Post by h0collector on Mar 2, 2004 10:46:28 GMT 1
I want to make people aware of possible health risks, both short-term and long-term, when we are working with resins, fillers, paints, thinners, glues and other nasty stuff in our hobby.
I think most of us are aware of the possible dangers when spray painting with an airbrush, without having a proper paint booth. One may wish to do this outdoor, but even then one should have a hood to prevent microsize paint particles and paint fumes floating around in the air. In addition, be aware of the thinners used for enamel (oil based) paints, these have a very strong odor, and I'm sure this is not good for our health.
Regarding paints, I have tried to find useful acrylics (water-based), and the best quality I have found is Humbrol's acrylics, almost comparable to their enamel paints. Maybe we should open another thread regarding "How do you paint your models ?" (paint technices, airbrush or hand-painting?, etc.), but the main purpose with this thread is to focus on possible health risks when we are working with our hobby projects.
In addition to paints, there are certainly also a lot of other stuff which may be dangerous to our health.
What about the fillers (Revell, Tamiya), and a lot of glues etc. ? Just read the warnings on most of these packages about dangerous fumes i.e.
Have you thinking about the huge amount of nasty microscale particles and fumes which occur if we file, mill etc. in the resin (even injection-molded plastic) bodies ? Such particles are lighter than air and may float around in the roof for a long time after the job is done.
Some of us may have been tempted to mill out the inside of a solid cast resin model to make a proper interior in it. I did this with my very first few solid castings, but I soon dropped it due to all the mess, even if I used a very expensive and good quality dust mask.
I will not recommend anyone to do this unless you have a proper hood which pervent one to breath any fumes or dust, which may cause serious health risks. Even a good dust mask will probably only give a max. 90 % protection, and that is just not good enough from my point of view.
I have been thinking of investing in a industry designed work bench with a hood and air vents etc., and I found a very nice one at this site (only Norwegian text, but has some nice images); www.snapa.no/limebenk.htm - sadly, these are very expensive (this one is actually intended for model builders i.e.), but it might be worth it.
Of course one can build a similar hood on your own, but be aware if using electric fans, which can make a dangerous situation with possible sparks from those if you're airbrushing in the hood.
I think there are now resin materials which are safer to work with than earlier. I found this site for a company dealing with "aqua-resin" (water-based);
www.rllucas.com/index.html
It sounds to be much safer to work with, especially if one is casting. But I believe the problem with the dust particles etc. if cutting, milling i.e. is still the same ?
Has anybody experience or knowledge about water-based resins ?
Maybe I'm exaggerating about these health risks (I hope so!), but I think we shall have this in mind anyway.
I wish welcome here any knowledge, experiences, thoughts, ideas etc. about possible health risks and how to protect ourselves against any nasty stuff which may occur in our hobby. After all, our own health is the most important.
I think most of us are aware of the possible dangers when spray painting with an airbrush, without having a proper paint booth. One may wish to do this outdoor, but even then one should have a hood to prevent microsize paint particles and paint fumes floating around in the air. In addition, be aware of the thinners used for enamel (oil based) paints, these have a very strong odor, and I'm sure this is not good for our health.
Regarding paints, I have tried to find useful acrylics (water-based), and the best quality I have found is Humbrol's acrylics, almost comparable to their enamel paints. Maybe we should open another thread regarding "How do you paint your models ?" (paint technices, airbrush or hand-painting?, etc.), but the main purpose with this thread is to focus on possible health risks when we are working with our hobby projects.
In addition to paints, there are certainly also a lot of other stuff which may be dangerous to our health.
What about the fillers (Revell, Tamiya), and a lot of glues etc. ? Just read the warnings on most of these packages about dangerous fumes i.e.
Have you thinking about the huge amount of nasty microscale particles and fumes which occur if we file, mill etc. in the resin (even injection-molded plastic) bodies ? Such particles are lighter than air and may float around in the roof for a long time after the job is done.
Some of us may have been tempted to mill out the inside of a solid cast resin model to make a proper interior in it. I did this with my very first few solid castings, but I soon dropped it due to all the mess, even if I used a very expensive and good quality dust mask.
I will not recommend anyone to do this unless you have a proper hood which pervent one to breath any fumes or dust, which may cause serious health risks. Even a good dust mask will probably only give a max. 90 % protection, and that is just not good enough from my point of view.
I have been thinking of investing in a industry designed work bench with a hood and air vents etc., and I found a very nice one at this site (only Norwegian text, but has some nice images); www.snapa.no/limebenk.htm - sadly, these are very expensive (this one is actually intended for model builders i.e.), but it might be worth it.
Of course one can build a similar hood on your own, but be aware if using electric fans, which can make a dangerous situation with possible sparks from those if you're airbrushing in the hood.
I think there are now resin materials which are safer to work with than earlier. I found this site for a company dealing with "aqua-resin" (water-based);
www.rllucas.com/index.html
It sounds to be much safer to work with, especially if one is casting. But I believe the problem with the dust particles etc. if cutting, milling i.e. is still the same ?
Has anybody experience or knowledge about water-based resins ?
Maybe I'm exaggerating about these health risks (I hope so!), but I think we shall have this in mind anyway.
I wish welcome here any knowledge, experiences, thoughts, ideas etc. about possible health risks and how to protect ourselves against any nasty stuff which may occur in our hobby. After all, our own health is the most important.
