ventrue's Hazard Box

[ventrue]

Inspired by Terrag's thread here, I came up with an idea to contain the dusty evil in as little space as possible. I also wanted a way to contain the resin smell that has made my kitchen virtually inaccessible for the last two days. So here it is: The "Hazard Box". Not yet finished of course - Because that would be lame, finishing the project in the first post already, right? ;-)

How it works: If there is any kind of hazard (dust, smell, cats), just crawl inside and you'll be fine. Or the other way around, if you like that better.

What it is: Basically a few wooden slats held together by tape (because I forgot to buy nails that are actually long enough to go through them...). They form a cube (more or less) and the surfaces of that cube are going to be sealed with plastic foil. That's the plan, anyways. I also plan to make it foldable, so that it can be stored more easily while it's not in use.

How it's used: I plan to put resined pieces inside to cure, so the smell stays inside the cube. I also plan to include holes for my hands, cables and maybe a vacuum, so that I can sand stuff in there without turning my place into an archeological dig site.

Progress: Below are pictures. I've used Duck Tape as a temporary replacement for the missing nails I mentioned, but it's surprisingly rigid so far.
Before you start drooling over those pictures, I have a question though: I've used a Dremel with a cutting disc to cut some of those pieces. Now the half of my place that doesn't smell like resin smells like burnt wood, because no matter what speed I used or how hard I pressed, the disc either didn't cut or turned the wood into smoking coal wile doing so. Is it supposed to be like that?

 

[Grundle]

Sounds like a fume hood. Definitely a good idea, I might put one of those together.

It will probably be great for localizing sanding dust as well.

 

[alix965]

Hazard Box sounds like the next Reach Map pack. Or the name of a cool band.....

I might have to change my son's name to Hazard Box. God that would be so cool.

Or maybe I'll make Hazard Box my forum handle. My avatar would be a cardborad box with black and yellow Hazard Stripes painted on it.




Hazard Stripes would also be a cool name. It just screams dangerous. Yeah.



Dangersous would also be a cool name for a band, I guess....but not for a person. But I digress.

Nice Hazard Box Ventrue

 

[ventrue]

Sounds like a fume hood.

Yeah, if I had a way to constantly vent the air it would work just like one, but I can't do that.


So... since the superadvanced Dremel cutting discs weren't really cutting those unwordly hard slats, I had to break out my pocket knife and do it the old fashioned way. Many of you will ask yourselves, why I did that on the carpet. The answer is simple: I rammed one end of the slat into it to keep it in place.

I also ditched the "foldable" part. Instead, I put in another slat to stretch the foil around the corner. I tried different kinds of foil and simple food wrap seems to work best. It's cheap (that means: Replaceable, once it gets too dusty or full of paint), doesn't rip too easily, it's highly transparent and, most importantly, it sticks to itself. So I can open the thing and close it just by peeling one or two pieces of foil away. I can also stick my hands in between two pieces without having to cut any holes (and taping them back up afterwards).

Here it is. Not beautiful (we don't want it to catch more attention than the stuff inside, do we?), but it works:

 

[Grundle]

Here is a quick concept I found

http://www.homechemistry.org/view/Fume_Hood

I was thinking for the aspirator you could use a shop-vac, or build your own custom push fan in the hose (as they did in that link).

One thing I see missing from your hood is an access point where you can open it and work directly on the piece while it is inside your hood. Did I miss something?

 

[ventrue]

One thing I see missing from your hood is an access point where you can open it and work directly on the piece while it is inside your hood. Did I miss something?

Yeah, the text between the pictures ;-)
As I said, it's food wrap, so you can open and close it at will.

The reason I can't add a ventilation system is that I have nowhere to vent the stuff. There's no hole in the wall except for the window, and I can't keep that open because it's too cold outside for the resin to cure. And burglars might come in as well.

 

[Grundle]

Aha, that makes sense.

 

[torsoboy]

keep in mind, fiberglass resin will melt a lot of plastics. A lot of the time when I have excess resin left over in my mixing cup, the curing process causes the plastic cup to melt around it and sometimes deteriorate completely. So the saran wrap probably won't be enough. It'd be fine for dust, but I'd really consider doing your resin work outside. Having fiberglass resin fumes inside is not a good idea at all. It's a health issue.

