Safety
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- Skilled Systems Installer
- Posts: 183
- Joined: Sat Aug 02, 2008 8:46 pm
- Boat Type: Pearson Ensign
- Location: Kansas
Safety
I watched a program on The Science Channel today about How It's Made (I know its a disease). This was a factory making fiberglass glider airplanes. I remember they used fiberclass and kevlar cloth and polyester and epoxy resins. In gluing the two halves of the wing together, they used cotton fibers to thicken the resin. It showed the workers using nitrile glove, roller applicators and they were dressed in various shorts, t-shirts and no breathing or eye protection. They were laying FG and sanding the molded pieces in clean up. It looked like a modern indoor factory. Seems to go contrary to everything I've experienced and read here. How could they tolerate the fumes or dust?
Never finish all your projects or you'll be bored.
Assuming they're not just living dangerously, I wonder if there was some kind of "whole house" dust collection system for when they were sanding or mixing in thickeners?
Epoxy "fumes" aren't really toxic, as I understand it (although the sanding dust is, and you don't want to get it on your skin when it's liquid, hence the gloves). Polyester I think would warrant a respirator; I wonder if they were using only epoxy in the part they showed, but they simply spoke of using polyester at other times?
Otherwise, it seems odd.
Rachel
Epoxy "fumes" aren't really toxic, as I understand it (although the sanding dust is, and you don't want to get it on your skin when it's liquid, hence the gloves). Polyester I think would warrant a respirator; I wonder if they were using only epoxy in the part they showed, but they simply spoke of using polyester at other times?
Otherwise, it seems odd.
Rachel
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- Master of the Arcane
- Posts: 1317
- Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 8:50 am
- Boat Name: Hirilondë
- Boat Type: 1967 Pearson Renegade
- Location: Charlestown, RI
The actual practices in many places that work with laminating materials are often far from safe. I do find it strange that any company would flaunt unsafe practices on television though.
Dave Finnegan
builder of Spindrift 9N #521 'Wingë'
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Gresham’s Law of information: Bad information drives out good. No matter how long ago a correction for a particular error may have appeared in print or online, it never seems to catch up with the ever-widening distribution of the error.
builder of Spindrift 9N #521 'Wingë'
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Gresham’s Law of information: Bad information drives out good. No matter how long ago a correction for a particular error may have appeared in print or online, it never seems to catch up with the ever-widening distribution of the error.
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- Candidate for Boat-Obsession Medal
- Posts: 338
- Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 11:51 am
- Boat Name: Jollyboat
- Boat Type: Pearson Triton
- Location: Fairfield County, CT
- Contact:
I am not proud of it and hope like hell it doesnt come back to bite me -but I have done more grinding and the like with fiberglass, epoxy, bottom paint, and whatever else that boats are made of without so much as a bandana - young and dumb I guess - that was about twenty years ago - so far so good. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Brian
Jollyboat, Triton #466
Sepi,Triton #346 (1st, Triton)
No Quarter
Jollyboat, Triton #466
Sepi,Triton #346 (1st, Triton)
No Quarter