Fires and/or explosions from PR.

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RAdams

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Anyone here have any experiences with their PR catching fire, or exploding? After some thought about casting in a spare bedroom in my house, i have a tiny amount of concern about this.

I don't remember reading anything about any fires or explosions (Other than Curtis blowing his top) in regards to casting.
 
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Ummmm even without the fire or explosionI am not sure I'd recommend this. From your posts you use PR, the smell alone would keep me from doing this indoors. Plus during the curing it does get extremely hot.

Accidents do happen and things do go wrong, from spills to pots going kaboom. Not sure I'd want that inside the house.

Plus who knows what your home owners insurance would say if something was to happen, I'd suspect they wouldn't be too thrilled to find out about that sort of thing going on.

James
 
RAdams said:
Anyone here have any experiences with their PR catching fire, or exploding? After some thought about casting in a spare bedroom in my house, i have a tiny amount of concern about this.

I don't remember reading anything about any fires or explosions (Other than Curtis blowing his top) in regards to casting.
Click to expand...

You should have more than a Tiny concern!


It's most likely not going to happen due to the resins have promoters added to them that will cause the resin to harden in presence of heat.

Now...that being said, they can smoke from too much MEKP added, and as said above. I would not want the smell in my house because they are very high in VOCs.

Casting with any sort of polymer is best left either outdoors or in a well ventilated area.
 
The flashpoint of most PR is 88* and the fumes are heavier than air, so they fall to the ground where most pilot lights are at. There is a great potential for and explosion if the fumes accumulate enough.
If you read the MSDS on it, the fumes are not just a bad smell to deal with, but are EXTREMELY toxic and cause things such as kidney, liver, respiratory, brain, and nervous system problems. So the smell is more than an inconvenience or fire hazzard. This also applies to Alumilite even though the smell isn't as bad, despite the beliefs.

Cast Safely!
 
If you store cobalt napthanate too close (i.e. in the same building as) MEKP, then you are inviting an explosion.

Cobalt napthanate is a chemical that promotes (accelerates) the curing of polyester resin. It is commonly mixed with PR. Methyl-ethyl-keytone-peroxide (MEKP) provides the necessary oxygen molecules to cross-link the styrene when it polymerizes. The MEKP causes the PR to cure (and gives it strength). Cobalt napthanate speeds up the process. If the two chemicals mix in too high a proportion, however, the results are disasterous. Even the vapors mixing are dangerous.

Unless you are promoting the resin yourself or the manufacturer pre-promotes incorrectly (and our resins are pre-promoted), however, those risks are negligible. The real hazards (as others have pointed out) are from the fumes, and from the potential for a spill. You really want to work in a well-ventilated area.

I hope that helps,
Eric
 
Yeah, I know that Curtis doesn't use PR. But as sure as i left that part out, someone else would have pointed out his catastrophy as a good reason not to pour indoors.


My indoor shop is better ventilated than when i had an outdoor shop. It is also isolated from the rest of the house. I also wear a Triton airshield when im in the shop.
 
I mentioned it to you before, but I'll say it again. If your indoors shop is connected to your house, you are exposing every person inside the house to toxic fumes by using the PR indoors. It's a very bad idea.

I cast in my garage with the door open and a fan blowing. I haven't cast anything in close to 2 months, and you can still smell it in my garage.
 
The only PR stuff I have ever done was on my back patio. I still didn't want to stay to close to it and managed to draw comments from my wife about moving it even further away. Had I done it in a spare room i am fairly sure I would have been moved further away.
 
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