Just wanted to post a quick PSA while it was on my mind.
Although the people here on KitMaker seem to be very good about this, I constantly have customers coming into the store who are buying things like airbrush cleaner, plastic cement, even spray bombs, who don’t have any ventilation for their workspace. So I figured that it would be worthwhile just giving a heads-up about some safety pieces, given that I’m pretty familiar with the chemical properties of hobby related paints, glues, etc.
Any cement like Tamiya Extra Thin, etc, contains nasty chemicals like Acetone which are very bad for your nervous and respiratory system. In small amounts, yeah your body can deal with it, but prolonged exposure to Acetone fumes is bad. Whenever you’re using hobby cement, you should be blowing away/extracting the fumes. I myself use some hardware store ducting attached to my HVAC fan, which sucks fumes out of my workspace to the outdoors. A fan blowing the fumes outside works well too. A P100 grade respirator will deal with the fumes as well, but it’s not ideal because then you’re just sitting there in a cloud of Acetone.
If using an airbrush or spray bomb, either use it outdoors or in a capable airbrush booth. Even “non-toxic” paints like Mission Models and other acrylics are very bad for your lungs if inhaled. I find that a good rule of thumb for assessing the quality of an airbrush booth is seeing if you can smell any fumes after using a spray bomb inside it. If you can, consider getting a replacement fan with a higher CFM count, or even just changing out the filter.
This also applies to doing things like polishing cars and motorcycles. Automotive and hobby polishing compounds contain organic solvents, but rarely the kinds that can be smelled. As such, make sure you polish in a very well ventilated area.
Sorry about the rant, I think this is important information to have here, especially for any beginners setting up a workspace.
-Dennis
