an extra dime or two.
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Old August 18, 2009, 09:45 AM   #15
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there is steel in the primers ( they are magnetic ) that why I put them in the steel scrap barrel
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Old August 18, 2009, 10:16 AM   #16
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there is steel in the primers ( they are magnetic ) that why I put them in the steel scrap barrel
If you have primers that are magnetic, they're some kind of foreign crap. Primers made in the US of A are made from brass.

I'm going to get a fire extinguisher,,,---some day, I just got to remember to actually GET one! As for safety glasses, I'm blind without my prescription glasses, so there's no option. Fools that have good vision WITHOUT glasses are crusin for a brusin. I just hope when you DO get an eye injury, that it doesn't scar your vision for life, like mine did. Even though I was wearing glasses, that bungee cord broke them, pushing a piece of glass through my cornea. Now, all my left eye vision comes through a scar, blurred for life!

Lead cannot penetrate skin, in it's metallic state. Lead styphonate, that's in primers, is more easily absorbed. Modern loaders like the lee classic turret, the Forster co-ax, and the lee classic cast single stage have through the ram primer disposal. So you never really have to touch a fired primer again. Latex gloves are overkill and prevent the feel needed for handloading.

Special precautions need to be taken for young children and lead, or pregnant women. The loading area should be off-limits to kids anyway, it should be locked up when you're not present. I know how fascinating it all is, I was a kid once!
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Old August 18, 2009, 10:44 AM   #17
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maybe it's the annvels or ??? but every primer I have will stick to a strong magnet...
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Old August 18, 2009, 11:18 AM   #18
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I wear glasses Polycarbonate glasses. Just because they are my everyday glasses.
I am with rwilson452 on this one. This is the only personal safety equipment I have ever used while reloading.

A fire extinguisher is a good idea just because. Not necesarily because of reloading. When my kids were at home, they first started a fire then put it out with the extinguisher. More than once.

Safety in reloading has more to do with using approved recipes, standard procedures, and being a stickler to detail. IOW, do it right!

I might mention a few specific things that I do for safety sake.

Keep sources of ignition away from the bench.

No more than one can of powder on the bench at a time. This prevents accidently mixing powders or using the wrong one to refill the measure. Also, when finished, empty the measure back into the can so you won't have unlabeled powder sitting in the measure.

Same for primers. One package at a time on the bench so primers don't get mixed up, or the wrong ones accidently used.

It has already been mentioned to not have breezes when weighing powder. A breeze can give erratic readings on the scale.

Before seating bullets, visually check each casing for a load of powder and to ascertain it doesn't have a double charge. Squibs and kabooms are just not acceptable.

It is a great hobby. Enjoy, and be safe.
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Old August 18, 2009, 12:41 PM   #19
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Quote:
also highly recommend adding a piece of masking tape to your cartridge box & listing very specific load data & date on each box...

...I usually put cartridge name, case brand, case trim length, powder & charge, bullet brand / style / weight, primer used, date, & COL or specific gun the cartridge was loaded for...
GOOD reminder... Labeling everything.

Quote:
Latex gloves are overkill and prevent the feel needed for handloading.
Ok.

Quote:
No more than one can of powder on the bench at a time. This prevents accidently mixing powders or using the wrong one to refill the measure. Also, when finished, empty the measure back into the can so you won't have unlabeled powder sitting in the measure.

Same for primers. One package at a time on the bench so primers don't get mixed up, or the wrong ones accidently used.

It has already been mentioned to not have breezes when weighing powder. A breeze can give erratic readings on the scale.

Before seating bullets, visually check each casing for a load of powder and to ascertain it doesn't have a double charge. Squibs and kabooms are just not acceptable.
Excellent.
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Old August 18, 2009, 12:44 PM   #20
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"What do people have by their benches and what do they use?"

What I have near my bench is a trash container.

In approaching 50 years of this I've never worn gloves, no face shield (normal glasses), no ear plugs or muffs; the 6-8 primers I've set off in a press neither deafened me nor tore holes in my bench or ceiling. I don't smoke around open powder. I turn off distracting radio/TV while loading and I'm not very sociable with visitors when loading. There is a cheap fire extengusher on a wall near the exit but it's never been used. I don't lick my fingers to clean them, I have a spray bottle of Windex and paper towels for that but suspect the average liberal PC Chicken Little greenie-weinie would recoil in horror around me!

