Cutting & Grinding G10 w/out respirator.

S

stustu242

Joined
Oct 24, 2015
Messages
1
Hi there,
I'm sorry this question has been brought up before (I assume many times), but I will ask it to either further increase my paranoia or to have some mental relief.

So here is the situation. I have a bandsaw in the garage, which I cut 2 handles worth of G10 out of, didn't smell to good to say the least.

Next step, rough profiling of the handles.

Because of that hideous smell, I decided to:
• bring my bench grinder outside
• put water buckets under the grinder
• hold my breath while shaping the handles (yeah doesn't really work)

So I guess I hadn't done enough research before hand.

I have just been roaming a few forums, and scaring myself about these 'glass fibres' which are in G10.
Lets just say, I could smell a lot of G10 throughout the day, despite the fact I was out on the front lawn.

Don't tell me get a respirator, I am completely aware of that now.

Here are my dying to be answered questions:
1) Am I at risk for what I have done today?
2) Will I notice any effects?
3) Are the effects I may notice something that goes away, or some issue for life? I can't imagine glass fibres exiting a lung.
4) What should I do?
5) Anything else?

This is the first time I have ever made a knife, and really anything using materials such as G10.
On a happier note, here is me and my mates progress:

http://i.imgur.com/aXKd5zA.jpg

Kind regards.
 
Take a deep breath and relax. While I am not a doctor I will say that a little exposure is not going to hurt you as long as its not an allergic reaction. The problem is prolonged exposure to tiny particles of any sort can cause long term effects. Get a respirator and use it from now on when grinding anything.
 
Irrigate your sinuses. If you don't know what that is, do a Google search. What you see come out, will remind you to wear protection going forward.
 
Set a pedestal fan off to the side and blow that stuff away while you're grinding.
If you're grinding outside, you don't need to collect it in a bucket.
In everyday life you have inhaled more and probably worse things than you did in grinding a few blocks of G10 that one day.
 
This is what I do when grinding anything. I grind outside and put a bucket of water under the grinder. I also put a fan next to the grinder to blow the dust away, but still wear a good dust mask.
 
I am In my third year of med school so take my advice lightly, but you don't have much to worry about this one exposure, and there is nothing much you can do. The bad news is that G10 dust off of a grinder will affect your lungs similar in a way to asbestos. Those tiny sharp fibers will work their way down through your lung tissue and cause things like mesothelioma (cancer)and pneumoconiosis(inflammatory lung reaction). The good news is that these sort of worst case scenarios take repeat exposure over a period of years to evolve. In the short term you could experience asthma or other reactive things, but it sounds like you are feeling fine. If you are already wise to using a respirator then I would say the only other thing you need to do is relax and keep turning out quality blades!
 
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