Paint has been a '10 year' question; after watching my petit easypoxy flake off my work skiff after 10 years, I decided to try awlgrip. The $150/gallon from west marine, but also excellent prices and service on all the rest of the reagents from defender dot com sealed the deal. I was very concerned about the fumes from Awlgrip. For example, the fumes from a few drops of paint on my shoes was enough to give me a headache. I approached the awlgrip like epoxy (e.g. potlife, mixing, cleanup, SAFETY), and even double checked my approach with AkzoNobel after that headache... it turns out the safety phone number in the awlgrip application guide is for chemical spills; I finally got someone to answer questions about which 3M mask and filters I should be using (correct answer is 6001 ORGANIC VAPOR CARTRIDGES / 3M 5N11 OR 3M5P71 PRE-FILTER WITH 501 FILTER HOLDER, which is what I use).
I've been asking around on a few boat forums and it seems that folks can develop some pretty gnarly medical stuff (specifically autoimmune, I would include rare cancers), perhaps from sanding/inhaling curing or uncured paint/epoxy/poly etc. There seems to be a little shame or unwillingness to share stories outright, likely because getting sick from doing this activity we all love seems kind of silly, but anyway the more I hear, the more vigilant I am about always wearing some form of 3M mask (curing vinylester stinks; don't do it in a carport or basement). NOT a political statement in anyway, it's just all the fiberglass dust I see around my work space. I guess as a last comment on safety... I made a whaler13 interior from mahogany last year, and one guy told me about mahogany sawdust being toxic. So I started pubmed'ing (
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, search terms: plywood, epoxy toxicity, plywood dust, etc) and it turns out even plywood dust is not great to be inhaling. Who knew! I read every MSDS I get, usually just to find out what chemicals are actually being sold. For example, Im pretty sure the rhino bedliner product is similar chemistry to awlgrip, but do your own literature search. Doing your own 'research' means test tubes and pipettes, so have at it if you want, but googing shit online is not research (THAT is my political statement).
Anyway, I 'see through the mask' by being scared shitless that these boat projects might be making me sick... for sure these boats aren't great for my mental health! Im still grumpy about my doghouse roof being too square and not 'curvy' enough, nevermind how awlgrip highlights all the spots where I should have done more faring/sanding... oh well there's always next time.
12-21-2021, 12:54 PM
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