Lacquer Finish Fumes Solution?

[yorkie]

I use spray lacquer on all my pens and turn on my dust collector to suck in the fumes during the spraying and turn off after a few seconds. I'd like to see if anyone has a better solution. I was thinking of possibly putting an exhaust fan on the outside wall and using this in place of my dust collector when spraying lacquer.

Any thoughts, guys?

 

[rjwolfe3]

Or you could use a fan behind or to the side.

Just curious, what are the methods to spraying on the lathe? I have been taking my works off and spraying them separately.

 

[mickr]

Unless you have an amazing dust collector (notice it's not called a fume collector) you are sending the fumes right back into your room...sending the fumes outside just sends it to another window in your house, or your neighbors....

 

[TellicoTurning]

Unless you have an amazing dust collector (notice it's not called a fume collector) you are sending the fumes right back into your room...sending the fumes outside just sends it to another window in your house, or your neighbors....

That's an advantage of living in the country... closest neighbor if about 500 or so yards away and the house is about 50 yards from the shop... plus my DC isn't in the shop.. it sits in a separate closet built onto the end of the shop...

 

[yorkie]

I've decided to make my own using a bathroom fan and enclosing a box around it with in and outs the size of the dust collector hoses and then mounting a Y.

My neighbours are pretty far away so it shouldn't choke them too badly. I will run the hose outside and change the direction when I'm ready to go.

A method I use after much trial and error is to spray the pen from 8 inches away while the lathe is running at 400rpm's, slower if possible with your lathe, I have the dust collector running for a few seconds at the same time to pull through the fumes and also pull air over the pen. I leave it turning at the slowest speed possible and blow on it a few times. After a few minutes I can turn off the lathe and let it sit until it dries and then apply other coats.

I recommend light coats so they dry quickly enough plus, if you put on too much the lacquer the liquid will move to the highest point on the wood and cause bubbles.

 

[arioux]

An old BBQ motor in a cardboard box and an air brush for me.

 

[KenV]

The TOCs from that little lacquer are not going to contaminate the neighborhood, and when diluted into a large amount of air by the dust collector, will move to acceptable saftey levels (based on spray can and individual pens).

The reason to avoid lots of spraying around equipment is the over spray that settles out on everything that does not need to be coated, like the lathe, the tooling, the ways, etc. If the dust collector is a large one, it may pull a good bit of the overspray into the intake and decrease that cleanup challenge or deferr it longer.

I would be more concerned about overspray than the fumes given any good sort of air excahange, lack of open flames, and small quantities of solvents coming from the spray can.

You may want to think of a small motor rig like rod builders use with a box spray booth to handle the over spray. Turning slowly to keep the finish level is a good thing, but you do not need a lathe to do that.

 

[truittsosebee]

Nitrocellulose Lacquer is extremely flammable and if you are ventilating it with any sort of fan or blower, then it SHOULD be a NEMA explosion proof rated motor. Technically, any receptacles, switches, lighting, etc. that are in the area should also be explosion proof. That said, plenty of people exhaust the fumes with an ordinary box fan.

 

[jleiwig]

Nitrocellulose Lacquer is extremely flammable and if you are ventilating it with any sort of fan or blower, then it SHOULD be a NEMA explosion proof rated motor. Technically, any receptacles, switches, lighting, etc. that are in the area should also be explosion proof. That said, plenty of people exhaust the fumes with an ordinary box fan.

Very true, but I'm of the mind that it's only one pen, and unless your one of the people who turn in a closet, you'll be fine.

 

[TellicoTurning]

I would be more concerned about overspray than the fumes given any good sort of air excahange, lack of open flames, and small quantities of solvents coming from the spray can.

I don't use lacquer on my pens, but I do on some of my bottle stoppers... I have a little cardboard box that I can fit over the lathe with a cut out so it slips over the stopper mandrel and I can spray inside the box... but more often than not, I put the stopper on a hanger and take it outside...