Two Part Epoxy Finish-Adhesives/You/Rodbuilding

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Posted by: Bill Stevens (---.br.br.cox.net)

Date: November 05, 2006 12:50PM

I hope some rodbuilders will take the time to read this post. This is not intended to do any thing other than make you think for just a minute for how you do things. It is not meant in any way to change your basic approach to your finish of choice or how you apply and dry.

There a lot of posts on this and other boards as to how to properly handle epoxy systems.

I was surprised to learn from Ralph O'Quinn the relatively high percentage of the general population that has the potential to become sensitized to the contents of these resin systems. In his supervisory position with an aircraft manufacturer his decision was to try to protect the workers with protective clothing or transfer them to another task. He found that protective clothing just was not practical in many cases. Rodbuilding in a rubber suit just will not cut the mustard.

If you build a lot of rods and want to continue everything should be done to keep your direct exposure to epoxy systems to a minimum.

Keep on the look out for an itching rash or red colored skin blotches on you ankles, wrist, waist or neck area. If you see first stages of the symptoms appear the following ideas may minimize your potential exposure.

Dropping bottles of resin and the amine containing hardner down your shirt front to warm for mixing should not be done. Many times the hardner bottle will leak and be sticky around the bottle or cap area. Funny thing - I did this all the time and the rash first appeared on my ankles. If you place the bottles ins a sealed Zip Lock Bag it should help.

When you stir the epoxy finish components for mixing hold the mixing cup in a position that the "floaters" that rise from the cup can not land on your arms or face. These tiny little bubbles break out of the surface and contain amine compounds that can collect on your skin.

It is best not to inhale directly over this cup or the mixing pan ifyou use the exhale technique to make air bubbles leave the surface.

If you are using a torch or alcohol lamp to aid in bubble bursting be careful and do not place your exposed fore arm directly over blank where "floaters" can be transferred to your skin. I witnessed this when wearing elbow length thin blue latex gloves while torching to insure that things were not getting too hot. After torching the surface of the glove had numberous tiny spots of discoloration.

When working with adhesives and finishes barehanded I never really realized just how much of the resin was being transferred to my skin. If you put on a pair of thin gloves it will not take you long to see just how much if this stuff gets in the wrong place. I worked with entirely too much adhesive by volume, sloppy, and had a lot to remove and wipe from joints to clean up. Cleaning up these joints with paper towells and denatured alcohol can really saturate you skin if you are not careful.

Think ahead - If you are placing some preformed cork grips on rods with epoxy be prepared to deal with all the epoxy the extrudes from holes in the cork. This can get quite messy and end up all over you.

This is just a short list of things that got in my way -

If you can add ideas that will help in keeping the stuff off of others please add to this list on the thread.

Purple and Gold Thread Price Went Up Saturday

Gon Fishn

Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2006 02:09PM by Bill Stevens.

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