BMatthews

OK, now I gots a funny one. I didn't put it in earlier because it didn't happen to ME....

A couple of months back my boss was repairing some sort of household gizmo using some CA we use at work. He felt it get onto one of his fingers so he pulled that one away from holding the object, being the safe and sensible sort of course. However he was concentrating so hard on holding the bit of the gizmo together firmly until the glue set off that he didn't notice that the end of the finger with the extra glue was in contact with the top of my bench! ! ! Yep. One boss and bench combo. It was a reallll good bond too. All of you here know how with a bit of perseverance and patience you can detach the model from your fingers without major surgery and only a slight loss of trackable DNA ( I loved that DNA tracing bit ) but in this case the hardwood benchtop did NOT want to let go of his finger. Weeeelllll right at that moment while I'm laughing the wife phones and asks me what I'm doing. I'm laughing at her that I'm watching the boss glued to my workbench and he's looking VERY sheepish while laughing hard as well.

Eventually I took pity on him and passed him a bottle of Windex to spray onto the Siamese Joint so I could get him out of the way and go back to doing something. He's been a bit gunshy of using CA glue since then.... go figure....

XJet

I keep a bottle of acetone on the shelf over my workbench -- I believe acetone will disolve CA but haven't needed to test this theory yet (touch wood -- damn, now my finger's stuck to the bench :-)

jessiej

I am VERY conscious of eye safety as I have only one left, and was blind in both for two years.

There are any number of chemicals that we use in modeling as well as everyday life that are potentially VERY dangerous.
, not to mention various flying objects, chips from tools etc.

I has always thought Acid was the most dangerous, but my opthamologist says he can usually save an eye exposed to acid, a strong alkali (as in drain cleaner) causes far worse damage.

Rendegade

I'm assuming that's becuase it turns your body to soap??

mmm soap...

Also speaking of eye damage, I've also been told that Methyl Alcohol is highly dangerous and causes retinal damage, and even worse it's absorbed through the skin.

Anyone care to confirm or deny this theory?

BMatthews

A large number of chemicals we take for granted are absorbed through the skin. The epoxy I talked about earlier is one of them that is also accumulative so much so that from one day to the next you can develop a serious alergy.

Most of the common solvents like paint thinner, lacquer thinner, alchohal (as you mentioned) acetone, toluene and Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK) are all guilty of that. And MEK in particular has been linked (IIRC) to cancer.

Makes you want to switch to paper paste and water colors don't it! ! ! ! !

Rendegade

No.

It doesn't. I'll take my acrylic laquers and spray guns to the grave...


TO THE GRAVE ALICE!!!!

bsindel

After reading about all the problems with the chemicals used in modeling I think my new shop will be equipped with rubber gloves, respirators, and safety goggles.

Bill S. (The other Bill)

Digger-RCU

Methanol (wood alcohol) will in fact cause blindness if you drink it.
Its pretty rare, but hard core alcoholics sometimes drink very strange things.


Methanol causes optic nerve atrophy. even small doses can be very dangerous

Randy (Digger) Birt

XJet

Actually I go through a couple of boxes of those disposable latex gloves a year. They're great when you're working with epoxy, gasoline, or anything else that otherwise makes a mess of your hands.

XJet

And what's more, its readily absorbed through the skin. I shudder when I think of how much glow-fuel has passed my lips while blowing/sucking out fuel blockages when I was a kid -- eeeewww!

Bipe Flyer

If I use Latex gloves my hands burn for 2 days afterwards. I've tried vinyl, but they're like trying to work with boxing gloves.

I think that I will switch to one chemical for use as a solvent, thinner and fuel... Ethanol. "Oops, got some in my mouth, oops got a little more, oopsh shum more... where's the orange juice?"

Just the other day I was desoldering something and I didn't realize that the wire was under a little strain. As soon as I touched the iron to the wire it flung loose and flicked some solder into my eye. Man, that hurt! Luckily it was a very tiny amount and it must have bounced off of my eye. I've been soldering for over 20 years and I'll never do it again without safety glasses. I've been wearing sunglasses while starting my planes ever since I had a prop spin off and hit me in the chin.

