Hello and advice on new 2k setup please

[stable]

Hello,

First time posting on here but on my quest to find the perfect paint system this forum has come up again and again and the advise has always seemed well balanced, so thought for the remaining questions I can't find the answers to I'd ask on here. Hope you can help!

Although I do spray (and weld) cars this project is regarding painting speakers - my day job is cabinet manufacturer. Up til now I've been using water based Acrylic paint - which quite frankly is terrible. But it is safe and easy to work with.

I need a pro look that can take a bit of a bashing so 2k seems the obvious choice. I've tried U Pol raptor bed liner system. Which seems to be a fairly standard 2k affair. But the Isocyanates are terrifying me. I have got a (DIY) booth with extraction and I shoot with a schutz gun. I'm more than willing to sort an air fed mask if I go the 2k route etc... for now i've used a disposable 2k Gerson just to see the 2k results.

But what worries me about 2k is the open plan nature of the workshop. Are the fumes from simply having the 2k around going to get to me as day to day I can still smell the '2k' paint around the workshop from what I used few days ago. Or is more of a case once it's gone off I am safe?

Would things be less detrimental to my health by using an iso free unibinder with the 2k?

Or is this simply going to give the results of a 1k paint anyway with only slightly diminished health benefits? Is 2k with a unibinder still silly dangerous even without the Iso?

I'm just going round in circles atm. The bottom line is I don't want to compromise my health. But I need a better paint finish than I'm currently achieving. And I'm finding it hard to quantify health to result ratios!

I'm already sensitized to birch wood dust and have to use a battery powered full resp (3m versaflo) for working with ply. So I'm a little paranoid.

Thanks for any advice,

Tom

 

[Daz1968]

With 2k the danger is the paint mist, this must be cleared before you remove the airfed mask. If you are in an open workshop especially wood work then overspray and dust will be a problem. If anyone else works in the same area then you will have a bigger problem. You really need a separate area for painting as a minimum then at least you can leave the area until it has cleared. Does your diy booth not keep all overspray out of the general area

 

[stable]

Thanks for the reply.

Over-spray and dust are not a concern with regards to manufacture. I can combat these. I'm purely concerned with H&S at the minute.

I work by myself, so I plan to spray at the end of each day then leave for the night. Generally speaking. So to minimise exposure too.

The booth is sealed and has extraction well out of the building. But is it ok that I can still smell vapors from the paint and painted products day to day. I'm worried about these 'back ground levels' when not painting but working in the workshop on other things. The booth is in the corner of a 500+sqm open plan workshop.

I'm guessing as the Schutz gun doesn't atomize the paint, this is a bonus.

Tom

 

[the snooper]

the fumes (smell) are not a problem its the air borne particles (mist) once the air is clear its safe to enter without protection

 

[PSweeney]

I've been trying to find a way of painting 2k at home and been round the same loop. There's lots of information on the HSE website about the spray mist and clearance times etc. Fundamentally it come down to the right air fed mask, containment of the mist (not overspray) and clearing the booth via extraction in x known safe time. They also advise on testing your rate of extraction with smoke pellets etc