Nasty Side effects

Ok, so i know this has come up before, but i love to hear about these kinds of stories, so, ill share mine and see if others see the humor and can share their stories to help others not make the same mistakes. I was workin in a fiberglass shop in Florida a few years ago, and they started me out on cuttin and shaping foam. This was nasty stuff. So anyways, i got the foma job, and i found that the particles i had been shaving off really made my skin itch, so, every once in a while id go and rinse off my hands with ACETONE. Man, was that smart or what?Id didnt bother me for the first few days, but then after having switched back and forth between laying glass, and cutting foam, id get resin on my hands too, so nice hot resin on top of super itchy foam, washed off with a nice bath of dirty acetone. My hands looked like they were gonna fall off. Dried, cracked, itchy, red. But, i was the only guy with the brains enough to cut the foam right, so, they got me a tub of vaseline, lots of latex gloves, and I’d wrap the base of them with duct tape. Oh, i got a raise for my bravery in the line of duty. I quite 3 weeks later, to let my hands heal, moved to california, learned to surf, and now, im gettin ready for my first board project. I hope i have learned a lesson or two… any others make the same mistake?

Sounds like your skin is not cut out for making surfboards.

But you can still be a master shaper and glasser, with your ingenuity and perseverance.

Foam doesn’t bother me, as I can also tear out house insulation, install the crap, cut foam either poly or styro, and right afterward go to bed for the night.

Resin doesn’t bother me either, or the glass. I’ve stripped old long boards, shortboards, sanded boards, surformed boards, and never bother to wash off afterwards.

And catalysed resin is great for sealing cuts in your hands!

Heck, I’ve gone on surftrips to deepest Baja and not bothered to rinse off with fresh water the entire 5 week stays!

Stinky does as stinky is.

well, we werent making surfboards, we were making fiberglass radar domes. The foam was yellow, very little density, and shaved off in particles, not strands. Im hopin i have better luck with clark foam!

Yellow foam…is it the two part polyethelene foam you can buy at Marine Supply and sometimes at hardware stores?

I’ve used tons of the stuff, as I also used to make the plugs/molds for the fairings on Kawasaki’s HR-2’s and also Yamaha’s TZ series water coolers.

Really brittle stuff, flakes at times, kinda hollow chambered, multi density, inconsistent stuff. No itch.

two part? i dont know if thats the stuff, but it was very airy, and brittle, lightweight as well, really easy to shape, jus drag that rasp on there, you got a solid 1/4 inch off if youre good. yeah, nobody else had the itch like me,but nobody could cut all the foam by eye, and still lay as much glass in the molds like me. not to blow my own horn… you think i might have the same problem with blanks? im still gettin my tools together, and i havent ordered the blank, so, what would you recommend?

protect yourself as much as possible from all the shit! I know old timer boat builders that can’t touch epoxy anymore because they have developed a sensitivity to the stuff. I’ve been working with it for a few years now and always always always wear gloves at the very least.

good luck

I have worked at boat and fiberglass pool companies for many years. The funniest thing I have seen working in glass,and I am sure this guy had a side effect . We had a chopper gun for putting chop on the steps of the pools(for less air…) and each day you had to re-thread the chop spool in the gun before beginning. This guy was new(and a pain in the a*s…) and was watching the other guys lam the bottom of the pool mold, standing there with a section of glass strand (about 4’) kinda holding it behind his head,in both hands,moving it back and forth,and scratching/rubbing his neck!!! He proceeds to do this for about 5mins,we are rolling on the plug we were repairing about to fall off from hysterics at this dolt itching his neck with glass rope. All day long he was torn up,neck bright red, he could never figure it out…we were dying and yes,he eventually learned. THAT was a nasty side effect for sure…too funny ,makes me laugh to this day…have fun…peace and waves…