BMatthews

Bipe, get some Nitrile thin and flexible gloves. They are usually a pale blue and are disposable just like the latex ones. You're not the first person to have an allergy to latex. In fact there are medical clinics that offer latex free environments just for folks like you. The Nitrile thin disposables are a trifle more money but it's good to have them. They are flexible and offer the same sort of dexterity as the thin latex gloves. And bonus, they aren't dissolved and ruined in moments when exposed to petrochemical solvents like latex gloves are.

And if you're done with that special solvent I'd like some to put into my hot chocolate....

Bipe Flyer

Thanks for the tip Bruce. I wasn't aware of Nitrile gloves.

I have a painfully funny story regarding my Latex allergy.
I had to go to emergency once because of an altercation involving an APC prop, a Norvel .074 and my finger. I notified the attending physician, who happened to be my family doctor, that I had a Latex allergy. The only non-latex gloves he could find were about 2 sizes too small for him. He did his best OJ Simpson impression and squeezed his hands into the gloves with a grimace. He than proceeded to freeze my finger and then after a couple of minutes, stitch it. The freezing had just started to take effect on one side of my finger but when he got to the other I told him that it wasn't frozen yet. He said "good" and proceeded with the last few stitches. Needless to say we were both relieved when he was done. My finger didn't start to feel numb until the drive home.

beenie

My Feedback: (9)

I think that the nitrile gloves offer more protection from MEK and other chemicals than the latex ones. And they don't give people allergies. I don't know how much protection the vinyl gloves offer. We use MEK like water at work and it is handled very casually by some employees. Methel Ethel Ketone is very bad for you! I think that it even is absorbed through latex gloves.

Oh yeah, there isn't a plane or boat that I have built that doesn't have some skin on it. I have also got some in the eye, fortunatly it wasn't enough to cause trouble. However, I did put a piece of wood in my mouth to hold it, and ended up gluing it to my lips, teeth, and tounge.

Big_3Dan

Well you haven't heard dum yet! A while ago i was at the field withe the guys when sombody asked for a bottle of CA to do some minor repairs. I went ahead and looked for mine for them to use. Since they used the bottle and I had cargo shorts on I put the CA bottle on my pocket to take out later. a few minutes passed and I forgot bout the damn CA bottle....we had to do a quick run to the LHS and to my surprise when I tried to get out of the car my shorts where glued to my brand new car seat!!!! leaving a little scar in the seat

Fortunatly I wasn't burned with the chemical reaction of the CA.

BMatthews

Good one Bipe. I guess he figured that if HE had to suffer..... LOL

I found out during a big hospital stay a decade ago that I have a severe allergy to one of the adhesives used quite commonly on medical adhesive tape. The blisters and resulting scabs the tape raised caused WAY more pain, itching and suffering than the actual operation did.

Beenie, a buddy of mine is in the aircraft building and modification industry and, like you, uses MEK like water. Unlike his co-workers though he IS aware of the risks of this very nasty solvent. But trying to inform his co-workers of this is like trying ask a mountain to step aside. So how long was the stick in your mouth....

Dan, I heard or read about someone that was having problems with the nozzle clogging and rather than clear it properley they just squeEEZZZZED. Yep, the top popped off and dumped a bunch of thin into their lap. It soaked into the pants, through the underwear and onto the "you know what" and then fired off. The burn was nasty but not too bad but the real problem was that the guy had to go to the emergency room walking in a position like he was still sitting because his stiff pants and glue bonds to the "delicates" wouldn't let him stand up at all.

