How to (almost) kill yourself with brake cleaner

Chlorinated or non-chlorinated brake cleaner is bad, or both? I found the non stuff works much better, so that's what I usually get.

I just used some non chlorinated this morning. Didn't get in anywhere near a flame though.

Chlorinated is pretty much gone now, it's not allowed. I have a few quarts of trichlorethane left, and am saving it for special jobs.

The senior design project (mechanical engineering) I worked on involved a lot of hand lay-up fiberglassing. We used epoxy resin at one stage as we were building a plug on shaped polystyrene foam blocks and the regular polyester resin would melt the polystyrene. Warnings in the epoxy literature were about not using a solvent of any kind to get the stuff off your skin, lest the dissolved epoxy components invade your interior and sensitize you to the stuff.

When we got to the point where we were using the polyester resin, my wife made me change my clothes in the garage so I wouldn't bring the stink into the house. A machinist for the facility loaned us a book on fiberglass kayak building. It had a safety chapter wherein the authors described the contamination they found in the rabbits they kept adjacent to their fiberglassing shop. Makes me think pretty hard before I commit to making something out of fiberglass.

Thats sucks...! Noted for the future

Freeon?

Actually, it's phosgene. And this is why one has to be careful when using a halide torch leak detector. It applies to ALL types of freon based refrigerants. This is also true of chlorinated solvents such as trichloroethane.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene

Never let freon get into a running engine.I was told that you can get 99% of what it takes to kill you today and 20 years later get the other 1% and your fucked.:eek1

I don't remember them telling us about the halide torch leak detector shit...:eek1

Glad I maybe used it once or twice years ago.

Cripes! I wouldnt use carb cleaner,much less brake cleaner, to clean before welding even if somebody paid me,the minute I read "carb cleaner" and welding something sounded bad. Ive done some welding but would use regular solvent and then excessive amounts of air hose blasting along with drying time/low heat.

Phosgene gas,damn lucky to live through breathing one small puff of it,jeeez louize,be careful out there.

I was just staggered at the idea of having an experience like that and not fronting up to casualty (ER) at the nearest hospital immediately, not a few hours later, and certainly not 9 days later after waiting through a range of symptoms that clearly indicate serious damage is happening.

I forget that unlike almost anywhere else in the first world, going to a doctor or a hospital in America is a seriously expensive experience. I'm sure that people's willingness to seek treatment early because direct expenses are not an issue is one reason other health care systems achieve better outcomes at far less overall cost.

Think about someone smoking around freon and pulling it in through the burning cigarette.....:eek1

57. Still weak from Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (cancer of lymph glands) and chemotherapy last year.

Meanwhile......

If you check out the originating website, the guy has built a pretty cool Honda 350:

http://www.brewracingframes.com/id82.htm

You can buy a hand creme called "Barrier Creme" that prevents resins and toxins from being absorbed through your skin. You put it on under gloves. All the boat builders that work with poly or epoxy resins I know use it.

a reminder is always good!