Rodney, thanks for posting! Your experience with pouring is always welcome! I've learned what you've posted the hard way.
To add to what you've said about safety & health concerns, my extra tools, such as bowls or spoons I might use are only used for pouring, never for food preparation. I also have a respirator I wear when pouring with a filter that blocks the fumes & dust from lead & the contaminants that might be on or in the lead.
I do recycle lead, such as wheel weights, which can be fine for some things I pour. Softer, purer lead is usually better, particularly for small jigs, but wheel weight lead is often easier to obtain & less costly. Unfortunately, some wheel weights are painted & that paint has to be removed before the lead can be used for pouring. Nasty stuff when it burns, so I do that outside only, well away from any buildings.
I've added a leather welders apron to my pouring setup too, just as an extra precaution against splatter, plus always wear leather welders gloves when pouring. Accidents can happen, and hot lead can cause very serious burns, so IMO, it's better to take all the precautions one can, rather than deal with a burn later on.
I don't bother with preheating hooks, but to help keep my molds hot during pouring I have an electric hot plate I place them on. I'll make pours with no hooks to heat up the molds initially, but like the hot plate for keeping them hot should I have to stop for a short period. My hot plate has 2 burners, so I can pour multiple molds at a time too & keep them all hot. I set the controls on the hot plate to keep them hot, but am always careful not to over heat them, which might damage the molds.
I've found it also helps to lay out my hooks before hand so they can be easily picked up & placed in the molds.
A lot of this I learned back when pouring to sell lures, where time involved affected the cost, so I had to develop a technique that saved me time & effort. Rodney may have something else he can add in that regard.
twocold, a toaster oven is not a good way to heat up the molds as Rodney as said because of the likely damage to the handles, but can be a good way to re-heat & cure the paint on jigs & other lures you might pour if you intend on using powder paints. However, again it should only be used for that purpose and not for food prep too. Powder paints are chemicals, and not something you would want to ingest.
I can wholeheartedly agree with Rodney on the addiction part! I've collected almost 300 molds for pouring!