 

[ventrue]

keep in mind, fiberglass resin will melt a lot of plastics. A lot of the time when I have excess resin left over in my mixing cup, the curing process causes the plastic cup to melt around it and sometimes deteriorate completely. So the saran wrap probably won't be enough. It'd be fine for dust, but I'd really consider doing your resin work outside. Having fiberglass resin fumes inside is not a good idea at all. It's a health issue.

It seems that my resin is different from yours. I dont know why exactly, but even after really overdoing it with the hardener, the resin did neither chemically dissolve nor melt any of my cups. Might be a side effect of it being "the most environment friendly" resin in my retailer's product line.

And I can't do the resin work outside, it's as simple as that. It's too cold and too wet for it to cure and even if it did cure, there would be no way to make sure that no child or animal comes in contact with it. I'd rather inhale some of those fumes myself than expose my neighbours or their children to them or the resin. But I've taken precautions against that as well, so don't worry. Using the box can only make it safer.

Maybe you got the purpose of it wrong. I don't want to completely prevent the fumes from getting into the room air. I just want to reduce the time a respirator is neccesary. Right now, I need one while resining and from there on for more than a day, even when opening the window regularly (in that particular room, that is). Letting the box catch the fumes that are emitted during the curing process will cut that time down a lot. Maybe even to zero, if the box is really airtight.

 

[torsoboy]

Maybe consider getting some of that soft foam weather stripping to put along the bottom of it to seal up the bottom. And if the project works out, perhaps consider making each panel with a plexiglass panel on each side, and then seal the whole thing up with some caulking or other sealant.

My main concern isn't the purpose of the actual device, but the fact that it's a resining project being done indoors. It's just a safety concern, as any resin is hazardous if inhaled for any amount of time. Of course, ideal conditions can never really be met for the at-home prop builder, so being aware of the safety concerns of the products you use is critical. I just want you to be safe. When I first started prop building, I used to dremel sintra and MDF indoors, and it was a very bad idea.

You know, this got me thinking about some kind of hot box. For us at-home prop builders, winter is a particular problem. For typical prop building where a clay sculpt is involved, the ideal process is that you would sculpt in the winter and do your molding and casting in the spring and summer when the temperatures are high. Cold temperatures mean slower curing times and can even inhibit the rubber/resin from curing altogether. So what I've done (since I have a porch and outdoor storage at my apartment) is enclose my casting projects in my outdoor closet with a VERY tiny space heater (small enough not to do any damage if something messed up). This way, during winter, I can still cast. This still isn't exactly safe either because of the fire hazard. But your project got me thinking. You could very easily convert this same idea to some kind of heating box, and it might even be able to make green-house type temperatures if you used the right materials.

 

[ventrue]

Maybe consider getting some of that soft foam weather stripping to put along the bottom of it to seal up the bottom. And if the project works out, perhaps consider making each panel with a plexiglass panel on each side, and then seal the whole thing up with some caulking or other sealant.

My main concern isn't the purpose of the actual device, but the fact that it's a resining project being done indoors. [...]

You know, this got me thinking about some kind of hot box. [...]

Yeah, doing one with... well, more than spit, sweat and duct-tape would have been nice, but I didn't want to invest any money just to try it out ;-)
To seal the bottom, I had actually planned to tape the whole thing to the floor.
And you won't believe it, but I can actually heat my box. However, there's a big catch to that: Heat will make the air inside expand and most likely push it out through some hole, along with the fumes. I had that problem on a bigger scale with the whole room when I turned on the heater after resining that helmet.

There's really no need to be concerned about my safety: My apartment can be divided into three parts. The room with the resin, the room where I am most and the part in between. All three have windows. What I do is I seal off the resin room as best as I can, close the door to my living room and open a window in the middle section. This works quite similar to an airlock, so I practically don't inhale any fumes at all - and I'm definitely safer than somebody who resins outside, but doesn't have a respirator.