It was great while it lasted...

How much of the work are you doing with the outside air rig?

 

A good amount: Anything involving heating or machining the foam. Which reminds me... that's another factor. I have a hazmat with forced air on AND I am holding a 1500 watt quartz heater at the same time. Talk about hot! I'm doing that stuff at night only.

All bogging and layups are done using a standard OV NIOSH charcoal respirator.

 

I use the P-100's on a half or full mask for most of the grinding and sanding work I run into:

http://www.coopersafety.com/product/3m-2091-p100-filter-2-pack-1594.aspx

 

The way ice de-humidifies is that warm moist air condenses the water vapor onto the ice when it comes into contact with it. The ice, being in a condensation pan, captures the water, which can be drained to the outside through a tube mounted low on the pan itself. 1/" tubing like that which feeds your ice-maker is all that is required.

 

Cat, they sell a neck wrap you freez or keep in your ice chest, you need ice packs and ice on hand when working alone. Ice or cold water on the wrist is the fastest way to cool off if over heated, ice pack on the neck as well. I would think ice in the corners would need to be put head high or higher to do any good. You might look into dry ice as an option, maybe put it in a galvanized water keg with a fan blowing on it . rick

 

Agreed, but dry ice is dangerous. It could bring on a heart attack.

 

If your building is not insulated to a min. of r12 there is no way to air condition it. There are silver coloured tarps that should reduce the suns heat buildup in the building by half but this does nothing for the humidity which of course is one of the big factors in the setting off your epoxy. I would build a small moveable work room that you could move along the hull as you work and use both a humidifier(which also cools) and an air conditioner to keep that room at low humidity and cool. Just a light frame tarp covered and insulated by stapleing on freigh blankets over the outside with them skirting along the floor. Set the whole affair on wheels with the de humidifier and the air conditioner attached and fed with an extention cord. If you had a 2 foot or so work opening facing your area to be worked the two units should keep up. Borrow a house window style air conditioned and de humidifier and experiment before buying vests and all the other experimental gear. --Geo.

 

I'm sorry, Geo, but a couple points here need correction.

It doesn't matter if the building is insulated. If it were, I'd need less power than 10 tons. This is the value calculated by no less than 3 air conditioning vendors who were looking at the job.

Also, humidity does not make epoxy kick faster. Temperature is the only variable that causes it to go off faster.

 

Here is one type of salt de-humidifier: http://www.ehow.com/how_7451206_diy-salt-dehumidifier.html

 

Also- we drag a huge radiant film tarp over our tent in the summer.
It keeps the workers from cooking while trying to get work done.

 

Just a though but a garden sprinkler over the tent to cool it down.. Anyway it's easy to test it if it helps.

 

I was always under the impression that humidity played a role in epoxy setting off-- Maybe it's another old wifes tale someone started. However the smaller tent type affair was an idea i'd seen with a guy stripping his hull, I was surprised it was actually alot cooler when he allowed me to try it. Well, worth a mention--as they say you can dress for the cold but are very limited to do so for the heat. Give me cooler climates any day that heat just saps ya--Geo.

 

It does- mostly at the lower end of the temperature scale though high humidity has deleterious effect on laminating work at the high end as well.

http://msdssearch.dow.com/Published...poxy/pdfs/noreg/296-01667.pdf&fromPage=GetDoc

 

I knew I had read something about it somewhere, and heard others mention it. It probably is more applicable here in terms of temperature but humidity is not one of our big problems.
Tnx. for that reference. --Geo.

 

It would cool the tent some temporarily but would do nothing for the humidity. If the water drips through the tent it could mess up the laminate in progress. Tarping the top and southern side of the tent would be the most effective way to cool the tent short of gizmos.