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Made in gb
Master Engineer with a Brace of Pistols






I'm starting to get back into making miniatures again in a big way (it has been a long time) but these days I don't have a nice big garden or a room with sliding doors to said garden to keep the fumes away. I do keep the windows open but the fumes from the polystyrene cement are still pretty strong and aren't getting dispersed quick enough. Anyone got any recommendations for working in a place with less than perfect ventilation?

Also, how toxic is polystyrene cement again?
   
Made in gb
[SWAP SHOP MOD]
Killer Klaivex







 Future War Cultist wrote:
I'm starting to get back into making miniatures again in a big way (it has been a long time) but these days I don't have a nice big garden or a room with sliding doors to said garden to keep the fumes away. I do keep the windows open but the fumes from the polystyrene cement are still pretty strong and aren't getting dispersed quick enough. Anyone got any recommendations for working in a place with less than perfect ventilation?

Also, how toxic is polystyrene cement again?


Direct a fan at you whilst you work. It blows all gas fumes away from you to another part of the room where they can separate.


 
   
Made in us
Legendary Master of the Chapter





SoCal

I've been getting all of my pieces ready for gluing, cutting and cleaning several steps at the same time, then taking it all outside in a shoebox for a quick, intense gluing session. I'll leave the plastics outside for a couple hours or even over night, although I have found sometimes pieces settle and harden in unfortunate ways when I'm not looking.

   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut






HATE Club, East London

I've never once worried about where and when I used poly cement.

I'm not dead yeaaaaargh....

Though guards may sleep and ships may lay at anchor, our foes know full well that big guns never tire.

Posting as Fifty_Painting on Instagram.

My blog - almost 40 pages of Badab War, Eldar, undead and other assorted projects 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





North Carolina

 Ketara wrote:
 Future War Cultist wrote:
I'm starting to get back into making miniatures again in a big way (it has been a long time) but these days I don't have a nice big garden or a room with sliding doors to said garden to keep the fumes away. I do keep the windows open but the fumes from the polystyrene cement are still pretty strong and aren't getting dispersed quick enough. Anyone got any recommendations for working in a place with less than perfect ventilation?

Also, how toxic is polystyrene cement again?


Direct a fan at you whilst you work. It blows all gas fumes away from you to another part of the room where they can separate.




This. A common, old school household fan works wonders in this regard. It's what I use (along with an open window) if the smell of modeling glues/paints/solvents gets to be too much for inside.


However, there are still some things I do outside/in a shop and not indoors (i.e. residence).

Proud Purveyor Of The Unconventional In 40k 
   
Made in gb
Contagious Dreadnought of Nurgle





Don't worry about it. As long as you are not locking yourself in a tiny room for hours on end you will be fine.

 insaniak wrote:
Sometimes, Exterminatus is the only option.
And sometimes, it's just a case of too much scotch combined with too many buttons...
 
   
Made in au
Grizzled Space Wolves Great Wolf





 Steve steveson wrote:
Don't worry about it. As long as you are not locking yourself in a tiny room for hours on end you will be fine.
I wouldn't say don't worry about it, some people (like me) are sensitive to plastic cement fumes. I had a few health problems that I eventually traced back to using plastic cement even though I never locked myself in a room for hours on end, even just a few minutes exposure was enough to trigger a response. Took a long time for me to figure it out because it was a delayed response, after a while I noticed the days I had problems typically came after a hobby session and then longer still to figure out that it was specifically the hobby sessions where I was gluing stuff that was causing the problems.

You can use a weak fan to blow the fumes away from you as has been mentioned, also use pots that have a metal needle dispenser or a brush, the ones that come in tubes aside from being hard to use are also hard to avoid releasing a lot of fumes. Avoid having the pot open for long periods, dab some glue on the part and then replace the lid, even if it's just resting in place and not screwed down it'll stop most of the fumes. Also additional fumes seem to be released when the glue hits the plastic so make sure you have the fan blowing on the model itself and you could consider putting parts in a different room while they cure (though that's probably not necessary).
   
Made in gb
Master Engineer with a Brace of Pistols






A fan sounds like a great idea. That would certainly help disperse the fumes.

@ Steve steveson

How long is hours on end and how tiny is tiny? I did near three hours today and the room is...fairly large. Not huge, but not tiny.

