bucktown polymers resin

[Jockwe]

Hi all! I have bought some resin from bucktown and are about to try it
out. But im pretty nervous about the fumes and vocs this material puts
out. I bought the low voc and low odor version but it still smell
pretty bad, and the smell gets everywhere..
It contains small amount of styrene monomer and i have read that it
could be pretty dangerous to experiment with?

What safety precautions would you recomend? Should i worry?

//Joakim

[Derekja]

I'm in the midst of setting up a projector (just got a Viewsonic
PRO8200!) and came home to Canada with a quart of the Bucktown low VOC
resin as well. No concrete experiences yet since I haven't done
anything with it, but I'm setting up a stove vent hood and plastic
surround on my printer area to be able to vent the vast majority of
the fumes outside. I also intend to be pretty compulsive about gloves
when handling the uncured resin.

Let you know more next week as I get some of this working, and I'd
love to hear your best practices and experiences!

--Derek

[Hradec]

Hey Derek! Welcome back! 

Were are you in Canada?

[4Ddabbler]

Operating the equipment in a well ventilated area would be an obvious starting point and you might do a little research about materials to build yourself a small ventilated hood workspace for the device to be set up inside of for fumes and vapor control as well as assuring cleanliness and purity of the resin content of the printer devices resin vat.. Definitely wear either nitrile or rubber cleaning gloves etc as you would when using reactive or caustic cleaning or processing chemicals to try to reduce or eliminate exposure to your skin and skin based absorption.
 
I am only now getting around to building my own personal printer machinery setup but have already planned to include a sort of enclosure and ventilation management as well as optical filtering.
 I am a bit of a fanatic about my workspace and systems setups since I have had some experience in the past with the use and advantages of clean-room environment equipment and facilities so am planning to create a small venthood and airscrubber venting system that controls fumes emissions and capture as well as maintaining air purity to keep contaminants of of my work materials and workpieces. I am currently experimenting with use of UV LED and laser emitter sources as my light energy input sources with use of either LCD through transmission type panels used as a masking or transfer negative control or a significantly altered and gutted DLP projector chassis with a solid state light source versus the bulb devices. The solid state light sources allow improved and exceptionally concentration light emissions at the very specific wavelength bands that are most suitable to active the photoinitiator without all the heat and cooling requirements of regular projector bulb illumination source devices.

  I have a local contact who is a professional resins formulations chemist as a nearby neighbor and he tends to forget to wear hand covering etc and often gets to experience lovely - err rather irritating and noxious skin peels and bleaching from frequent exposure to the formulas he works with. I am a little more fond of comfort and willing to spend the extra time and accept the loss of a bit of manual dexterity and fingertip tactile sensitivity to avoid going around with continually chapped and peeling hands though. Although the manufacturers and many of the professional users of as well as published safety and regulations data information claims that most of these formulas of resin are low risk and minimally or non-toxic certified it is like dealing with materials from other industrial and scientific sectors and applications - we haven't had some of these compounds long enough and in frequent enough use to know about all possible complications or interactions/allergies/reactions etc. Obviously least possible exposure and best possible handling practices is going to be the smartest course of action.

One other matter would be if anyone has gotten a decisive formula recipe or at least a MSDS document from Bucktown for the applicable products as it will tell if properly and legally documented and registered for MSDS cert and compliance and OSHA blah blah blah etc about specifics of safe handling and use practices plus a brief or minimalist detail of the chemical content makeup including molecular weight and approximated component mixture ratios or inclusions. >>>

 http://bucktownpolymers.com/msds/ps100-uv_msds.pdf

I have briefly glanced over this document and there is a significant mention of the compound being highly flammable which is typical with styrene based compounds as a first notice mention and also about this being a serious skin and eye or mucous membranes type irritant.  Since bulb projector DLPs do tend to produce significant amounts of heat from their bulbs it would seem very prudent to want to keep any and all fumes from the apparatus drawn or forced away from the projector device and its innards. Also static electricity or ESD handling and protections would be in order.

[Steven Finkelman]

I've been using it and I am not afraid of it.
Wraping it in tin foil keeps it sealed much better than the bottle does.
I have the original resin, not low voc.

If you are really worried, keep it in a well vented area, use gloves and keep it out of sunlight.

[Derekja]

Hi Hradec,

Busy travel schedule right now, but this is a project I'm really
excited about! I'm primarily based in Victoria, but am spending a lot
of time in Vancouver right now as well. Love to get together sometime
if that's still where you're based!

--Derek