How to (almost) kill yourself with brake cleaner

[urbanXJ]

Originally Posted by skierd

http://www.brewracingframes.com/id75.htm

Be careful out there guys, especially those of you welding or other high heat type jobs on the bike.

I wonder if the old school break cleaner (dichloromethane) would do the same.

Anyway, I used to roll plastic laminate, and the glue we used (and the solvent for clenup) was loaded with Hexane, MEK, Tolune and all flavors of organic solvents. The guy I used to work for just died of liver cancer.

He never gave me any protection. The skin on my hands peeled for years after quit that job.

[D.T.]

Chlorinated or non-chlorinated brake cleaner is bad, or both? I found the non stuff works much better, so that's what I usually get.

I just used some non chlorinated this morning. Didn't get in anywhere near a flame though.

[ttpete]

Originally Posted by D.T.

Chlorinated or non-chlorinated brake cleaner is bad, or both? I found the non stuff works much better, so that's what I usually get.

I just used some non chlorinated this morning. Didn't get in anywhere near a flame though.

Chlorinated is pretty much gone now, it's not allowed. I have a few quarts of trichlorethane left, and am saving it for special jobs.

[coppertop]

The senior design project (mechanical engineering) I worked on involved a lot of hand lay-up fiberglassing. We used epoxy resin at one stage as we were building a plug on shaped polystyrene foam blocks and the regular polyester resin would melt the polystyrene. Warnings in the epoxy literature were about not using a solvent of any kind to get the stuff off your skin, lest the dissolved epoxy components invade your interior and sensitize you to the stuff.

When we got to the point where we were using the polyester resin, my wife made me change my clothes in the garage so I wouldn't bring the stink into the house. A machinist for the facility loaned us a book on fiberglass kayak building. It had a safety chapter wherein the authors described the contamination they found in the rabbits they kept adjacent to their fiberglassing shop. Makes me think pretty hard before I commit to making something out of fiberglass.

[Domiken]

Thats sucks...! Noted for the future

[mark1150]

Originally Posted by Inane Cathode

Cant remember which, either r12 or r134 but when it burns it makes mustard gas.

Freeon?

[ttpete]

Originally Posted by Inane Cathode

Cant remember which, either r12 or r134 but when it burns it makes mustard gas.

Actually, it's phosgene. And this is why one has to be careful when using a halide torch leak detector. It applies to ALL types of freon based refrigerants. This is also true of chlorinated solvents such as trichloroethane.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene

[aboveangkor]

Never let freon get into a running engine.I was told that you can get 99% of what it takes to kill you today and 20 years later get the other 1% and your fucked.

[D.T.]

I don't remember them telling us about the halide torch leak detector shit...

Glad I maybe used it once or twice years ago.

[Foot dragger]

Cripes! I wouldnt use carb cleaner,much less brake cleaner, to clean before welding even if somebody paid me,the minute I read "carb cleaner" and welding something sounded bad. Ive done some welding but would use regular solvent and then excessive amounts of air hose blasting along with drying time/low heat.

Phosgene gas,damn lucky to live through breathing one small puff of it,jeeez louize,be careful out there.

[eepeqez]

Originally Posted by duck

Not that it seems to matter too much in this case but I probably would've gone to the hospital a little sooner than that guy.

I was just staggered at the idea of having an experience like that and not fronting up to casualty (ER) at the nearest hospital immediately, not a few hours later, and certainly not 9 days later after waiting through a range of symptoms that clearly indicate serious damage is happening.

I forget that unlike almost anywhere else in the first world, going to a doctor or a hospital in America is a seriously expensive experience. I'm sure that people's willingness to seek treatment early because direct expenses are not an issue is one reason other health care systems achieve better outcomes at far less overall cost.

[ttpete]

Originally Posted by D.T.

I don't remember them telling us about the halide torch leak detector shit...

Glad I maybe used it once or twice years ago.

Think about someone smoking around freon and pulling it in through the burning cigarette.....

[cat]

Originally Posted by rdsmith3

same here. I remember playing with mercury as a kid.

Originally Posted by Mugwest

man-- talk about a contact Buzz... as i was reading this thread just now with a sinking feeling in my guts at all the stupid hazmat abuse i've done (both for pay and voluntarily), i took a swig of beer and instantly felt clammy, cold-sweaty and sick.

All the same 'old days' acetone and brake cleaner abuse applies. I only started using blue nitrile gloves a few years ago, and sporadically at that.

The damage has been done

prolly a moot point but i'll be minimizing those exposures from now on

excellent reminders here folks

Originally Posted by B.Curvin

Mercury in the garage as a kid etc etc. It's amazing most of us are here to tell the tale.

57. Still weak from Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (cancer of lymph glands) and chemotherapy last year.

[GreaseMonkey]

Meanwhile......

If you check out the originating website, the guy has built a pretty cool Honda 350:

http://www.brewracingframes.com/id82.htm

[Smopho]

Originally Posted by coppertop

The senior design project (mechanical engineering) I worked on involved a lot of hand lay-up fiberglassing. We used epoxy resin at one stage as we were building a plug on shaped polystyrene foam blocks and the regular polyester resin would melt the polystyrene. Warnings in the epoxy literature were about not using a solvent of any kind to get the stuff off your skin, lest the dissolved epoxy components invade your interior and sensitize you to the stuff.

When we got to the point where we were using the polyester resin, my wife made me change my clothes in the garage so I wouldn't bring the stink into the house. A machinist for the facility loaned us a book on fiberglass kayak building. It had a safety chapter wherein the authors described the contamination they found in the rabbits they kept adjacent to their fiberglassing shop. Makes me think pretty hard before I commit to making something out of fiberglass.

You can buy a hand creme called "Barrier Creme" that prevents resins and toxins from being absorbed through your skin. You put it on under gloves. All the boat builders that work with poly or epoxy resins I know use it.