ZAGNUT

My Feedback: (1)

yeah, i've glued the ol' nut sack to the chair too....was working nekked and decided i wanted a little more glue at the joint between the fuse side and the top/bottom sheeting. big hole in the bottle let out too much glue and it ran right out of the fuselage tail that was wedged between two of my three legs [:@]

epoxy is worse though. in my business i use a lot of the stuff for pouring THICK bar-tops and tables, sometimes as much as a ton for a single job. even though i always use gloves i never let the stuff get near me. my partner is a different story...after a pouring session he would have the stuff covering his arms, face and clothes. then he would clean the stuff off with a rag soaked in nitro thinner. now after 3 years of working with epoxy he has started to develop all kinds of allergic reactions to the stuff, just smelling it can make him sick.

dave

2fast4u

My Feedback: (5)

First time I ever used CA......

I had a glider with a foam wing and a Cox power pod above the wing. I had a wreck. Tried to glue a patch to the wing. Needless to say, I sat there with a stupid look on my face while my right wing panel disapeared in front of my eyes. Wow, that event was wild.

ChuckAuger

My Feedback: (12)

#1: To check if my CA tip is clogged before I get everything just right, I hold it near my ear and listen for the "whoosh" of air to indicate it's open. And I had just filled my thin CA bottle from the big jug. Yep, whooshed a solid stream of thin all over the side of my face, and just a little into my ear. Hint: If you ever find yourself with a CA covered face, that handy paper towel isn't what you want to use to get it off. The handy paper towel will only make it kick so you will now have not only CA, but fragments of HPT stuck to your face.

#2: A buddy and I were flying CL down at the school. I dorked the plane, but had CA and kicker handy (hehe..Handy!) It was cold, our hands were pretty numb (still snow banks in the shade...) and my buddy is holding the plane while I squirted thin CA into the cracks. Into and out the back of the cracks. Onto his hand that was too cold to notice that it was now covered with CA. "Hold it RIGHT THERE while I hit it with the kicker! Let me get the back, too!" When the kicker hit his CA soaked hand, you could see it start to smoke. It was about then that he regained feeling in his hand! I could tell by the way he was cussing (and the smoke was a dead give away...). He stuck his smoking claw (didn't really look like a hand now..) into a snow bank to cool it off.

Ah, the fond memories!

BMatthews

Zagnut, if it EVER comes up do NOT reply to any requests from me to see pics of you working in your shop.... [X(]

Good one Chuck.... LOL

bigchap

I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING STUPID WITH C.A.BUT SOMEBODY DID IT TO ME!MY 7 YEAR OLD SON WAS ABOUT 4 AT THE TIME AND HAD CUT HIS HEAD QUITE BADLY,WE TOOK HIM TO THE HOSPITAL,THEY CHECKED HIM OVER AND DECIDED TO GLUE RATHER THAN SUTURE THE WOUND,THE DOCTOR ASKED IF I COULD HELP BY PINCHING THE CUT TOGETHER WHILST SHE USED THE GLUE,THIS I DID AND SHE PROMPTLY GLUED MY FINGERS TO HIS HEAD!IMAGINE IF YOU CAN A VERY UPSET 4 YEAR OLD THRASHING ABOUT WITH HIS DADS FINGERS GLUED TO HIS HEAD!GO ON - LAUGH,I DID AFTERWARDS!I DON'T KNOW WHO MAKES THAT CA BUT I WOULD LIKE SOME, IT MAKES AN INCREDIBLE BOND!

Rendegade

Big Chap, turn your caps lock off, there's no need to yell in this forum!

Clean

I remembered that I had forgotten to glue something after taking a shower one night, so I ran down and opened the CA to glue it and got a squirt towards my body. I didn't quite jump back far enough. No skin got glued, but I did have to shave the affected hair.

For a month I was a naked as a new born boy, it's a different feeling I tell ya what!

codyhenning

My Feedback: (6)

Well let me see..........Iv never really glued my eyes or sheetrock to my head, but i have many a time glued my fingers and hands. Probibally the stupidest thing iv done was use it on a soft styraphome wing and it just melted it like a hot flame would. That kinda sucked because it was homemade and it took quite a while to sand when i was making it.