working with resin

[FUSIONBOY]

I recently bought the jimmy flintstone concept t/a kit that works with the 06 amt camaro kit.

this being my first time working with a resin body I was very impressed with the detail and quality of this moulding.

My question is , what precaution do I need to take when sanding the body to remove excess resin and clean up mold lines?

I'm working in my den due to the SD winter and don't want to kill the dog or send the kids to a respritory therapist cause dad sanded resin in the house, I have a good 3-m brand dust mask to use, but what about the fall out from sanding in the house? any help is welcome, again this body has me wanting to try more with the resin folks already.

[Art Anderson]

I recently bought the jimmy flintstone concept t/a kit that works with the 06 amt camaro kit.

this being my first time working with a resin body I was very impressed with the detail and quality of this moulding.

My question is , what precaution do I need to take when sanding the body to remove excess resin and clean up mold lines?

I'm working in my den due to the SD winter and don't want to kill the dog or send the kids to a respritory therapist cause dad sanded resin in the house, I have a good 3-m brand dust mask to use, but what about the fall out from sanding in the house? any help is welcome, again this body has me wanting to try more with the resin folks already.

Do any sanding wet, when done, wash off the "mud" at the sink, and away go troubles down the drain!" Now, what was your problem?

Art

[Modelmartin]

Ditto what Art says! It is just inert dust. Urethanes resins are pretty mild and when cured they are no more hazardous than styrene plastic dust. In other words - not!

[Aaronw]

Ditto what Art says! It is just inert dust. Urethanes resins are pretty mild and when cured they are no more hazardous than styrene plastic dust. In other words - not!

Were older resins nastier than the current ones? Resin dust has gotten a reputation for being a bit worse than some of the things we play with, but perhaps it is not a deserved reputation.

[Brendan]

Any dust particle is harmful to your lungs. Just get into the habit of wearing a mask whenever you do sanding.

What most people's concerns with working with resin is developing contact allergies to it. Which can happen. (A very small percentage of people develop contact allergies.) I have a contact allergy with resin so I wear gloves whenever I'm handling it. I am especially cautious when sanding as it can irritate my lungs. Another thing to get used to is that whenever you touch resin, wash your hands with soap and water. That's what my doctor and my brother who is a Biochemist said to do.

[FUSIONBOY]

Thanks guys for all the feed back on the resin question, this body has been easy to work with, a little harder removing the flash from it but all together not bad. i would sure buy another from jimmyflintstone in a heart beat.

[Modelmartin]

Were older resins nastier than the current ones? Resin dust has gotten a reputation for being a bit worse than some of the things we play with, but perhaps it is not a deserved reputation.

Some of the resin from the 70s and early 80s were pretty foul smelling. I don't know if they were more toxic or not. As Brendan has said, it is the dust that gets in your lungs and sinuses that is harmful. It doesn't matter what kind of dust it is.

[Art Anderson]

Any dust particle is harmful to your lungs. Just get into the habit of wearing a mask whenever you do sanding.

What most people's concerns with working with resin is developing contact allergies to it. Which can happen. (A very small percentage of people develop contact allergies.) I have a contact allergy with resin so I wear gloves whenever I'm handling it. I am especially cautious when sanding as it can irritate my lungs. Another thing to get used to is that whenever you touch resin, wash your hands with soap and water. That's what my doctor and my brother who is a Biochemist said to do.

While of course, there can be contact allergies with resin, even some people are affected by the fumes given off by the liquid polyurethane components, as a general rule, polyurethane resin isn't at all harmful once cured. The basic resins are used in the auto industry, almost universally, for soft bumper covers, and the stuff is available in every paint store in the land, as urethane varnish.

As for "resin dust", I really have a problem with all the hoo-hah over this issue! For starters, sanding a resin body dry will do one thing for sure, clog up your sandpaper very quickly indeed, so why sand it dry, when wet sanding is what we almost always do with putties or styrene? Resin sanding residue mixed with water doesn't float in the air, it gets rinsed down the drain at my place. When I have used my Dremels with resin castings, I found, with great interest, that the residue removed dropped pretty straightaway to the floor, rather than floating in mid-air--but then I use carbide cutters in my Dremels almost exclusively, their sanding drums just have no place at my workbench.

Over my years of resin casting, I used literally several thousand gallons of polyurethane resin, wore PPE (in my case, first latex exam gloves, then changed to nitrile gloves) and that was to keep resin from curing on my fingers, which had the effect of armor-plating the skin, to the point that it would split and crack painfully--lesson that was learned VERY quickly. I always used more than ample ventilation--the shop venue I had had nearly 10,000 cubic feet of air in it, and I simply kept the HVAC blower on at all times, winter and summer, which system brought in approximately 10% fresh air constantly.

Perhaps the biggest, and least recognized hazard with polyurethane resin is its flammability. The stuff is extemely flammable, in both liquid, and cured states, particularly with the thin scrap, or flash, and with the residue from cutting or sawing. I tested some of this once, and was amazed at how fast the stuff does burn, and how hard it is to put out, so I was very careful to keep all the scrap swept up, and out to the dumpster.

As for hazards if the cured resin is ingested, the stuff is virtually inert to all but petroleum solvents, not water soluble at all--in fact the MSDS for the stuff I used made no mention of any ingestion hazard for cured product, only the liquid resin and hardener.

I hope this lays to rest a few of the urban legends out there about urethane resin, and points out ways to minimize any mess or hazards that do result.

Art

Edited March 1, 2009 by Art Anderson