I was feeling slightly dizzy near the end but I left the room. But I'm way overthinking it. As a kid I was exposed to the fumes in the local GW shop for hours on end and I'm not dead or brain damaged yet...I think.
   
Made in us
5th God of Chaos! (Yea'rly!)




The Great State of Texas

 Future War Cultist wrote:
I'm starting to get back into making miniatures again in a big way (it has been a long time) but these days I don't have a nice big garden or a room with sliding doors to said garden to keep the fumes away. I do keep the windows open but the fumes from the polystyrene cement are still pretty strong and aren't getting dispersed quick enough. Anyone got any recommendations for working in a place with less than perfect ventilation?

Also, how toxic is polystyrene cement again?


Inhale deeply and live the dream?

Alternatively-fan and breaks as have been noted.

-"Wait a minute.....who is that Frazz is talking to in the gallery? Hmmm something is going on here.....Oh.... it seems there is some dispute over video taping of some sort......Frazz is really upset now..........wait a minute......whats he go there.......is it? Can it be?....Frazz has just unleashed his hidden weiner dog from his mini bag, while quoting shakespeares "Let slip the dogs the war!!" GG
-"Don't mind Frazzled. He's just Dakka's crazy old dude locked in the attic. He's harmless. Mostly."
-TBone the Magnificent 1999-2014, Long Live the King!
 
   
Made in jp
Fixture of Dakka





Japan

The Dangers are over rated worked with poly cement for years never had a problem

Spoiler:


During the enamel paint days working with thinner on the other hand.

Squidbot;
"That sound? That's the sound of me drinking all my paint and stabbing myself in the eyes with my brushes. "
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Made in au
Grizzled Space Wolves Great Wolf





 Jehan-reznor wrote:
The Dangers are over rated worked with poly cement for years never had a problem

Spoiler:


During the enamel paint days working with thinner on the other hand.
Different people have different sensitivities. One guy at the local hobby shop loves inhaling enamel fumes and has been doing so for the past 30 or so years

I noticed it working in a composites workshop. Some people complain at nausea or breathing problems for resins and adhesives I have no problems with, but for some reason plastic cement caused me a lot of problems.
   
Made in gb
Growlin' Guntrukk Driver with Killacannon





Scotland, but nowhere near my rulebook

Poly cement is for the weak. Spend an evening along with another couple of dozen civil engineering students building stuff using balsa wood cement in an unventilated room. Everyone was in fits of giggles after half an hour. The resulting headache when you get into fresh air is blinding, though.
   
Made in au
Grizzled Space Wolves Great Wolf





 Graphite wrote:
Poly cement is for the weak. Spend an evening along with another couple of dozen civil engineering students building stuff using balsa wood cement in an unventilated room. Everyone was in fits of giggles after half an hour. The resulting headache when you get into fresh air is blinding, though.
I think the aerospace students have you beat given the stuff I inhaled in my undergrad The stupid crap engineering students do when they don't know any better though, a mate of mine had screwed breathing for a week after inhaling fumes when he forgot to turn the fume hood on and another mate almost lost his eyesight when he splashed something in his eyes when he should have been wearing safety glasses (luckily he was standing right next to an eye wash station, not by design but by luck).

Isn't balsa cement just a fast drying acetate? I don't think it's terrible harmful. I know of one balsa glue that uses acetone, so basically it'll be the same as hanging in a room with a bunch of girls painting their nails

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/01/30 12:32:54


 
   
Made in au
Anti-Armour Swiss Guard






Newcastle, OZ

 Future War Cultist wrote:


Also, how toxic is polystyrene cement again?


LESS toxic than it was.

Revell Contacta at least, isn't - it no longer uses toluene as its solvent - it's an n-butyl-acetate (which is why it has a fruity smell now - it's used in synthetic apple flavours).

Oh, use a fan and have it on the opposite side of you to the window - use it to encourage fumes out the window.

I'm OVER 50 (and so far over everyone's BS, too).
Old enough to know better, young enough to not give a ****.

That is not dead which can eternal lie ...

... and yet, with strange aeons, even death may die.
 
   
Made in us
Wrathful Warlord Titan Commander





Ramsden Heath, Essex

Never had an issue with it in nearly 30 years of building plastic model kits.

Don't leave the cap off of would be some obvious advice with any solvent. a little dab on a model is one thing a continuing source of fumes is another.

