Aloha! Howzit!?!? I'm making the big plan to advance my shop scene to a higher level. A few years ago I took a tour of all the state and county offices here that would have anything to do with setting up a pro style glassing room. I had already gotten the tip about paint spray booths, and every time I mentioned that idea, it was thumbs-up from everyone, fire dept., state health dept., building dept., everybody. Essentially, I'm aiming for my own personal glassing room, not a full-scale factory, so I don't need a giant, ventilated, space. I've heard that you can make a ventilated sanding room out of them too. Do any of you experts have any experience with this kind of system? Much mahalo! Aloha...RH
I’d think most of the pros here already have separate shaping, glassing, and sanding rooms already, sealed, power ventilated, and “owned” by their most oft users.
We did in '74, so some progress must have occured.
Hey Rick,
The main groups you will need to appease are the APCD (air pollution control district), EPA, and fire department. Topp and I had a long discussion about this a while back. Although I feel the paint booth is a bit of “overkill” for surfboard making, I found a website that gives specifications for size of the room, the number of intake filters, exhaust filters and the it gives the overall layout of the room. We thought downdraft would make the most sense since resin fumes fall to the floor. The main component to be trapped is styrene vapor and there are charcoal-impregnated filters that are large like A/C filters which can do this. I’d imagine that you would not need too many filters like the paint booths however, since the painters are literally shooting atomized paint vapor into the air as a matter of process. As glassers, we only deal with evaporatives and the requirements for filtration are relatively less. I’ve seen two laminating rooms in our area like this, and I’ve seen a sanding room (which I helped re-design) as well. The sanding room did not work well because the filtration system gummed-up the filters quickly. Better to separate before filtrating. Our sanding room system works extremely well and is based upon cyclone separator technology like in grain elevators and coal scrubbers. I’m a mechanical engineer with some HVAC background so if you need some directions to take things just give me a shout on the PM…
Rick,
Switch to epoxy and you don’t need any of that. Resin is now available on Kauai from Topper. No more fumes, no more resperator, no more acetone… it’s great. Turn up the tunes, turn down the AC and truly enjoy the laminating process. Pink Floyd is my favorite for laminating. Sanding can also be minimized now and can be done with a simple dust collection device that attaches to your sander or with wet sanding to eliminate all dust. We’ve done some new pasting techniques that almost totally eliminate contact with glass… no itch.
No EPA because there is VERY little emission.
No APCD, again, little emission.
No fire marshal issues because the resin is non flamable and you can eliminate acetone, in fact all solvents.
Cost will be the same or less because of the incredibly better yeild of epoxies.
Quality of the finished product will be better.
The versitility of epoxy allows for many other, possibly more profitable, products to be built using a much broader array of materials.
It all comes down to a win win situation.
SheeootyewdangGL- Well, I’ve been following the RR epoxy revolution, and sort of spreading the word. Actually, it’s kind of the ‘talk of the town’, around here. So happens, I’ve been staying at Top’s house in Wailua and the super glue is here. I’m going to tour him around to meet all da peoples and help him promo the RR product line. I guess that I’m kind of on the forefront around here with this emerging technology. Waiting for the guy to get back (today), and then we’ll start the process. I’m working on a new scheme with some of my people to set myself up with a new shop and attempt to take my deal ‘over the horizon’. Fortunately, we’re still not up to the downtown style of most of the mainland, and even O`ahu, board makers. That’s why I’m looking for a modular type of small glassing shop where I can use a variety of materials, and avert any kind of potential official problems. Although I’m aware of the advantages of the new resin systems, I’ll still need to sell the product, and as you know, that’s not always easy. Mahalo! Aloha…RH