Lead content of brass

I've produced several hundreds, maybe close to a thousand brass nozzles in about a year. I love brass as a workable material. But, I think I've probably consumed about a pound of this stuff, just by it getting in the air or through skin contact. I'm kind of afraid of becoming the mad hater at this point.

What's the next best thing? Eventually, people are going to need a food safe material to print with and the lead content in brass makes it nonviable. Aluminum is too soft and wears out over time. Copper erodes and wears down. Stainless steel is not thermally conductive. I've thought about glass, but that's a long shot. Maybe just plain steel? Any ideas?

They are making lead free brasses now. The plumbing manufacturers were forced to switch.

How about steel or stainless steel, drilled with EDM? You say glass is a long shot... but why not glass? (I assume you've already seen these pages: Glass Nozzles and Heater Block For Glass Nozzle.)

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I'm kind of afraid of becoming the mad hater at this point.

This mis-statement is hilarious in light of your history on this forum.

Staying on topic...

You can get lead-free brass alloys, but they will probably cost more and be more difficult to machine. Here is one example: [www.nbmmetals.com]

I think unless you're creating fine airborne particles you're probably ok. From what I have been able to tell based on a few minutes bouncing around the web, the lead added to brass is inorganic in nature. Therefore it does not cross the skin barrier easily, so simply exposing your skin to it is probably not hazardous.

However I am not an expert. If you are really concerned you should talk to someone with expertise in this area.

[www.nbmmetals.com]

I wonder if anyone has tried making ceramic hot ends?

The material would be cheap, but making them exact and accounting for shrinkage during firing might be tricky. But if a proper mold could be made to press it out and the proper size I would think it would work great.

Thanks crispy1. Your insensitivity towards a blue collar machinists living without health insurance is greatly appreciated. That being said, if you get exposed to enough of something, it'll kill you, eventually. They don't make lead free brass in 1/4" hex stock. Ceramics is interesting, but it needs to be commonly available and relatively machinable. I was thinking TiN coated steel.

Ceramics would be clay, either in semi solid form or liquid (slip) you would mold it not machine it. Then it would need to be fired, then glazed then fired again. It's readily available and inexpensive. I use to buy 50lb blocks of ceramic clay for around $22.00

I suppose you could bisque fire clay and they try to machine it though it might be to brittle at that stage. Then do a full firing. Once fully fired it's really to hard to machine and would take diamond abrasive to do so.

Not exactly what I was thinking about but... [www.2engineers.com]

OK this is more like it [www.youtube.com]