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Spray area in the basement - Bad Idea?
Im going with Ekoprime for the interior pieces. I've setup a small spray booth in the basement. By booth I mean I have plastic on 2 walls and the floor. Probably going to add a shower curtain to make a 4 walled area.
With that said I haven't setup any type of direct ventilation or exhaust. How much or an issue is the odor and overspray with smaller parts? Paints arriving this weekend and trying to figure out what to expect. |
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I don't know Ekoprime or it's chemistry, so cant really help much. At a minimum, your house is going to stink and the better half will be quite unhappy. My wife complains when I spray in the garage and almost no smell gets in the house. Larry |
Get some extraction and a furnace filter.
I primed all my wings using Ekoprime, and have just finished my fuselage skins before temperatures get below 20degC here, as Ekoprime doesn't work well below those temps (the lowest I've pulled off is 18degC). I paint outside with a hobbyair system (because I had it already) and admit that there is almost no vapor smell once I take my mask off, especially compared to the self etch primer I used to use. From the way I see it, you will still need some type of extraction fan. It doesn't have to be a blast proof fan because it is not flammable, but you should definitely get something to extract with (and a filter), especially if you are only using an organic vapor respirator. The downside of having no smell is that if you have any breakthrough around the mask (i.e. not a tight seal or have not shaved that day) you will not know you are breathing Ekopoxy particles. Thus, limiting the concentration in the air is not a bad thing. The other thing is that the mist will build up, making it hard to see your work, especially if you are doing a large batch. The particles do stay airborne for quite some time, especially if you are using a smaller nozzle regular gun, which I have found works so long as you add a little more water to the batch (I use an A:B:Water ratio of 5:1:1.75 instead of the 5:1:1 recommended for a 1.3mm HVLP setup). I hope this is of some help.
Regards, Tom. |
Check MSDS! ISOs can and have killed people! it is a sensitizer that is BAD! that said.....I am painting as I go, in fact, epoxy primer the fuse today, you will need to move a lot of air to get the spray out and then a lower volume while it is curing, I try to do it when no one is home and then ventilate the house, the garage doors are all taped up and sealed but the fumes still get in??? still married!.....another issue is filtration, when you move in fresh air it needs to be filtered and depending where you live, you may need to filter the exhaust. in the end it is very rewarding. a word on masks, the fresh air is the best, I use a 3M full face with organic filters, this has a protection factor of 50, the half mask is 10, also need to cover all skin areas.
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Explosions
Use great caution if any dust, thinners or paints are combustable!. Think of sources of spark in your paint area. Water heaters? Fans?
I own a guitar that was a friends who died when the floor tile glue he was using flashed off near his water heater! Think of the dust setting off explosions at grain and sugar mills and storage facilities. Caution! |
I have used Ekoprime on all my parts so far. It appears to do a great job.
I set up a down draft table to trap the overspray. Even without a spray booth that trapped 95% or more of the overspray. The best part about Ekoprime is I can leave it in a dedicated gun and not have to worry about it setting up. Just grab, shake and spray. There are solids that tend to settle so I leave the gun upside down between uses (A cheap HF $15 gun). For those that are not familiar with Ekoprime, it is a one part (no mixing), non-toxic, water based primer sold by Stewart Systems. (http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalo...imersealer.php) For a down draft table make a frame of 2x4s, cover the table top with the plastic mesh fencing from Home Depot. Wrap the bottom with a tarp and install two box fans at either end with the fine furnace filters duct taped over them. Overspray will go right through the fencing material and the fans will pull the overspray through the filters. I'll even leave it on for a good while after I spray to re-filter the shop air and clean up the last bits in the air. You can see the top of my table in the bottom pic here (http://www.mykitlog.com/users/displa...=203949&row=97) Also, mine is screwed together with deck screws and can be taken apart and moved in about 10 mins. One word of warning is that the table will not work on large pieces as the overspray will reflect back off the larger surface and into the air above the table. It is fantastic for small pieces. |
not to start the old war; but there are thousands of unprimed 40-50 year old Cessna's still going strong.
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I'm kind of in agreement with Tom. Priming has been a huge PITA for me, not to mention that you are scuffing up perfectly good alclad (which is there to prevent corrosion) with scotchbrite before you lay the primer down. Even though I've primed my aircraft, if I was in the situation where I was building in the basement, I would only be priming the non alclad parts per Van's requirements, with Ekoprime over a downdraft spray table. Use at a minimum a full face organic vapor mask (if you can't afford a hobbyair system) THAT FITS WELL and shave before use. I'd go for the new 3M FX model (I have the older 3M full face and I hear this is a lot more comfortable - very important because you will be using it a lot).
http://www.amazon.com/3M-Facepiece-R.../dp/B00AR63TRS Match it to some good organic vapor cartridges. Use P100 not P95 particulate filters for the best protection. The following ones have the P100 filter inbuilt. http://www.amazon.com/3M-Cartridge-6...or+acid+gas+3m From my perspective, the tanks are even worse than the priming. I blew through 4 sets of organic vapor cartridges during the month I built them. So keep this in mind should you go down the route of the standard build. I may be a little OCD about this though, because I also wear a half face 3M 7501 respirator when cutting and edge finishing, because who wants scotchbrite and aluminum dust in your lungs? After a few days of edge finishing my filters will be completely grey. Keep the aircraft hangared when you have finished, and if you're worried about not being able to sell it in the future, go find a customer in Arizona or New Mexico where nothing corrodes. My two cents. I'd just hate to see you make this build a misery then not get it completed. Cheers. Tom. |
One more post... probably a bad idea since I am generally going against the conventional wisdom here.
Ekoprime is a game changer in my opinion (based on actual use) so far as priming is concerned. Water based, single component, non-toxic and no VOC (volatile organic compounds ... read organic solvents). It is essentially like working with a latex house paint. I fill a dedicated HF spray gun and leave it in the gun. I store the gun upside down between uses as there is some solids settling that will clog the gun otherwise. When I need to prime a part, I turn on the downdraft table, shake the gun well and spray. No muss, no fuss and no clean up. The gun goes back upside down with a quick wipe of the nozzle ready for the next use. 15-30 min dry time and ready to assemble. (It will harden further over night and makes it less likely to scuff) I wear a simple good quality dust mask. Organic cartridge respirators are not needed since there is no VOC (organic compounds) in the paint. (By the way, I am a chemist and have some significant experience here) Any overspray that does get loose settles as dry dust and can be wiped up easily with a wet rag. My shop is not part of the house so I can only say on smell that it is minimal. Certainly less than painting a room in the house. So my suggestion is (only with Ekoprime) build a downdraft table and try it out. If you don't like the result, then move it outside somewhere. |
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