I have an air compressor gun/hose to clean the bench top and a small "Shop Vac" for the floor. Everything in the vac, including any stray powder or primers - dead or alive - goes into the trash; the county dump is well able to absorb trifling quanities of "hazardous" chemicals.

Not sure what you mean by "what do they use?"

Last edited by wncchester; August 18, 2009 at 12:55 PM.
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Old August 18, 2009, 12:46 PM   #21
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In approaching 50 years of this I've never worn gloves, no fact shield (normal glasses), no ear plugs or muffs. I don't lick my fingers to clean them (I have a spray bottle of Windex and paper towels for that). I don't smoke around open powder. I turn off the radio/TV while loading. There is a cheap fire extengusher on a wall near the exit but it's never been used.

I have an air compressor gun/hose to clean the bench top and a small "Shop Vac" for the floor. Everything in the vac, including any stray powder or primers - dead or alive - goes into the trash; the county dump is well able to absorb trifling quanities of "hazardous" chemicals.

Not sure what you mean by "what do they use?"
That'll do. Thank you.
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Old August 18, 2009, 12:48 PM   #22
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maybe it's the annvels or ??? but every primer I have will stick to a strong magnet...
Are you talking about SHOTGUN primers? Then, yes, they are mostly steel, the actual cup the FP hits is brass.

All centerfire rifle and handgun primers are brass, unless, like I said, there might be some foreign primers with a steel anvil.
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Old August 18, 2009, 01:01 PM   #23
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I do wear safety glasses - no gloves / I load all jacketed bullets - but lead poisoning isn't a big deal unless you're licking your fingers ...

I do have a Halon extinguisher by the door to my shop. Its checked annually / and I toss it out about every 4 years and get a new one.

I don't eat in the shop when I'm loading / or woodworking - and I wash with soap and water when I leave the shop. I will occasionally drink a soda when I'm loading / but I keep it a few feet away from press ( no beer )..

I use "canned air" to dust the shell plate of the press occasionally / and a bench brush to pick up any spent primers, etc laying on the bench as I reload. I like the bench clean !! Only one type of primers on the bench at one time, only one type of bullet on it at one time, only one type of powder on the bench at one time.

I do have a stereo in the shop / CD's or radio - but I don't want a lot of activity in the shop when I'm loading. If one of the grandkids or my boys are in there loading / then the other kids are not coming and going - and no grab-ass allowed / they can knock, ask permission to come into shop, sit on a stool and watch, help bring over components, etc - but I don't want a lot of extraneous stuff going on while I'm loading. Easy going conversation is fine - but no chaos, I guess is what I'm saying ( and we have 4 kids, and soon 10 grandkids, so it could be chaos, if I let it )... Its quality quiet time with the boys or the grandkids / not a place to throw a ball for the dog ... or something ...( and its my shop, so I make the rules ..).

The other big thing on safety - is my last step on reloading. As I take completed rounds off the press - I dump the bucket onto a terry cloth towel - and I roll them around to remove any case lube left over. Then I take each round, and drop it into a hand held "case gague" - they are in the Dillon catalog for a few bucks - if the round drops in easily, and seats flush, and doesn't extend out the bottom - and it drops out easily as you turn it over - its a good round. Then, and only then, does it go into a box.
This is the last step that will pick up a little burr on the case / or a little crack I missed on pre loading inspection / because now the case is under pressure. So this is when I reject a few rounds out of 300 or so ( a cock eyed primer seat, a little burr, etc ) - and pull the bullets, and recycle components.

I also put a paper label on each box / and I put a date on it. Then on a spreadsheet, I put the load data in - by date, bullet, primer, powder and grains - any notes, if I changed anything, etc - and put it on my laptop / so I have a record of what I did that day / sort by caliber or whatever if you make separate columns for each component you log.

And have some fun /enjoy your time reloading / enjoy teaching the kids or grankids, or time with your buddies .....
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Old August 18, 2009, 01:07 PM   #24
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...( and its my shop, so I make the rules ..).
That's Right!

Quote:
Then on a spreadsheet, I put the load data in - by date, bullet, primer, powder and grains - any notes, if I changed anything, etc - and put it on my laptop / so I have a record of what I did that day / sort by caliber or whatever if you make separate columns for each component you log.
Hmm... Interesting. Keeping a Log. OK.

Quote:
Its quality quiet time
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
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Old August 18, 2009, 01:15 PM   #25
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The fire extinguisher is always present.
I always wear safety glasses.
I always wear nitrile gloves.
Safety first, last and always.

Yeah, I know. But my hands stay clean, my eyes are always protected and I load in the house.
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