grinder woes...

I own the company Cat

 

I have talked with .R> Watson from Gougeon about this. Epoxy is green for many days. It is curing well past when it turns hard. Several years ago wewere building a small cat and were really pouring the coal to it. South Florida and fast hardener and heat lamps. Bouncing from one hull to the other. We were using dust masks and gloves and sleeves but all of a sudden a couple of guys started to see some skin irritations. This can come from exposure to lots of dust. You absorb the stuff through your pores. We had to re-evaluate our processes and allow a little more time for the epoxy to cure a little more and not allow dust to accumulate anywhere. No more problems. The saying I learned was 8 minutes of work in a boat with a mini grinder takes 4-8 hours of clean up. The dust comes off a a very high velocity and much of it becomes airborn. One trick is to use lower rpm tool. This makes it much easier to have someone catch the dust with a vacumm held closeand the lower speed means lower velocity for the dust. I really like the small air right angle sanders from Dynabrade. http://www.dynabrade.com/dyn10/content.php?page=catalog They cal this a 2" sander but they sell 3" velcro disks that fit the tool and they are either hard flat plastic or soft foam. It only turns at 3200 rpm and it is very controllable. It is one of my favorite tools. I also have a pair of small 3" Snap ON sanders that are very nice. One is a DA and one is a straight rotary. They both turn at 6,000 but the small diameter means the dust comes off at a slower velocity. I buy boxes of 3" velcro disks from Klingspor. We use lots of the 40 and 60 grit disks. If dust control is really critical we will sometimes chuck a disk up in a cordless drill . They are really slow and won't launch the dust in the same manner as a mini grinder. I love sanding

 

You, my friend, probably don't use your vacuum to make your living. I do. Believe me, they are NOT a scam. I OWN the company. If I catch a guy blowing dust all over a house, the first time, he will dust that house on his own time. The second time, he will not have a job.

I used to pay a guy $20/hr to go outside, clean out the vacuum and filter, and then HOPE it wouldn't blow dust afterwards. Now, I pop in a $6 bag, suck up 20 lbs + of the nastiest dust you can imagine with ZERO dust blowing from the exhaust. When it's full, I throw the bag away and pop in a new one.

This system saves me money, and my homeowners RAVE about how incredibly CLEAN we kept their home. That is a MAJOR referral point, and it helps keep our schedule full. Vacuum bags are NOT a scam... they are AWESOME.

BUT, that being said, if it doesn't matter to you if dust blows or not, or if you have lots of free time, with nothing better to do than clean out vacuums, maybe they are not worthwhile for you.

I like my lungs, don't want to develop any allergies, and keeping clean is important to me. So they are worth every penny in my situation.

-TH

 

Boatsmith David,

Good post! I agree about the lower-rpm sanders/grinders.

I have a small, variable-speed 4-1/2" electric that I LOVE for just that reason! Believe it or not, I bought it from Harbor Freight tools maybe 15 years ago. With a heavy grit on low speed setting, you can scarify a section to be bonded with very little dust, and you always have the option to crank it up to deal with a tough spot.

I've found this electric makes less dust than my air tools, but I don't have that model you mention, so they are probably very similar.

Thanks for the link.

-TH

 

You get immune to it after a while, some people are very sensitive to polyester. I don't use a vac or a masc but I do back pressure wash my sinuses with a hose pipe at the end of the day. But I don't do it for a living and I generally leave grinding jobs till 10 minutes to 5 and run like hell to the bath room.

PS I knock off at 5.

 

David, thill- I couldn't agree more.

I do processes which produce from a few grams of glass fiber dust/debris up to hundreds of pounds on each job.
Choosing the correct tooling and controlling debris is critical for job efficiency, safety, cost and work quality.

It all takes money- mine.
I have tens of thousands of dollars invested in machinery and tools. I buy more every year to insure that I can produce quality work for my clients at appropriate costs, and so that I and my workers can works efficiently and safely.

A decent vac runs $300 plus. They work so well that I wouldn't consider buying anything else.

The lowly Fein Multimaster pays big dividends for debris control in the work it is suited for.
I used to have to do cutting work with cut wheels on right angle grinders- whew, what a mess.

Take a look:
http://coastalmanagement.noaa.gov/marinas.html
http://www.mainemarinetrades.com/

The marine industry is under pressure from regulators.
VOC compliance, environmental protection, urban proximity to sites, and Safety are high attention issues- we are under risk of being shut down by regulations.

All marine businesses have a responsibility to literally 'clean up their act'.


Cheers all