That said Tamiya X20 thinners and Vallejo liquid metal paints give me a serious headache of a while so only use them over short periods with an open window.

How do you promote your Hobby? - Legoburner "I run some crappy wargaming website " 
   
Made in gb
Master Engineer with a Brace of Pistols






Is it strange that I was far less concerned with all the petrol I spilled over myself last night than with the fumes from some glue? I'm sure we all know which was more dangerous.
   
Made in gb
Ghost of Greed and Contempt






Engaged in Villainy

Breathe deep the sacred fumes, young one, and commune with the mighty gods of the plastic!

I find a fan works, and as long as you have a window open, you shouldn't suffer too badly. The stuff I struggle with is spray primer - this time of year, it's too wet to do it outside, so I end up stinking the house out with spraypaint smell!

"He was already dead when I killed him!"

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Made in us
The Last Chancer Who Survived





Norristown, PA

Yeah for me the spray paint smell is worse than the plastic glue smell too. Even in the summer, it's so humid outside around here .. I have to spray outside real quick and then bring everything inside to stink the place up.

I would get a small desktop fan and have it blowing on the area where you are doing your gluing if you're worried.

 
   
Made in ca
Ancient Venerable Black Templar Dreadnought





Canada

Well, I would second that a fan will help disperse the fumes better into the larger volume of the room.
The common Testors red tube glue uses Toluene as it's main chemical.
Some of the stronger glues use "MEK or Methyl Ethyl Ketone" and Methylene Chloride (Like Plastruct for gluing ABS).
I looked to see if any of the filters protect against "Organic solvents" (3M for one): recommended is "Supplied Air" or basically "don't breath the stuff."
So, ventilate well, or use a scuba tank: breathing those chemicals in are not good for you.

If stuck, the 3M 6057 filter deals with most solvents (it sure will help, basically a bunch of granulated charcoal), if you want to spray paint as well you may need the 3M 5925 P2 to filter "particulates" on top of the 6057 with the 501 "filter retainer" (whew).

Best suggestions I got.
Plus I learned a bit more looking all that up because I was curious.
Stay healthy!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/01/31 18:24:25


A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.
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Made in es
Fresh-Faced New User





 Future War Cultist wrote:
I'm starting to get back into making miniatures again in a big way (it has been a long time) but these days I don't have a nice big garden or a room with sliding doors to said garden to keep the fumes away. I do keep the windows open but the fumes from the polystyrene cement are still pretty strong and aren't getting dispersed quick enough. Anyone got any recommendations for working in a place with less than perfect ventilation?

Also, how toxic is polystyrene cement again?


I might have a solution to both CA Superglue and acetone based plastic glue alergies by suggesting some alternatives that worked
well for me, read on, my story is that I was forced to find alternatives as these types of glues were making me ill:

After 3 years of using an acetone based plastic glue (Tamiya Extra Thin Cement) and CA SuperGlue (Bob Smith Industires Insta Cure+), I developed an allegery to both of them roughly at the same time with couging the next day and runny nose sometimes and the occasional sneezing, flu like symptoms essentially. You can feel the irritation in the lungs. If I don't use them and days pass then the symptons go away. I tried a full face mask 3M 6800, big ventilation fans right next to me with their own floor stands and 3M 6098 filters which are meant to filter out organic acids such as acetone but still somehow the vapors affected me (less than before) if say the mask was not fitted perfectly or I walked past the hobby area without a mask after I had been gluing just before.

So I discovered "LESS" toxic alternatives ... for the plastic glue, I used less toxic "Tamiya Limonene" which is a natural citric acid (orange peel concentrate) which works really well on warhammer grey plastics, it doesn't affect me and only takes 20% longer to melt the plastic compared to acetone glues which kill me.

As a replacement for CA glue, I used Bob Smith Industries 5 min Quik Cure Epoxy, it's a two part epoxy glue, far less toxic that CA SuperGlue and the 5 min version can be used on FineCast (not the 15/30 miin versions I think). You have to mix it which is painful but it bonds stronger than superglue, and is liquid enough to say stick magnets in tiny holes on plastic Warhammer miniatures. So epoxy glue is great as a less toxic alternative to CA Superglue. Also you have to be better organized and fast with epoxy as it has a 5 minute work time and in 15 minutes it gets hard and then in one hour it is fully hardened.
   
Made in nl
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