Mirwin,
I get clean lead from a stained glass mfg that's a couple of miles from my house. The stuff is brandnew shiny scrap that has never been outside their shop. My leather gloves also have small holes in them just like the jacket.
It's usually a good idea to "cook" any lead for awhile before you turn up the heat to melt it, no matter how clean it's supposed to be, just to insure it's dry. And all the other horrors I mentioned are worth contemplation.
Casting is really a lot of fun. And it's really not a constant dodging of flying lead. I've done it for years and years and still am wearing the same "holy" jacket and gloves I adopted after getting a splatter on a bare wrist years ago. But it ain't something you do with your boy watching the fun while playing with the new puppy and it also ain't something you do casually.
It easily is something that your average sensible model builder can do, but it's also something that can be very unforgiving. I compare it to anyone learning to use CA. How many of us discovered that the stuff wicks really well and learned that when we glued our fingers together. If it had been lead.... But whatever.... I've described most of what any sensible modeler would like to know up front.
Oh yeah, a good side to molten lead. The deal about it's vapors.... it's greatly exaggerated. The poisonous fumes don't actually wick very far from the molten lead surface. They are heavy so usually only waft downward. You won't breathe them unless you lean down and sniff to see what molten lead smells like
