I work with epoxy almost

Posted by CharlieJ on Sep 2, 2004

every day, both at the shop where I'm building a boat and here at home where I'm restoring a boat.

I have boxes of gloves in the shop, in the boat here at the house, and in my small shop here. I DO NOT work with epoxy or polyester resins without them. I also don gloves while mixing the epoxy primers I use, while mixing the 2 part polys I spray AND while cleaning the guns after either of them.

As far as keeping the stuff off clothes, my work clothes are what I wear every day so I use heavy aprons over them when working with epoxies (or any thing else messy) at the bench. Down inside the boats that isn't usually feasible so I just try hard to not get against uncured epoxy.

I don't wear respirators while rolling epoxies, but I do wear protection while sanding. I use the 3M 8210 disposable respirators for that. Actually the epoxy dusts aren't as bad for your lungs as sanding dust from wood, but there's no reason to chance it. Microscopicly the wood dusts look like little sand spurs while the epoxy dust is rounded.

This does NOT comment on the sensitising effects that are certainly possible with partially cured epoxy.

I have tyvek suits at the shop, but in our current 98+ temps (and humidity) I'd die trying to wear one. If spraying inside a boat I'd certainly wear one though, particularly with the two part polys..

Just be sensible, work as cleanly as possible and you will do fine.

In Response to: Safe handling epoxy/glass by Michelle Moran on Sep 1, 2004

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